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 for human rights improvements; and

WHEREAS the Commission is devoted to identifying human rights problems and taking action to address them, and the Commission's success is measured by its ability to make a difference in the lives of individuals; and

WHEREAS all States that accept the landmark Universal Declaration of Human Rights are obliged to implement the rights they entail and to report regularly to international bodies set up to monitor their compliance; and

WHEREAS the People's Republic of China is a signatory of the 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 according to the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and international human rights organizations, China, under the leadership of Jiang Zemin, continued to commit well-documented human rights abuses last year against the Chinese people, including 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; organ harvesting on prisoners; and deprivation of fundamental freedoms of expression, assembly, and press; and

WHEREAS the violent assault on Falun Gong is a prime example of that very injustice; and the on-going persecution of Falun Gong, like other human rights abuses in China, violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and China's own constitution; and

WHEREAS the peaceful spiritual practice of Falun Gong originated in the People's Republic of China but has grown in popularity worldwide, is now embraced by over 100 million people in over fifty countries, and has been recognized for its positive benefits by government and community leaders worldwide; and

WHEREAS the persecution of Falun Gong aims at removing the freedom to live according to the basic, fundamental values of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance (the fundamental values of Falun Gong), and is thus a persecution of all of humanity, so that what we are witnessing today in China is the criminalization of innocence; and

WHEREAS Falun Gong practitioners come from all walks of life, all age groups, and every corner of China, with an estimated 100 million practicing; and the nationwide campaign to eradicate them has become the largest effort on the part of the Jiang regime in the past 4 to 5 years, extending not only to practitioners themselves but also to their families, friends, neighbors, colleagues, educators, and employers, who are not practitioners but are implicated by association; and

WHEREAS the persecution of Falun Gong destabilizes and demoralizes the People's Republic of China, and makes it more difficult for China to stop the persecution of other spiritual groups and dissidents; and

WHEREAS Jiang Zemin's regime has established the government agency known as the "610" Office with branches throughout China for the purpose of overseeing the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners through organized brainwashing, harassment, surveillance, job discrimination, extortion, education deprivation, prolonged detention, incarceration in mental hospitals, forced labor, torture, murder; and

WHEREAS in order to persecute Falun Gong practitioners, Chinese officials at various levels have been ordered by the 610 Office to "destroy their reputations, cut them off financially, and destroy 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 Gong by means of an extensive slander and propaganda campaign; 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 persecution have been harassed, detained, threatened, and have had film and/or equipment confiscated, and people reporting the facts to the outside world have been severely reprimanded; and

WHEREAS the Jiang regime passed an "anti-cult" law three months after declaring Falun Gong illegal in order to justify the persecution of Falun Gong, and which has brought renewed intensity to the persecution of religious and spiritual groups such as Catholics, Protestants, and Christian house churches; and

WHEREAS official measures are taken to conceal all atrocities and evidence of torture-inflicted death, such as the immediate cremation of victims, the blocking of autopsies, the false labeling of deaths as suicide or the result of heart disease, and the threatening or intimidation of victims' family members; and

WHEREAS women in particular, regardless of age or physical condition, have been the target of numerous forms of sexual violence, including gang rape, sexual assault with electric shock batons and other instruments, and late-term forced abortion; and

WHEREAS Jiang's campaign to eradicate 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 Falun Gong; 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 public appeals; and

WHEREAS these acts by the Jiang regime have greatly endangered the national security of these nations, and jeopardized the principles of freedom, justice, and democracy cherished in the West; and

WHEREAS Falun Gong practitioners visiting China, who are citizens or residents of other countries and of different nationalities, have been illegally arrested, interrogated, and detained; 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; and

WHEREAS Charles Lee, and American citizen, is still being held in a Chinese prison after being arrested upon arrival in China on January 22, 2003, rushed through a one-day show trial on March 21, 2003, and sentenced to a 3-year prison term for no crime but his intention to expose the human rights violations towards Falun Gong practitioners that the Chinese Communist Party has tried to conceal; and he has been beaten, deprived of sleep and handcuffed for days at a time, subjected to daily brainwashing sessions, force-fed, and forced to do hard labor in the attempt to break his will, destroy his spirit, and force him into renouncing his belief in Falun Gong; and

WHEREAS the Jiang regime's effort to block the free flow of information has been extended to North America, where web sites (including, for example, the home page of the California Institute of Technology) have been "hacked"; and even shut down by Chinese programmers from the Ministry of Public Security of China; and

WHEREAS the Jiang regime has exerted control 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 across America; and 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

WHEREAS China's diplomatic corps has coerced overseas corporations and organizations to compromise their ethics by discriminating against Falun Gong practitioners in regular business activities; for instance, hotels have canceled practitioners' registered rooms, Chinese-language newspapers have breached advertising contracts with Falun Gong, schools have fired teachers for practicing Falun Gong, parade organizers have kept Falun Gong from participating; and

WHEREAS the Jiang regime has forced some multinational corporations to become its accomplices in persecuting Falun Gong practitioners by forcing their employees in China to give up their practice or sign documents against Falun Gong; and

