Resolution
WHEREAS the annual meeting of
the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, is the
most important international forum for discussing human rights issues and
expressing international support to human rights improvements; and
WHEREAS the main themes
addressed by the Commission include the question of the violation of human
rights and fundamental freedoms in any part of the world; the questions of
torture and detention, freedom of expression and religious intolerance; the human
rights of women, children; the promotion and protection of human rights; and
WHEREAS
one of the most important tasks entrusted to the Commission has been the
elaboration of human rights standards, specified in its landmark Universal
Declaration of Human Rights; and
WHEREAS
all States that accept these standards are obliged to implement the rights they
entail and to report regularly to international bodies set up to monitor their
compliance; and
WHEREAS
the Commission devotes much of its time to identify human rights problems and
take action to address them, and the Commission's success is measured by its
ability to make a difference to the lives of individuals; and
WHEREAS People's Republic of
China is a signatory of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,
however, the People's Republic of China has yet to demonstrate its willingness
to abide by internationally accepted norms of freedom of belief, expression,
and association by repealing or amending laws and decrees that restrict those
freedoms; and
WHEREAS last year the
Commission did not introduce a China resolution, and China, under the
leadership of Jiang Zemin, took the Commission's unwillingness as a sign of
weakness, as a statement that China human rights issues had faded from the consciousness
of world citizens; and
WHEREAS according to Falun
Dafa Information Center, U.S. Department of State, the United States Commission
on International Religious Freedom, and international human rights
organizations, Jiang Zemin and his cohorts continued to commit well-documented
human rights abuses against the Chinese people, and
WHEREAS the violent assault
on Falun Gong, a peaceful spiritual practice whose three principles are
Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance, is a prime example of that very
injustice; and
WHEREAS practitioners
of Falun Gong have been singled out for especially harsh treatment since former
Chinese president Jiang Zemin initiated the systematic eradication in July
1999; and
WHEREAS the Falun Gong
persecution, like other human rights abuses in China, violates the
International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and China’s own constitution; and
WHEREAS Jiang Zemin's regime
has established the notorious government `610' offices throughout the People's
Republic of China with the special task of overseeing the persecution of Falun
Gong members through organized brainwashing, harassment, surveillance, job
discrimination, exorbitant fines, education deprivation, prolonged detention,
physical abuse, incarceration, force-labor, torture, murder; and
WHEREAS in order
to persecute Falun Gong practitioners, Chinese officials at various levels have been ordered by `610'
offices to “destroy their reputations, cut
them off financially, and exterminate them physically,” and that "no
measures are too excessive;" and
WHEREAS Jiang
Zemin's regime has mobilized China’s state-run media to
defame and incite hatred against Falun Gongin China; andWHEREAS Jiang’s
persecution has resulted in the illegal arrests of hundreds of thousands, the
torturing of tens of thousands, and the killing of thousands of innocent men
and women, children and the elderly from all walks of life
in China by flooding the printing presses and airwaves with fabrications and
slanders; and to keep Chinese people and the outside world from knowing the
truth about Falun Gong and the suppression, the Jiang regime has taken steps to
shut down internet access and jam or wire-tap phone calls; and foreign
journalists in China covering Falun Gong and the crackdown have been harassed
and even threatened, and people reporting the facts to the outside world have
been severely reprimanded; and
WHEREAS the number of known
deaths from torture has reached 901, while the estimate of killings of innocent men and women,
children and the elderly from all walks of life in China
reached thousands; and
WHEREAS an 8-month-old baby
of a Falun Gong mother being killed in captivity, a handicapped Falun Gong
practitioner being dragged away like a rag doll and beaten to death, a
defenseless female practitioner being beaten unconscious and then burned alive;
and
WHEREAS tens of thousands
have been tormented while captured in labor camps, prisons, and mental
hospitals, and hundreds of thousands have been subjected to forceful
brainwashing; and
WHEREAS official measures
