[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 530 Introduced in House (IH)]







108th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 530

Urging the appropriate representative of the United States to the 60th 
session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to introduce a 
  resolution calling upon the Government of the People's Republic of 
   China to end its human rights violations in China, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 24, 2004

  Mr. Smith of New Jersey (for himself, Mr. Wolf, Mr. Lantos, Ms. Ros-
Lehtinen, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. Pence, Mr. Payne, Mr. Brown of Ohio, Mr. 
 Sherman, Mr. Cox, Mr. Pitts, Mr. Burton of Indiana, Mrs. Jo Ann Davis 
 of Virginia, Mr. Green of Wisconsin, Mr. Berman, Ms. Harris, Mr. King 
 of New York, Mr. McNulty, Mrs. Napolitano, Mr. Rothman, Mr. Capuano, 
    Ms. Kaptur, Mr. Holt, Mr. Chabot, Mr. Udall of New Mexico, Mr. 
     Ferguson, Mr. Shimkus, Mr. Tancredo, Mr. Kirk, Mr. Burr, Mr. 
    Blumenauer, Mr. Souder, Mr. Franks of Arizona, Mrs. Kelly, Mr. 
   McGovern, Mr. McKeon, Mr. Andrews, Mr. Pickering, Ms. McCarthy of 
    Missouri, Mr. Schiff, Mr. Akin, and Mr. Menendez) submitted the 
     following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
                        International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
Urging the appropriate representative of the United States to the 60th 
session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to introduce a 
  resolution calling upon the Government of the People's Republic of 
   China to end its human rights violations in China, and for other 
                               purposes.

