Today, China’s forced organ harvesting crimes were announced at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for the first time in the Council’s history.

Organ transplant crimes in China are no longer going unnoticed. Forced organ harvesting is a form of organ trafficking in which people are killed specifically for the extraction of their organs. The transplant recipients in China include Chinese nationals as well as substantial numbers of international ‘transplant tourists’ who travel to China in order to receive an organ at a substantial cost, but with a greatly reduced waiting time.

Recipients from the US, Europe and Asia are generally thought not to be aware that the source of their transplant has been via the murder of an innocent ‘donor’ held in detention centres, prisons and black jails, whose organs are matched and extracted to order.

Making history

Today’s historic moment saw Hamid Sabi, Counsel to the China Tribunal, declare that it is now the “legal obligation” of United Nations (UN) member states to address forced organ harvesting in China. The speech comes after the China Tribunal, an independent people’s tribunal, chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, announced in June 2019 that China’s “wicked” organ harvesting crimes amounted to crimes against humanity.

Mr Sabi informed the UNHRC of the Tribunal’s damning findings that innocent victims, primarily Falun Gong practitioners have been killed for their organs. He said: “For years throughout China on a significant scale, and that it continues today.”

The speech is the latest and highest level call for international action against China’s state-backed forced organ harvesting, as global pressure mounts on China to stop the murder of innocent people for their organs, in a scandalous industry estimated to earn the People’s Republic of China over $1 (~€0.91bn) billion per annum.

Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, China Tribunal Chair, also stated today at a separate UN event: “Governments, UN bodies and ruling bodies of medical associations dealing with transplant surgery can no longer avoid what it is inconvenient for them to admit. Crimes revealed in the China Tribunal judgment require immediate action.

“The UN and the International Transplant Society should face up to what is revealed in the China Tribunal judgment and act. The time of convenient ‘uncertainty’, when all these entities could say the case against the PRC was not proved, is past.”

Susie Hughes, executive director of ETAC, the international coalition who initiated the China Tribunal, also announced that in a recent joint letter, human trafficking, legal, human rights and anti-slavery organisations are calling for a UN Commission of Inquiry into forced organ harvesting in China.

Organ transplant crimes

The China Tribunal’s Final Judgement has propelled an international outcry to put an end to this barbaric trade and has triggered worldwide action, with many recognising that “wilful blindness” is no longer an option.

In the first official statement from a major U.S political party on China’s organ crimes, the US Republican National Committee (RNC) unanimously passed a resolution condemning “China’s involuntary organ harvesting as a major human rights violation” in August 2019.

In the UK, the House of Lords are pressing for the World Health Organisation (WHO) to look closely at the China Tribunal’s findings. The WHO, who had previously advised the UK Foreign Commonwealth Office that China’s transplant practices were ethical, has now acknowledged that the information they had based their advice on was in fact “based on the self-assessment made by the country that is a signatory, and in this case that is China.”

In the UK, a private members bill to stop unethical organ tourism will be tabled in October, and in Canada an organ trafficking bill recently received unanimous support from both the House of Commons and the Senate.

A joint letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Secretary-General and UN Member States, signed by 18 international organisations is calling for a UN Commission of Inquiry into forced organ harvesting in China.

Human Rights Council

The United Nations Human Rights Council has now been informed of the Tribunal’s damning judgement on the issue of forced organ harvesting in China. The inter-governmental body is made up of 47 states responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights across the globe. The UNHRC has the power to establish a formal Commission of Inquiry into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience In China to expose perpetrators and bring them to justice.

International Lawyer, and Counsel to the China Tribunal, Hamid Sabi said: “It is our duty to have brought China’s organ crimes to the attention of the United Nations and the Human Rights Council, who have long served as protectors of human rights for all people in the world. I sincerely hope that action will be taken to ensure these crimes can no longer continue.”

The victims

The primary victims of organ transplant crimes in China are people who practice Falun Gong.

Falun Gong is a peaceful spiritual practice of the Buddha School tradition that involves meditation, qi gong exercises and striving to live by the principles of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance.

With 80 to 100 million people freely practicing Falun Gong in China, the Chinese Communist Party outlawed the practice in 1999 with hundreds of thousands of people detained, tortured and killed from extraction of their organs.

Evidence also indicates that Uyghurs, House Church Christians and Tibetans are also killed for their organs.