Webinar: Escalation of Human Rights Violations in the 21st century: State-sponsored Forced Organ Harvesting of Living People by DAFOH

EVENT ENDED

About This Event

CAP Liberté de Conscience (ECOSOC since 2016) is organizing a virtual side event to the 49th session of the Human Rights Council in March 2022. DAFOH (Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting) is honored to be a co-organizer of this important event.

International experts will speak at this event to share their concerns about forced organ harvesting and human rights violations in China.

Forced organ harvesting from living prisoners of conscience has occurred for over two decades in the People’s Republic of China. Independent investigations and the recent China Tribunal chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice have produced an irrefutable amount of evidence and led to a unanimous judgment. https://chinatribunal.com/

On June 14, 2021, the United Nations published a statement by 12 UN Special Rapporteurs and experts, reflecting the aforementioned concerns. The UN human rights experts were alarmed by reports of alleged ‘organ harvesting’, targeting minorities in detention in China, including Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims and Christians. The experts call on China to respond to the allegations of ‘organ harvesting’ and to allow independent monitoring by international human rights mechanisms.

In September 2021, a coalition of 5 NGOs organized and hosted the World Summit on Combating and Preventing Forced Organ Harvesting with 38 speakers from 19 countries. Lord Philip Hunt, UK, described the forced organ harvesting as “commercialized murder and without doubt, among the worst of crimes.” https://worldsummitcpfoh.info/

Objective

Given the severity of the claims, the urgency of immediately stopping the killing of tens of thousands of people for their organs, and the increasing concern voiced by investigators, parliaments, China Tribunal, UN Special Rapporteurs and the World Summit, we propose to come together and unite our voices at a virtual side event during the 49th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

We wish to engage your participation in order to stop this crime against humanity.

__________

A roundtable discussion followed by a Q&A session on March 23 aims at finding answers and developing solutions:
https://www.bigmarker.com/Dafoh/Escalation-of-Human-Rights-Violations-in-the-21st-century-Finding-solutions-to-help-combat-crimes-against-humanity

Agenda

Moderation
Speeches
Introduction of follow up virtual side event

Presenters

Casey Alves

Human Rights Activist

Casey Alves has a Master's of Human Rights law degree from Oxford Brookes University. Her Master's research focused on the forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghurs in China. She has since devoted time to raising awareness and campaigning to end organ harvesting.

Steve Chabot

US House Representative

Representative Steve Chabot (R-OH) has served Ohio's First Congressional District for 24 years. Congressman Chabot has served on the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Small Business and is currently the Ranking Member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia and Nonproliferation.

Theresa Chu

Chairman, Legal Commission of Universal Declaration on Combating and Preventing Forced Organ Harvesting

Theresa Chu is an international human rights lawyer. Since the onset of the persecution against Falun Gong in 1999, she has defended victims on a pro bono basis and is actively involved in litigation to bring suit against former Chinese Party Chief Jiang Zemin and other CCP officials involved in organ harvesting crimes.
Attorney Chu has supported changes to human rights laws as a government advisor. She is an expert lecturer, speaking before international government officials, human rights organizations and members of parliament about human rights concerns and the collective lawsuits from countries all over the world by Falun Gong victims. She is also the Chairman of the Legal Commission of the Universal Declaration on Combating and Preventing Forced Organ Harvesting.

Peter van Dalen

Member of the European Parliament

Mr. Peter van Dalen has been a Dutch Member of the European Parliament since 2009. He is a member of the European People's Party (EPP) in Parliament representing the Dutch ChristenUnie party. In his current mandate, Mr. Van Dalen is Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Fisheries, a member of the Committee on Human Rights, and a member of the Delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia. He is a substitute member of Committee on Foreign Affairs. In addition, he is co-chair of the European Parliament's Intergroup on Freedom of Religion or Belief and Religious Tolerance. In his work on human rights and religious freedom, the fight against forced organ harvesting has become an important issue.

Photo ©️ European Union 2019 - Source EP.