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 and expressing international support for 
        improved human rights performance;
Whereas according to the Department of State, the United States Commission on 
        International Religious Freedom, and international human rights 
        organizations, the Government of the People's Republic of China 
        continues to commit well-documented human rights abuses against the 
        Chinese people;
Whereas 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;
Whereas the Government of People's Republic of China continues to ban and 
        criminalize groups it labels as cults or heretical organizations;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China has repressed 
        unregistered religious groups and spiritual movements and persists in 
        persecuting persons on the basis of unauthorized religious activities 
        using such measures as harassment, surveillance, job discrimination, 
        exorbitant fines, prolonged detention, physical abuse, incarceration, 
        and closure or destruction of places of worship;
Whereas international human rights organizations have documented that torture, 
        maltreatment, the use of confessions extracted through torture, and 
        other abuses while in detention are rampant in the Chinese legal system;
Whereas the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners has been particularly harsh;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China launched a brutal 
        campaign to eradicate Falun Gong from their country;
Whereas since this time large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners have been 
        arrested, subjected to harsh reeducation efforts, and some have even 
        been tortured to death;
Whereas Falun Gong practitioners continue to report harassment and acts of 
        violence at the hands of foreign nationals which have occurred against 
        them during peaceful protests in the United States and other countries;
Whereas the Federal Bureau of Investigation 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;
Whereas Catholic and Protestant believers continue to face severe repression in 
        China which include difficulties gaining recognition from the 
        government, holding services, and training clergy;
Whereas underground Catholics who remain faithful to the Pope and in communion 
        with Rome face particularly harsh persecution;
Whereas many Catholic and Protestant leaders and believers have been imprisoned 
        or subject to house arrest including Su Zhimin, a Catholic Bishop who 
        was reportedly arrested in 1997 and who is currently reported to be in 
        very poor health;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China continues to exert 
        tight control over the religious and cultural institutions of Tibetan 
        Buddhists and Uighur Muslims, using torture, arbitrary arrest, and 
        detention without public trial against these individuals for peacefully 
        expressing their religious or political views;
Whereas the whereabouts of Gendun Choekyi Nyima, the boy identified by the Dalai 
        Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama, are still unknown;
Whereas Gendun Choekyi Nyima was 6 years old when the Chinese authorities took 
        him and his family away in 1995;
Whereas it is believed that the Chinese authorities are holding him in a secret 
        location;
Whereas Tibetans caught displaying photos of the 11th Panchen Lama or the Dalai 
        Lama face harassment, fines, and detention;
Whereas in January 2003, the Government of the People's Republic of China 
        executed a Tibetan man named Lobsang Dhondup without due process and 
        despite repeated assurances to United States officials that his case and 
        that of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche would be would reviewed by the Chinese 
        Supreme People's Court;
Whereas this review never happened and Tenzin Delek Rinpoche remains on death 
        row, in the second year of his suspended death sentence;
Whereas enforcement by the Government of the People's Republic of China of its 
        one-child per family policy has been cruel and inhumane and has included 
        the use of forced abortion and forced sterilization;
Whereas this one-child per family policy has led to the abandonment and 
        infanticide of baby girls and a disproportionate number of male children 
        in China, which will have serious and detrimental sociological impacts 
        on China for years to come;
Whereas 14 years after the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen 
        Square, many protesters remain in prison and no independent 
        investigations have taken place regarding the massacre that occurred 
        during those demonstrations;
Whereas authorities in the People's Republic of China have continued their 
        efforts to extinguish expressions of protest or criticism and have 
        detained and sentenced scores of citizens associated with attempts to 
        organize peaceful protests, to expose corruption, to preserve their 
        ethnic minority identity, and to use the Internet for the free exchange 
        of ideas;
Whereas many prisoners in China are confined to state run psychiatric hospitals 
        for simple acts of expressing their thoughts on political issues, like 
        veteran human rights activist and prisoner of conscience Wang Wanxing;
Whereas many Chinese prisoners are in Laogai, forced labor camps in which 
        inmates are subject to various forms of cruel and forced labor;
Whereas the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international 
        human rights organizations have been denied access to the Chinese prison 
        system;
Whereas it well documented that organs taken from executed prisoners are sold 
        for use in transplants in China and abroad;
Whereas the percentage of transplant kidneys estimated to be derived from 
        executed prisoners in China has been put as high as 90 percent of all 
        transplanted kidneys in China;
Whereas organs reported to be harvested from executed prisoners in China include 
        corneas, kidneys, and hearts;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China agreed during the 
        December 2002 session of the United States-China Bilateral Human Rights 
        Dialogue to invite, without conditions, the United States Commission on 
        International Religious Freedom, the United Nations Special Rapporteurs 
        on Religious Intolerance and Torture, and the United Nations Working 
        Group on Arbitrary Detention to visit China;
Whereas none of these visits have taken place in the last year and, in the case 
        of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, two 
        agreed upon trips were canceled because of unacceptable conditions 
        placed on the visit by the Government of the People's Republic of China, 
        including refusing the Commission entry into Hong Kong;
Whereas the United States decision not to introduce a resolution calling upon 
        the People's Republic of China to end its human rights violations in 
        China at the 59th session of United Nations Commission on Human Rights 
        in Geneva was based, in part, on the belief that the aforementioned 
        agreements signaled a good faith commitment on the part of Chinese 
        officials to improve human rights practice in China;
Whereas when well-founded, balanced, and accurate resolutions regarding human 
        rights in China were raised in previous sessions of the United Nations 
        Commission on Human Rights, the Government of the People's Republic of 
        China strongly pressured other countries to oppose the consideration of 
        those resolutions;
Whereas since the last session of the United States China Bilateral Human Rights 
        Dialogue, a number of very troubling incidents have occurred, 
        including--

    (1) the arrests of a number of democracy advocates,

    (2) the detention and torture of 18 Tibetans who were forcibly 
repatriated from Nepal with the cooperation of Chinese officials, in 
contravention of international law,

    (3) the ongoing forced repatriation of North Korean nationals, who upon 
return to North Korea will face almost certain arrest, torture, or even 
death,

    (4) the arrest and sentencing of Internet essayists and labor 
protesters,

    (5) the execution of Lobsang Dondrup and continued detention of Tenzin 
Delek Rinpoche, and

    (6) the continued refusal to allow access by United States diplomats 
and family members of the accused to the trials of those detained for 
political or religious activities;