WHEREAS police and security personnel in China who have killed Falun Gong practitioners, following the mandate of top leadership, are commended and encouraged to continue torturing and murdering; 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 all over the world; and

WHEREAS the public outcry against the persecution of Falun Gong is worldwide and one of the largest movements of the new century; and along with the international demands for stopping the persecution of Christians, Tibetans, ethic minorities, political groups, journalists, Internet users, and others deemed "subversive" indicates that the international community is deeply concerned about the continually escalating human rights violations being committed by the Jiang regime both in China and abroad; 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;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT it is the sense of the undersigned that

(A) 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 taking the lead in organizing multilateral support to obtain passage by the Commission of such a resolution;

(B) at the 60th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, a China Resolution should be introduced to call upon the People's Republic of China to end its human rights violations and meet internationally recognized standards for human rights;

(C) all countries with representatives at the 60th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission should support passage of such a resolution;

(D) 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;

(E) 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 the People's Republic of China to immediately stop the repression of spiritual and political groups, including but not limited to Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans, Catholics, Protestants; immediately release from detention all Falun Gong practitioners and all other prisoners of conscience and political dissidents; stop the slave labor in labor camps; ban the organ harvesting on prisoners; end the coercive family planning policies; and abide by the internationally accepted standard to implement freedoms of belief, expression, association, and press.

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1. Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners

2. Global Coalition to Bring Jiang to Justice

3. China Support Network (USA)

4. Global Coalition against Article 23 Legislation 5. Friends of Charles Lee (USA)

6. World Organization to Investigate Persecution of Falun Gong

7. China e-Lobby (USA)

8. Global Information Freedom (USA)

9. Safeguarding Rights of Women and Children Association (USA)

10.Mothers and Grandmothers for a Safe China and a Safe Canada (Canada)

11.Fa Wang Hui Hui (USA)

12. China Forum (USA)

13. China's Human Rights and Press Freedom League

14.Chinese Labor Party (Australia)

15.China Affairs (USA)

16.Lao Gai Foundation (USA)

17.Heavenly River Writing House (Australia)

18.Free China Movement (USA)

19.Free China Forum(USA)

20.China Democracy Party Joint Head quarters(USA)

21.Party for Freedom and Democracy in China(USA)

22.Alliance for Democracy in China(USA)

23.International Association of Chinese Workers(USA)

24.China Labor Party(USA)

25.Leiter der Foederation fuer ein Demokratisches China in Rheinland (Germany)

26.Campaign to Free Dr. Wang Bingzhang

27.Chinese VIP Reference

28.Campaign For Abolishment Of Laojiao Concentration Camp

29.Broad Alliance for Rescuing Dr. WANG Bingzhang

30.Chinese Alliance for Democracy (USA)

31.China Peace (USA)

32.International Institute of Future Science and Culture

33.The Press of Overseas Chinese Students (USA)

34.Boston New Life and Culture Center (USA)

35.The Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition (Australia)

36.Alliance of China Youth and Democracy (France)

37.Friends of Falun Gong (USA)

38.Association for Asian Research (USA) www.asianresearch.org

39.Beijing Spring (USA)

40.International Advocates for Justice (Taiwan) www.iafj.org

41.Washington Forum (USA)

42.Free Church for China

43.Petals of Peace (Australia)

44.Press Freedom and Human Rights League

45.Worldrights

46.Global Alliance for Democracy and Peace (Washington DC-Baltimore Chapter)

47.Huang Pu Millitary Academy Alumni Association, Greater Washington DC Metropolitan Area (USA)

48.The Greater Washington Endochinese Benevolent Association (USA)

49.Taiwan Benevolent Association of America (USA)

50.Wudang Qigong School (Australia)

51.The Federation for a Democratic China (Australia Section)

52.China Freedom and Democracy Party Australia Committee (Sydney Section)

53.China Freedom and Democracy Party (Melbourne)

54.China Democracy Movement United Congress (Australia Section)

55.Care for Human Rights in China (USA)

56.Amnesty International, Margaret River Group (Australia)

57.Tibetan Women's Association (India)

58.Institute of UN & UNESCO Studies (India)

59.Boston Minghui School (USA)

60.Alliance of Hong Kong in United States -- Boston branch (USA)

61.China Democracy Long March Foundation of Boston (USA)

62.Friends of Hong Kong and Macao in Boston (USA)

63.Love from Taiwan Foundation (USA)

64.21st Centry Chinese Democracy Education Foundation

65.Alliance of Hong Kong Chinese in the U.S.

66.American Hong Kong Chinese Association

67.Chinese Democracy Education Foundation

68.China Eweekly, www.chinaeweekly.com

69.Global Alliance for June 4th, San Francisco branch

70.Hong Kong Macau Democracy Advocacy

71.New Epoch Forum

72.Silicon Valley for Democracy in China

73.Sacramento Chinese Democracy Advocacy

74.San Francisco Forum of Freedom

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/4/9/71984.html