have been taken to conceal all atrocities, such as the immediate cremation of
victims, the blocking of autopsies, the false labeling of deaths as from
suicide or heart disease, the intimidation towards
family members of victims; and
WHEREAS women in particular
have been the target of numerous forms of sexual violence, including gang rape,
sexual assault, and late term forced abortion, for instance, Miss Xingyan
Wei, a Falun Gong practitioner and a graduate student from Chongqing
University was openly raped by a policeman at the Baihelin Detention Center in
the Shapingba District of Chongqing City; and
WHEREAS the Jiang regime has
resorted to State terrorism to carry out the campaign of persecution, and the
persecution has permeated every segment of society and every level of
government in the People's Republic of China; and
WHEREAS Jiang's
obsession with eradicating the Falun Gong has not been confined to China; and
WHEREAS Chinese consular
officials have pressured local elected officials in the United States to refuse
or withdraw support for the Falun Gong spiritual group; and
WHEREAS over the past 4 years
China's diplomatic corps has been actively involved in blacklisting, harassing
and persecuting overseas Falun Gong practitioners; and exerting diplomatic
and financial pressure on foreign nations, such as Iceland, Germany, Thailand
and France, to stop Falun Gong practitioners from holding peaceful protests;
and
WHEREAS these acts by the
Jiang regime has greatly endangered the national security of these nations, and
jeopardized the principles of freedom, justice and democracy in the West; and
WHEREAS Dr. Charles Lee,
a United States citizen, has been illegally detained since January 22, 2003, and
has since then been physically and mentally tortured, force-fed; and
fed and force-labored, for his support to
Falun Gong; and
WHEREAS the Jiang regime has
illegally arrested, interrogated, and detained Falun Gong practitioners of
different nationality, such as Ms. Nancy Chen from Australia, Mr.
Xiaokai Lin from Taiwan, and those who practice Falun Gong overseas
cannot freely travel, do business, or visit relatives in China without being
concerned that they will be arrested and/or tortured,
WHEREAS citizens from 12
western countries have been subjected to arbitrary detention, imprisonment,
physical abuses and mental torments for peacefully displaying banners with
“Falun Dafa” in Beijing; and
WHEREAS Mr. Yunhuan Xie, a student who studied in
Japan, was detained and then sentenced to ten years in jail during his visit
back to China; and Mr. Wen Yang, a former student
of Tokyo University, was arrested and then sentenced to four years
imprisonment; and Mr. Feng Liu and Ms. Fang Yang, students from Ireland, have been under strict
surveillance, and prevented from retuning to Ireland to finish their study,
after they paid visits to China; and
WHEREAS Jiang’s regime has
been feeding defamatory and fabricated propaganda to international media; and
its information blockade efforts have been extended to North America, where web
sites (including the home page of the California Institute of Technology, for
instance) have been “hacked” and even shut down by Chinese programmers from the
Ministry of Public Security of China; and
WHEREAS Jiang’s regime has
gained controls over many overseas Chinese-language media to incite hatred
against Falun Gong; and people with close ties with the Chinese consulates have
harassed and assaulted Falun Gong practitioners in cities such as Chicago, New
York and San Francisco; and
WHEREAS China’s high-ranking
diplomats openly rallied behind assailants who attacked Falun Gong
practitioners on June 23, 2003 outside a Chinese restaurant in New York City;
and the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the U.S. is currently investigating
the possibility of links between attacks against Falun Gong practitioners in
the United States and the Government of the People's Republic of China; and
WHEREAS China's diplomatic
corps has coerced overseas corporations and organizations to abandon their
ethics by discriminating against Falun Gong practitioners in regular business
activities, for instance prompting hotels in Houston to cancel practitioners’
registered rooms; Chinese-language newspapers to breach advertising contracts
with Falun Gong, schools to fire teachers for practicing Falun Gong, parade
organizers to stop Falun Gong from participating; and
WHEREAS the Jiang regime has
forced some multinational corporations, such as Volkswagen to become its accomplice
to persecute Falun Gong practitioners by forcing their employees in China to
give up their practice; and;
WHEREAS the Jiang regime has
torn apart many happy families, including many of those who reside overseas,
for instance, Mr. Huiyu Zhang, husband of New York resident Celia
Huang, was kidnapped during his visit to Zhuhai, Guangdong, and then was
