[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 220 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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115th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. RES. 220
Expressing solidarity with Falun Gong practitioners who have lost
lives, freedoms, and rights for adhering to their beliefs and practices
and condemning the practice of non-consenting organ harvesting, and for
other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
July 13, 2017
Mr. Menendez (for himself, Mr. Moran, Mr. Cassidy, Mr. Boozman, Mr.
Markey, Mr. Brown, Mr. Leahy, Mr. Rubio, Mr. Tillis, and Mr. Coons)
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee
on Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing solidarity with Falun Gong practitioners who have lost
lives, freedoms, and rights for adhering to their beliefs and practices
and condemning the practice of non-consenting organ harvesting, and for
other purposes.
Whereas Falun Gong (also known as Falun Dafa) is a Chinese spiritual discipline
founded by Li Hongzhi in 1992 that consists of spiritual and moral
teachings, meditation, and exercise, and is based upon the universal
principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance;
Whereas, during the mid-1990s, Falun Gong acquired a large and diverse
following, with as many as 70,000,000 practitioners at its peak;
Whereas, on April 25, 1999, an estimated 10,000 to 30,000 Falun Gong
practitioners gathered in Beijing to protest growing restrictions by the
Government of the People's Republic of China on the activities of Falun
Gong practitioners, and the Government of the People's Republic of China
responded with an intensive, comprehensive, and unforgiving campaign
against the movement that began on July 20, 1999, with the banning of
Falun Gong;
Whereas the Constitution of the People's Republic of China guarantees basic
rights, including the freedoms of speech, association, demonstration,
and religion;
Whereas, in 1993, the Government of the People's Republic of China praised Li
Hongzhi for his contributions in ``safeguarding social order and
security'' and ``promoting rectitude in society'';
Whereas, in many detention facilities and labor camps, Falun Gong prisoners of
conscience have at times comprised the majority of the population, and
have been said to receive the longest sentences and the worst treatment,
including torture;
Whereas, according to overseas Falun Gong and human rights organizations, since
1999, from several hundred to a few thousand Falun Gong adherents have
died in custody from torture, abuse, and neglect;
Whereas a review of the Government of the People's Republic of China by the
United Nations Human Rights Council's Working Group on the Universal
Periodic Review in October 2013 recommended that China ``[s]top the
prosecution and persecution of people for the practice of their religion
or belief including Catholics, other Christians, Tibetans, Uyghurs, and
Falun Gong'';
Whereas the United Nations Committee Against Torture and the Special Rapporteur
on Torture have expressed concern over the allegations of organ
harvesting from Falun Gong prisoners, and have called on the Government
of the People's Republic of China to increase accountability and
transparency in the organ transplant system and punish those responsible
for abuses;
Whereas the killing of religious or political prisoners for the purpose of
selling their organs for transplant is an egregious and intolerable
violation of the fundamental right to life;
Whereas voluntary and informed consent is the precondition for ethical organ
donation, and international medical organizations state that prisoners,
deprived of their freedom, are not in the position to give free consent
and that the practice of sourcing organs from prisoners is a violation
of ethical guidelines in medicine;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Communist Party
of China continue to deny reports that many organs are taken without the
consent of prisoners, yet at the same time prevent independent
verification of its transplant system;
Whereas the organ transplantation system in China does not comply with the World
Health Organization's requirement of transparency and traceability in
organ procurement pathways;
Whereas the United States Department of State Country Report on Human Rights for
China for 2014 stated, ``Advocacy groups continued to report instances
of organ harvesting from prisoners.'';
Whereas Huang Jiefu, director of the China Organ Donation Committee, announced
in December 2014 that China would end the practice of organ harvesting
from executed prisoners by January 1, 2015, but did not directly address
organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience;
Whereas Freedom House reported in 2015 that Falun Gong practitioners comprise
the largest portion of prisoners of conscience in China, and face an
elevated risk of dying or being killed in custody;
Whereas the Department of State Country Report on Human Rights for China for
2016 reported that ``some international medical professionals and human
rights researchers questioned the voluntary nature of the
(transplantation) system, the accuracy of official statistics, and
official claims about the source of organs'';
Whereas the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) stated in 2016
that ``international observers, including the U.S. House of
Representatives and the European Parliament, expressed concern over
reports that numerous organ transplantations have used the organs of
detained prisoners, including Falun Gong practitioners'' and also noted
that international medical professionals ``expressed skepticism of
reforms raised by discrepancies in official data''; and
Whereas a 2017 report by Freedom House concluded that there was ``credible
evidence suggesting that beginning in the early 2000s, Falun Gong
detainees were killed for their organs on a large scale'': Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) expresses solidarity with Falun Gong practitioners and
their families for the lives, freedoms, and rights they lost
for adhering to their beliefs and practices;
(2) emphasizes to the Government of the People's Republic
of China that freedom of religion includes the right of Falun
Gong practitioners to freely practice Falun Gong in China;
(3) calls upon the Communist Party of China to immediately
cease and desist from its campaign to persecute Falun Gong
practitioners and promptly release all Falun Gong practitioners
who have been confined, detained, or imprisoned for pursuing
their right to hold and exercise their spiritual beliefs;
(4) condemns the practice of non-consenting organ
harvesting in the People's Republic of China;
(5) calls on the Government of the People's Republic of
China and the Communist Party of China to immediately end the
practice of organ harvesting from all prisoners of conscience;
and
(6) calls on the People's Republic of China to allow an
independent and transparent investigation into organ transplant
abuses.
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