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Submission to the UN Universal Periodic Review of China,
fourth session of the Working Group on the UPR, February 5-16,
2009
The Falun Gong Human Rights
Working Group www.falunhr.org
9974 Scripps Ranch Blvd.
#228, San Diego, CA
92131, USA
Tel: +1-619-280-5177
Fax: +1-619-280-4931
August
31, 2008
Summary
Since 1999, the
government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has carried on a violent
persecution against tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners. Information
from Falun Gong practitioners and their sympathizers from China indicate that
millions have been subjected to arbitrary detention, hundreds of thousands have
been sent to labor camps; thousand have been sent to psychiatric hospitals and
injected with harmful chemicals; almost all who have been arrested were
tortured, and most women who have been arrested have suffered violence,
including sexual violations; thousands have been tortured to death; large
numbers of live Falun Gong practitioners have systematically had their vital
organs harvested, leading to their deaths. Information from other sources,
including inquiries and interventions by Special Rapporteurs of the United
Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), also point to a severe and extensive
persecution. Given the information blockage by the PRC government, the real
situation is feared to be much worse. The long duration of this persecution and
the number of people affected makes the PRC government’s persecution of Falun
Gong the most severe human rights violation in the world.
The PRC government’s
severe and extensive violations against Falun Gong
practitioners are precisely what the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(UDHR) calls “barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind.”
Such acts go against the letter and spirit of the UN Charter, and violate
every article of the UDHR and all international human rights treaties and laws
that are based on the UDHR. The PRC’s membership in the UNHRC taints the image
of the UNHRC.
While this submission
focuses on China’s human rights violations
against Falun Gong practitioners, it is important to note that Tibetans,
Uyghurs,
Mongolians,
Christians, dissidents, and other groups have suffered the same human rights
violations.
1.
Deprivation
of Dignity and Personal Freedom, and All Basic Rights
On July 20, 1999, the
PRC government banned Falun Gong, a spiritual practice, and launched a barbaric
persecution against 100 million Falun Gong practitioners. The ban is
unconstitutional, as freedom of belief and of religion are expressly guaranteed
by the PRC’s constitution. The ban did not even have a procedural basis; only in
October 1999, after the ban was in effect for 3 months, did the Chinese national
legislature pass a “law” to legitimize the persecution. The Washington Post noted in an article on
November 2, 1999, that “When [China’s Communist leaders] found
themselves without the laws they needed to vigorously persecute a peaceful
meditation society, the Party simply ordered up some new laws. Now these will be
applied - retroactively, of course... By these standards, Stalin was a
scrupulous observer of civil rights.”
It is with such complete
disrespect for human rights and disregard for the law that the PRC government
has carried on the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Police forces all
over China were instructed to “destroy
their reputation, ruin them financially, and exterminate them physically,” and
were told that “no measure is too excessive against Falun Gong.” All imaginable
coercive methods have been used against Falun Gong practitioners: they have been
deprived of jobs; their properties have been appropriated; elders have had their
pensions suspended; they have been forced to divorce; their children have been
expelled from school; they have been arbitrarily detained; they have been
abducted in broad daylight; they have been electric shocked, burned, drowned,
buried in snow, hung and lynched, bitten by dogs and snakes, and force-fed feces
and urine; female Falun Gong practitioners have been stripped naked, gang raped,
and had blunt objects inserted into them; pregnant Falun Gong practitioners have
had forced abortions; they have been killed by beatings, burning, freezing,
drowning, electric shocks, starvation, hanging, poison, being pushed off of tall
buildings, and other heinous methods; large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners
have been murdered by the extraction of their vital
organs.
A large number of
violation cases against Falun Gong practitioners have been included in many
annual reports by Special Rapporteurs of the United Nations Human Rights Council
(UNHRC). Media reports and reports from other government agencies and NGOs,
including the United States State Department, Amnesty International, Human
Rights Watch, and Human Rights in China, also reveal the severe and
extensive violence against Falun Gong practitioners.
The PRC government’s
deprivation of dignity and all basic rights of Falun Gong practitioners violates
all articles of the UDHR, and in particular Articles 1, 2, 21, 22, 28, 29 and
30.
2.
Deprivation
of the Right to Life, Liberty and Personal
Security
As of August 31, 2008,
3,175 Falun Gong practitioners were confirmed to have died from police violence.
Large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners, perhaps exceeding tens of thousands,
have been systematically murdered and their vital organs extracted; in one
concentration camp, four to six thousand Falun Gong practitioners have been
murdered for their organs.