sentenced to 10 years for authoring pro-Falun Gong articles; and
WHEREAS those
killers, following the mandate of the top leadership, are commended and are
encouraged to continue murdering, torturing; and
WHEREAS the Jiang regime has
also attempted to obstruct the due legal process to bring justice to him and
his cohorts in the United States and elsewhere; and
WHEREAS Jiang’s persecution
aims at removing the wish to live with the basic, fundamental
values of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance from
people’s hearts, and is thus a persecution of all of humanity,
and thus what we are witnessing today in China is the criminalization of
innocence; and
WHEREAS Falun Gong is a spiritual
practice that originated in the People's Republic of China but has grown in
popularity worldwide and is now embraced and practiced by over 100 million
people in over fifty countries; and
andWHEREAS
WHEREAS Jiang’s damage to humanity
lies not so much in the physical bodies they exterminate as much as in the
social morality they destroy, and in over a billion of minds they twist and
brainwash with the state-run propaganda; and the inhumanity of his regime lies
not so much in the killing of women and children as much as in the hatred and
fear they have for peace, freedom, and belief in goodness; and
WHEREAS we, citizens of the world
in the 21st century, cherish human rights and, the freedom of belief, the
freedom of conscience, the freedom to live without fear, and the freedom to
pursue goodness; and
WHEREAS for our children’s sake and
their children’s sake, we must, at this juncture, find the courage and
compassion to stand up in unison and take action as true, responsible human
beings, to speak on behalf of those who cannot be heard, to bear witness on
behalf of those who cannot testify, to protect those who not only put their
livelihood but indeed their lives on the line.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT it is the sense of the undersigned that
(A)
at
the 60th Session of the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights in
Geneva, Switzerland, a China Resolution should be introduced to call upon the
People's Republic of China to end its human rights violations in China and meet
internationally recognized standards for human rights;
(B)
the
United States Government should continue its tradition in taking the lead in
drafting a China Resolution to highlight Falun Gong persecution and other human
rights abuses and take the lead in organizing multilateral support to obtain
passage by the Commission of such a resolution;
(C)
all
countries with representatives at the 60th Session of the United Nations High
Commission on Human Rights should support passage of such a resolution
(D)
all
countries with representatives at the 60th Session of the United Nations High
Commission on Human Rights should resist efforts by representatives of the
People's Republic of China to oppose the consideration or passage of such a
resolution and insist that the People's Republic of China adhere to fundamental
human rights principles and allow its citizens the full enjoyment of those
rights;
(E)
officials
from U.S. and other governments should continue to speak out in all
international forums and elsewhere against Chinese repression of freedom of
belief, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly;
(F)
the
Commission should send experts, representatives and rapporteurs to monitor the
human rights situation in China.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the
Commission should urge China to immediately release from detention all
prisoners of conscience, including, but not limited to, Charles Lee, Yuhui
Zhang, Yunhuan Xie, Wen Yang, Feng Liu, Fang Yang, Yiwen Tang, Zhiwen Wang, Jie
Yao, Liewu Ji, Shaolin Liang, Haiou He, O-Ming Chu, Benlan Yu, Linwen Zeng,
Yang Jianli, Wang Bingzhang, and Tenzin Delek.
Human Rights Organizations Encourage U.S
to Introduce a China Resolution at UNHRC
(Boston) With the 60th Session of United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva quickly approaching, international human rights organizations passed a resolution on March 11 to encourage the United States to introduce a resolution at the Commission to condemn China for its persecution against Falun Gong practitioners and other human rights abuses.
This
resolution points out that China's human rights record continued worsening in
the past year. Examples include the on-going repression of spiritual and
political groups such as Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans, Catholics,
Protestants, the unjust arrest and detention of spiritual leaders and political
dissidents, harsh conditions in prisons and labor camps, forced-labor in labor
camps, coercive family planning policies, and deprivation of fundamental freedoms of expression, assembly
and press.
