India, June 21 -- Berlin is a city that understands what happens when civilized societies convince themselves that some injustices are inconvenient to confront.

For three days this June, that history hung quietly in the background as more than 200 participants from around the world gathered for the Third International Uyghur Forum (IUF). Parliamentarians, human rights advocates, academics, journalists, former political prisoners, democracy activists and representatives of persecuted communities assembled in Germany's capital not merely to discuss the fate of the Uyghur people, but to confront a larger question increasingly facing democratic nations: what becomes of our values when economic interests begin to outweigh moral obligations? ...