The United Nations has been warned it has a “legal obligation” to confront forced organ harvesting in China, as witnesses recounted torture and the medical examination of prisoners.

Today marked the first time that the damning judgement and findings of the Independent China Tribunal was delivered to the UN Human Rights Council.

For more than a decade, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has been accused of “acts of cruelty and wickedness” that match those of “medieval torturers and executioners”. Victims have allegedly had their bodies cut open - some while still alive - for their kidneys, livers, hearts, lungs, cornea and skin to be removed and turned into commodities for sale.

However it was reported for the first time following an independent tribunal, which concluded in June, that China is a “criminal state” which, “beyond reasonable doubt” has committed crimes against humanity, acts of torture, and that enemies of the state continue to be medically tested and killed for their organs.

The Tribunal Chairman, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who led the prosecution of Serbian war criminal Slobodan Milosevic at the International Criminal Tribunal, criticised the British government for failing to act.

He said that the British government has “sought to dismiss the allegations without making a judgement based on consideration of known facts and evidence”, thereby enabling it to avoid finding “an inconvenient truth”.