Whereas the People's Republic of China has signed the International Covenant on 
        Civil and Political Rights, but has yet to take the necessary steps to 
        make the treaty legally binding;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China is a party to the 1951 
        United Nations Convention Relating to Refugees and its 1967 Protocol;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China is a party to the 
        United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, 
        Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; and
Whereas the Constitution and laws of the People's Republic of China purport to 
        provide for fundamental human rights, however, the protections of these 
        rights are often ignored in practice: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That--
            (1) it is the sense of Congress that--
                    (A) the United State Government should continue to 
                insist that the People's Republic of China adhere to 
                fundamental human rights principles and allow its 
                citizens the full enjoyment of those rights;
                    (B) at the 60th Session of the United Nations Human 
                Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, the 
                appropriate representative of the United States should 
                introduce a resolution calling upon the People's 
                Republic of China to end its human rights violations in 
                China and meet internationally recognized standards for 
                human rights;
                    (C) the United States Government should take the 
                lead in organizing multilateral support to obtain 
                passage by the Commission of such a resolution and 
                should draft the resolution in such a way as to 
                highlight specific human rights abuses;
                    (D) all countries with representatives at the 60th 
                Session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission 
                should support passage of such a resolution and resist 
                efforts by representatives of the People's Republic of 
                China to oppose the consideration or passage of such a 
                resolution; and
                    (E) United States Government officials and 
                officials from other governments should continue to 
                speak out in international forums and elsewhere against 
                Chinese repression of religious and political freedom, 
                persecution of Tibetans, Falun Gong practitioners, 
                Catholics, Protestants, and Uighur Muslims, the unjust 
                arrest and detention of religious leaders and political 
                dissidents, harsh conditions in Laogai and other 
                prisons, coercive family planning policies, and the 
                forced return of North Korean refugees; and
            (2) Congress urges the Government of the People's Republic 
        of China--
                    (A) to take the necessary measures to stop the 
                persecution of all religious practitioners and to 
                safeguard fundamental human rights;
                    (B) to stop the forced return of North Korean 
                refugees, to allow the United Nations High Commissioner 
                for Refugees access to North Koreans inside China, and 
                to work with the United Nations High Commissioner for 
                Refugees to develop a viable solution to the 
                humanitarian crisis involving North Korean refugees;
                    (C) to end its coercive one-child per family policy 
                and ensure that no national, provincial, or local 
                government officials subject women to forced abortions 
                or sterilizations;
                    (D) to immediately hold an open and transparent 
                investigation into the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy 
                demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, to release all the 
                prisoners held in connection with that event, and to 
                pay compensation to the families who lost their loved 
                ones;
                    (E) to release from detention all prisoners of 
                conscience, persons held because of their religious 
                activities, and persons of humanitarian concern, 
                including, but not limited to, Rebiya Kadeer, Su 
                Zhimin, Yang Jianli, Wang Bingzhang, Jampel Changchub, 
                Phuntsog Nyidron, Sonam Phuntsog, Ngawang Phulchung, 
                Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, Geshe Sonam Phunsok, Gong 
                Shengliang, Xu Guoxing, Huang Aiping, Li Minglong, Ji 
                Qingjun, An Shuxin, Jiang Surang, Han Dingxiang, Shi 
                Enxiang, Ma Shunbao, Zhang Chunguang, Aisha Awazi, 
                Yusaiyin Wubuli, Wang Zhiwen, Yao Jie, Ji Liewu, Liang 
                Shaolin, Li Nanshan, Du Daobin, Xu Yong Ling, and 
                United States citizen Charles Lee;
                    (F) to release the 11th Panchen Lama identified by 
                Dalai Lama and allow him to undertake his rightful 
                role;
                    (G) to allow the Chinese people to practice freely 
                and openly their religious beliefs;
                    (H) to adhere to the provisions and guidelines of 
                the International Covenant on Civil and Political 
                Rights, the United Nations Convention Against Torture 
                and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading 
                Treatment or Punishment, and the 1951 Convention 
                Relating to Refugees and its 1967 Protocol; and
                    (I) to allow, immediately and without restrictions, 
                visits to China by the United States Commission on 
                International Religious Freedom, the United Nations 
                Special Rapporteurs on Religious Intolerance and 
                Torture, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary 
                Detention, and the International Committee of the Red 
                Cross.
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