Snezhana Georgieva

Journalist and Philosopher

Snezhana Georgieva has a degree in philosophy. She has been a reporter, editor and presenter for Bulgarian National Television and Bulgarian National Radio. She has been a long-time host of "Night Horizon" on Bulgarian National Radio.

Carlos Iglesias

Human Rights Lawyer

Carlos Iglesias is a Spanish human rights lawyer specialising on human rights abuses in China. He represents Falun Gong practitioners in criminal cases brought against former Chinese President Jiang Zemin and four other Chinese Communist Party leaders on charges of genocide and large-scale torture.
He is the European Director of the Human Rights Law Foundation. He participated in several sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva informing its members about the persecution of Falun Gong.

Declan Lyons MD, PhD, MSc, MRCP

Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Trinity College, Dublin

Dr Declan Lyons PhD, MSc, MRCP (UK) MRCPsych is a Consultant Psychiatrist in Old Age and General Adult Psychiatry at St. Patrick's Mental Health Services in Dublin, Ireland. He is a Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Trinity College Dublin.
His clinical and research interests include ethical issues as they impinge on psychiatric practice, medical education, patient psychoeducation and psychological rehabilitation of older adults. He is a Director of Aware, Ireland's National mood disorders charity and Irish representative of Doctor's against Forced Organ Harvesting.

David Matas

International Human Rights Lawyer

David Matas graduated from Oxford University, England, and is a legal expert specializing in refugee, immigration and human rights law. In July 2006, he and David Kilgour, through independent investigations, published “Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China.” The work won Matas (and Hon. David Kilgour) the 2009 Human Rights Award from the German-based International Society for Human Rights (IGFM) and nomination for the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.
Over the past decade, Matas has traveled to more than 40 countries to raise awareness of China’s forced organ harvesting from living prisoners of conscience, especially Falun Gong practitioners. The documentary film of these investigations investigation into China’s systemic crime, “Human Harvest,” won the 2015 Peabody Award.

Annick Ponthier

Member of Parliament

Annick Ponthier has served as a Belgian politician since 2009 and as an MP for Vlaams Belang in the Chamber of Representatives since 2019. Madame Ponthier is a strong supporter of Falun Gong practitioners, and as a member of the Defence Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee of the Belgium Federal Parliament, she is acutely aware of the threat to law and basic human rights posed by the Chinese government and considers this an important issue to be taken up by the United Nations.

Hermann Tertsch del Valle-Lersundi

Member of the European Parliament

Mr. Tertsch is currently Vice President of the Eurolat Delegation and a member of the Foreign Affairs and Environment Committees of the European Parliament.
As a journalist, envoy and foreign correspondent he worked extensively in news media, and received numerous awards, including the European Parliament's award.

Chiu-Chin Tien

Commissioner, National Human Rights Commission

Ms. Tien has served as Commissioner at the National Human Rights Commission since August 2020 and was Deputy Minister of Overseas Community Affairs Council. She was a member of the Legislative Yuan from February 2005 to January 2016 and lead the effort to amend the Human Organ Transplant Act in 2015 which criminalized organ tourism. Since 2006, she has been calling on the Chinese government to stop forced organ harvesting. Ms. Tien has also been a leader in promoting issues related to ecological sustainability and environmental protection.

Torsten Trey, MD, PhD

Executive Director, DAFOH

Dr. Trey is a researcher, author, and expert in the area of forced organ harvesting. He is the founder (2006) and Executive Director of the Washington DC based NGO, Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting, DAFOH.
The NGO was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 and 2017, and the Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice in 2019.

Thierry Valle

Moderator, President CAP

Thierry Valle is President of the UN approved NGO, the Coordination of Associations and Individuals for Freedom of Conscience, France (CAP-Freedom of Conscience), and has been an active advocate for human rights for more than two decades with extensive experience concerning freedom of religion and belief around the world.

Harold King, BDS Msc

Co-Moderator, Director of DAFOH France

Dr. King is Director of DAFOH France. Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting aims to provide the medical community and society with objective findings of unethical and illegal organ harvesting. Forced organ harvesting, the removal of organs from a donor without obtaining prior free and voluntary consent, is considered a crime against humanity as well as a threat to medical science in general.