In
August 2006, three UNHRC Special Rapporteurs inquired to the PRC government
about the allegation of organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners. The PRC
government categorically denied the allegation, but failed to address specific
questions raised by the Special Rapporteurs. In January 2007, two UNHRC Special
Rapporteurs repeated their requests to the PRC government to fully explain the
allegation and the sources of organs for the sudden increase in organ
transplants that began in China in the year
2000.
There
are several other independent investigations that found evidence of systematic
organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China.
The PRC government’s
mass killing of Falun Gong practitioners violates UDHR Article
3.
3.
Slavery
Hundreds of thousands of
Falun Gong practitioners have been sent to forced labor camps. They have been
forced to do hard labor, often to 18 hours a day, to make products for export.
Hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners have escaped China and
testified about the enslavement.
The PRC government’s
enslavement of Falun Gong practitioners violates UDHR Articles 4 and
24.
4.
Torture and
Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
or Punishment
Almost all Falun Gong
practitioners arrested have suffered several forms of torture, including
beatings, electric baton shocks, hanging for hours to days, deprivation of sleep
for days, being forced to run for hours, forced to stand, sit, or squat for
days, handcuffed over the back for days, cigarette burns, scorched with boiling
water, stripped naked and left in the freezing cold, forced to walk barefoot in
the snow, drowned in water, drowned in feces and urine, forced-fed feces and
urine, mustard oil, vinegar, saturated salt solution, or alcohol, toothpicks
piercing the fingers, pulling off of finger nails, knocking out teeth,
suffocation, squeezing the testicles, pouring salt over open wounds, sodomy and
more.
Particular egregious are
sexual insults and assaults of female Falun Gong practitioners. Almost all Falun
Gong practitioners in custody have been stripped naked. Some Falun Gong
practitioners have been stripped naked, tied down, and left in the open air in
freezing winter or under scorching Sun in summer for days. There are many cases
of female Falun Gong practitioners being raped and gang raped. In one case, 18
female Falun Gong practitioners were stripped naked and handed over to male
criminals. Many female Falun Gong practitioners have also had objects insert
into them, or bamboo sticks pierce their breasts.
It is not possible to
list all the torture methods. One UNHRC Special Rapporteur stated in her 2003
annual report, "the
cruelty and brutality of these alleged acts of torture defy
description."
The PRC government’s
torture of Falun Gong practitioners has violated UDHR Articles
5.
5.
Deprivation
of Protection of Law, Access to Legal Help, and A Fair
Trial
Thousands of Falun Gong
practitioners have been sentenced to long jail terms, up to 21 years, without a
fair trial. The PRC government has issued orders to prohibit lawyers from
representing Falun Gong practitioners. Lawyers who have represented Falun Gong
practitioners have been intimidated or had their license suspended. In more
severe cases, one lawyer (Mr. Guo Guoding) was forced into exile in
Canada, and one lawyer (Gao Zhisheng)
has been arrested and tortured.
The court system in
China assists the PRC government’s
persecution of Falun Gong. Falun Gong practitioners are often sentenced to jail
terms without a trial. In some cases of show trials, family members were not
allowed to attend. Falun Gong practitioners are not allowed to speak and defend
themselves. In some severe cases, when Falun Gong practitioners insisted on
speaking up, the police beat them right in front of the judge. In other cases,
when Falun Gong practitioners, who suffered bodily damage from torture,
petitioned for medical parole, the court denied them.
The forced labor camps
have been used most to incarcerate Falun Gong practitioners. The forced labor
system, aka “re-education through labor,” is completely arbitrary. Any policeman
can write a “ticket” to send a Falun Gong practitioner to a labor camp for three
years. Any communist party official can do the same. The term can be arbitrarily
extended. The UNHRC Working Group of Arbitrary Detention has long declared that
such labor camps used to force people to change their thoughts is a form of
arbitrary detention.
The PRC government’s
deprivation of Falun Gong practitioners’ access to the legal system violates HDHR Articles 6, 7, 8, 10, and
11.
6.
Arbitrary
Detention
Millions of Falun Gong
practitioners have been arbitrarily detained by Chinese authorities under the
pretext of “disturbing the social order.” Many cases of the PRC government’s
arrest of Falun Gong practitioners have been submitted to the UNHRC Working
Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD). WGAD has deliberated on several dozen of
such cases and, without exception, concluded they were arbitrary
detention.
The PRC government’s
mass detention of Falun Gong practitioners violates UDHR Article 9.
7.
Destruction
of Families
The PRC government’s
arrest and killing of Falun Gong practitioners have broken up numerous families
and made numerous children orphans. In addition, the PRC government has forced
spouses of Falun Gong practitioners to divorce and break up their families. Many
families have been driven from their homes, and their children expelled from
school.
