Webinar: Escalation of Human Rights Violations in the 21st century: Finding solutions to help combat crimes against humanity 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.

At this conference international experts will express their concerns about forced organ harvesting and basic human rights violations in China. A round table discussion format will allow for a deeper exploration of the topic and solutions for ending these abuses. Audience members who registered for the event will be able to submit questions to the panel at the end of the round table discussion.

The international community has been presented with irrefutable evidence that led to the unanimous judgment that the egregious crime of forced organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners has occurred for over two decades and continues to occur to this day in the People’s Republic of China.

In 2019 the China Tribunal chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice evaluated evidence and witnesses independently and suggested further actions to the international community to stop this abuse. https://chinatribunal.com/

On June 14, 2021, the United Nations published a statement co-signed by twelve UN Special Rapporteurs and experts, reflecting concerns about forced organ harvesting. The UN human rights experts were alarmed by reports of alleged ‘organ harvesting’ targeting various minorities in China, including Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims and Christians. The experts called 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 five NGOs organized the World Summit on Combating and Preventing Forced Organ Harvesting during which Lord Philip Hunt, UK, described the forced organ harvesting as “commercialized murder and without doubt, among the worst of crimes.” At the end of the World Summit, the Universal Declaration on Combating and Preventing Forced Organ Harvesting was launched. https://universaldeclarationcpfoh.net/

Despite the accumulated evidence and the voices that have been raised to expose these crimes, the international community has yet to take significant action to stop them to the extent that the moral values of civilization are at stake. Now is the time for humankind to decide if it accepts or rejects the killing of human beings for forced organ harvesting or other exploitations.

Objective

We propose to come together at this virtual side event during the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva to discuss action steps and solutions in order to stop this crime against humanity.

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The roundtable discussion follows a series of speeches that are scheduled as a side event on March 22nd:
https://www.bigmarker.com/Dafoh/Escalation-of-Human-Rights-Violations-in-the-21st-century-State-sponsored-Forced-Organ-Harvesting-of-Living-People

Agenda

Moderation
Roundtable Discussion
Q&A Session

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.

Alejandro Centurion

Alejandro Centurión, MD, is a neurologist and member of DAFOH for more than 15 years. He has participated in various activities to raise awareness among the general public and medical profession regarding the crime of forced organ harvesting. He has given Grand Rounds presentations at several hospitals in California about this medical crime against humanity, and presented a DAFOH resolution at the general assembly of the World Medical Association in Montevideo, Uruguay 2011. He has two family members who are transplant recipients and who have received the gift of life from altruistically and ethically donated organs.

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.

Willy Fautré

w.fautre@hrwf.org

Willy Fautré, former chargé de mission at the Cabinet of the Belgian Ministry of Education and at the Belgian Parliament. He is the director of Human Rights Without Frontiers, an NGO based in Brussels that he founded in 1988. His organization defends human rights in general but also the rights of persons belonging to historical religions, non-traditional and new religious movements. It is apolitical and independent from any religion.
He has carried out fact-finding missions on human rights and religious freedom in more than 25 countries He is a lecturer in universities in the field of religious freedom and human rights. He has published many articles in university journals about relations between state and religions. He organizes conferences at the European Parliament, including on freedom of religion or belief in China. For years, he has developed religious freedom advocacy in European institutions, at the OSCE and at the UN.

G. Weldon Gilcrease, III, MD

DAFOH Deputy Director

Dr. Gilcrease is an Assistant professor of medicine at the University of Utah. He is the medical director of the Huntsman Cancer Hospital and the program director for the hematology/oncology fellowship. He has won numerous teaching awards and is a member of AOA, the medical honors society, as recognition for his tireless devotion to medical education.
Dr. Gilcrease has worked as deputy director for Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting for 5 years. He has spoken at academic centers across the country on behalf of DAFOH, contributed to legislation in efforts to stop forced organ harvesting, and continues to raise awareness about the worst medical ethics abuse in recent history.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

House of Lords, United Kingdom

Philip Hunt, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, is a Labour member of the House of Lords. He served as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health from 1999 to 2003. He was President of the Royal Society for Public Health from 2010 to 2018. To fight against forced organ harvesting, Lord Hunt’s amendment to the Medicines and Medical Devices Bill was adopted in January 2021.
His proposed amendment to the Health Care Bill, which seeks to ensure that UK citizens cannot travel to countries such as China for organ transplantation, was debated last summer in the House of Commons and will hopefully be debated in the new year in the House of Lords in order to be adopted into UK law.

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.

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.

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.