“The
violent assault on Falun Gong, a peaceful spiritual practice whose three principles
are Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance, is a prime example of that very
injustice; and the Falun Gong persecution, like other human rights abuses in
China, violates the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights,
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and China’s own constitution,” the
resolution says.
“Women in particular have been
the target of numerous forms of sexual violence, including gang rape, sexual
assault, and late term forced abortion, for instance, Miss Xingyan Wei, a Falun
Gong practitioner and a graduate student from Chongqing University was openly
raped by a policeman at the Baihelin Detention Center in the Shapingba District
of Chongqing City,” the resolution says.
The resolution cites the case of Dr. Charles Lee, a United States citizen, who was arrested as he arrived China on January 22, 2003, and was sentenced to a 3-year prison term for no crime but his intention to expose the human rights violations towards Falun Gong practitioners that Chinese government has tried to conceal. The resolution calls the release of Dr. Lee and all other prisoners of conscience.
Furthermore, “over the past 4 years China's diplomatic corps has been actively involved in blacklisting, harassing and persecuting overseas Falun Gong practitioners; and exerting diplomatic and financial pressure on foreign nations, such as Iceland, Germany, Thailand and France, to stop Falun Gong practitioners from holding peaceful protests,” the resolution says.
“These acts by the Jiang regime has greatly endangered the national security of these nations, and jeopardized the principles of freedom, justice and democracy cherished in the West,” the resolution adds.
In addition, the resolution points out that the Jiang regime has coerced overseas corporations and organizations to ban their ethics by discriminating Falun Gong practitioners in regular business activities, and has forced some multinational corporations to become its accomplice to persecute Falun Gong practitioners by forcing their employees in China to give up their practice.
The resolution calls the United States to continue its tradition in taking the lead in drafting a China Resolution to highlight Falun Gong persecution and other human rights abuses and taking the lead in organizing multilateral support to obtain passage by the Commission of such a resolution.
The
resolution also calls all countries with representatives at the 60th Session of
the United Nations Human Rights Commission to support passage of such a
resolution.
A draft of the resolution will be submitted to the U.S. State Department on March 11.
The signatories of this resolution include:
Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners www.globalrescue.net
Global Coalition to Bring Jiang to Justice www.grandtrial.org
Friends of Charles Lee (USA) http://rescuecharles.org/en/
World Organization to Investigate Persecution of Falun Gong www.upholdjustice.org
China Support Network (USA) http://www.chinasupport.net/
Global Coalition against Article 23 Legislation http://www.againstarticle23.org/en/
The Press of Overseas Chinese Students (USA) http://www.love-china.org/
Global Information Freedom (USA)
Safeguarding Rights of Women and Children Association (USA)
Mothers and Grandmothers for a Safe China and a Safe Canada (Canada)
International Institute of Future Science and Culture www.iifsc.org
Boston New Life and Culture Center (USA)
Fa Wang Hui Hui (USA) http://www.fawanghuihui.org/
China Forum (USA)
China's Human Rights and Press Freedom League
Chinese Labor Party (Australia)
Heavenly River Writing House (Australia)
Free China Movement (USA) http://www.freechina.net/ and its member organizations:
Free China Forum (USA) http://www.freechina.net/fcf/
China Democracy Party Joint Head quarters(USA) http://www.freechina.net/cdp/
http://www.jh-cdp.org/
Party for Freedom and Democracy in China(USA) http://www.freechina.net/pfdc
Alliance for Democracy in China(USA)
International Association of Chinese Workers(USA)
China Labor Party(USA) http://www.freechina.net/cwp/
Campaign to Free Dr. Wang Bingzhang http://wangbingzhang.us/main/index_en.htm
Chinese VIP Reference http://www.bignews.org
Campaign For Abolishment Of Laojiao Concentration Camp http://www.laojiao.org/
Broad Alliance for Rescuing Dr. WANG Bingzhang
http://www.geocities.com/drwangbingzhang/