There are many cases of
pregnant Falun Gong practitioners who were subjected to forced abortion in
custody. Many young mothers who were still breast-feeding have been arrested and
separated from their babies. There have also been some cases in which couples
who were Falun Gong practitioners were not allowed to have children (the PRC
government has a inhuman population control policy).
The PRC government’s
destruction of Falun Gong practitioners’ families violates UDHR Articles 12 and
16.
8.
Deprivation
of Freedom of Movement, Right to Nationality, and Right to
Asylum
To prevent Falun Gong
practitioners from petitioning to the central government, authorities all over
China prohibit them from
traveling to Beijing. Numerous checkpoints have been set up
in train stations, bus stations, and other places to intercept and arrest Falun
Gong practitioners. Residents in Beijing are specifically warned to not rent
their rooms to Falun Gong practitioners. Falun Gong practitioners are constantly
rounded up in Beijing and sent to labor camps. Authorities
all over China also instruct neighborhoods to
tell on and apprehend Falun Gong practitioners, forcing Falun Gong practitioners
to be displaced to other areas.
The PRC government has
pressured other governments to deny Falun Gong practitioners’ asylum
applications, and deport Falun Gong practitioners who have already obtained
international refugee status back to China. In August 2002, Phnom Penh
police arrested Ms. Zhang Xinyi and her husband Mr. Li Guojun, who have UN
refugee status, and sent them back to China. The police admitted that the
Chinese Embassy in Cambodia had imposed the arrest. In
Russia, several UN refugees
have also been forcibly sent back to China. In Thailand, dozens of UN refugees have been
incarcerated for months, and are in imminent danger of being sent back to
China.
In February 2007,
14-years-old Zhao Youran came to New
York with a delegation to participate in a winter camp.
When Chinese agents found out that Ms. Zhao practiced Falun Gong and had been in
contact with her uncle in New York who also
practices Falun Gong, the head of the delegation kidnapped her and forcibly took
her to a flight back to China, so as to prevent her from a
possible asylum application. The US customs rescued Ms.
Zhao.
The PRC embassies around
the world have routinely denied passport renewal to many Chinese citizens
residing in other countries, simply because they practice Falun
Gong.
The PRC government’s
deprivation of Falun Gong
practitioners’ freedom of movement and rights to nationality and to asylum
violates UDHR Articles 13, 14, and 15.
9.
Deprivation
of Fundament Civil and Political Rights
The Chinese police
routinely arrest Falun Gong practitioners for practicing Falun Gong, for passing
out Falun Gong materials, for petitioning to the government, for visiting other
Falun Gong practitioners, for explaining Falun Gong to others, for receiving
interviews by foreign journalists or officials, and even for writing petition
letters to the UN Secretary General and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The PRC government’s
deprivation of Falun Gong
practitioners’ fundamental civil and political rights violates UDHR Articles 18,
19, 20, and 21.
10.
Deprivation
of Basic Social and Cultural Rights, and Right to Personal
Development
The Chinese authorities
have wantonly appropriated Falun Gong practitioners’ businesses and properties,
including their personal property. They have also dismissed Falun Gong
practitioners from work, and from schools, and stopped pension payments to
elderly Falun Gong practitioners. The nationwide persecution has left Falun Gong
practitioners discriminated against everywhere, and thus deprived them of
opportunities for social, cultural and personal
development.
The PRC government’s
deprivation of Falun Gong practitioners’ social and cultural rights violates
UDHR Articles 17, 23, 25, 26, and 27.
11.
Conclusion
The gross and systematic
violation of human rights of tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners over
the past 9 years, and particularly the systematic harvesting of vital organs
from live Falun Gong practitioners, is the most serious human rights crisis in
the world today. A similar gross and systematic violation of human rights has
also been committed by the PRC government against Tibetans, Uyghurs,
Mongolians,
Christians, dissidents, and other victim groups, making the PRC government the
worst human rights offender in the world. This makes the PRC’s voluntary pledge
to the UNHRC a blatant lie and an insult to the intelligence and conscience of
international society, and PRC’s membership a mockery to the
UNHRC.
12.
Recommendations
To the UN General
Assembly: Follow GA Resolution
60/251, Article 8, and suspend the PRC’s right of membership in the
HRC for its continuing commission of gross and systematic violations of human
rights;
To
the UNHRC and members of the UNHRC:
Follow GA Resolution
60/251, Article 10, and hold a special session to discuss the
crisis situation of the PRC’s persecution of Falun
Gong;
To
members of the UN:
Do
not cooperate with the PRC government in its persecution of Falun
Gong;
To
the PRC government: Genuinely
follow the UN Charter and the UDHR and stop the persecution of Falun Gong and
other groups immediately.
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