Oral Statement by United Nations Watch 

Agenda Item 8, UNHRC 35th Session

Delivered by Anastasia Lin

Mr. President, are members of this Council respecting the Vienna Declaration, which prohibits violence based on religion or belief?

On February 19, 2017, a Canadian citizen was arrested in Beijing. Police stormed into her home without a warrant, blindfolded her, and took her to a detention center.

According to reports, they are pepper-spraying her in the face and eyes. They have her locked in a small, dark room, in an attempt to crush her will.

Her name is Sun Qian. She has not committed any crime. The sole reason for her arrest and persecution is her faith: Sun Qian is a practitioner of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that teaches the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.
In 1999, after tens of millions of people in China took up the practice of Falun Gong, the Chinese Communist Party launched an unprecedented campaign to eradicate it. Hundreds of thousands have been jailed. Falun Gong practitioners are routinely tortured, to force them to renounce their beliefs. Thousands have died.

This year, the NGO Freedom House reported credible evidence suggesting that, beginning in the early 2000s, Falun Gong detainees were “killed for their organs on a large scale.”

Mr. President, as a Chinese human rights activist, I ask:
Will the United Nations turn a blind eye to such crimes against humanity?
When will this Council investigate the systematic killing of prisoners of conscience for profit?
Finally, Chinese victims want to know: How could the U.N. have elected China to this Human Rights Council?

I thank you.