Trafficking danger for transplant professionals: report

The risk of complicity in organ trafficking and forced organ harvesting by medical institutions and professionals practising in transplantation medicine has been highlighted today in a report by international human rights law firm Global Rights Compliance.

The legal advisory report, entitled Do No Harm: Mitigating Human Rights Risks When Interacting with International Medical Professionals and Institutions in Transplantation Medicine, outlines the legal risks of collaborating with transplantation professionals in countries where it is reported that high levels of organ trafficking and unethical organ transplantation are taking place, such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Lebanon and Egypt – and particularly China, where a state-backed organ harvesting programme is estimated to have a market value of $1bn per annum.

Organ harvesting is the act of killing a person for their organs. The report assesses a wide range of evidence, including the China Tribunal judgment which found in March 2020 that China’s state-sanctioned regime of forced organ harvesting amounted to crimes against humanity, and joint correspondence issued to the Chinese Government by 12 UN special rapporteurs and human rights experts in late 2021. The latter reviewed credible information that forced organ harvesting “targets a number of ethnic religious or linguistic minorities, such as Falun Gong practitioners, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Muslims and Christians held in detention in different locations”.

In 2020 the China Tribunal exposed an elaborate state-sponsored programme where prisoners of conscience are incarcerated and killed to sustain a state-backed organ trade. It is suspected that a considerable number of medical institutions, medical practitioners and academics worldwide are still actively collaborating with China in transplant medicine, research and training, or considering future collaborations.

Global Rights Compliance urges the medical community to “immediately consider the legal ramifications of medical relationships with medical institutions and professionals who may engage in unethical organ transplantation, organ trafficking or forced organ harvesting”. Its report states that “entering and/or maintaining relationships with Chinese institutions entails the highest risk of complicity in international crimes”.

Alongside the report, Global Rights Compliance has published policy guidance providing medical institutions and professionals with guidance on how to develop, implement and evaluate minimum human rights due diligence processes to avoid contributing to human rights abuses and complicity in international crimes. It includes illustrative approaches, including minimum enquiries that must be made, in order to assess whether relationships with institutions may cause, contribute or be linked to unethical organ transplantation, organ trafficking and forced organ harvesting. It further calls for severing of ties with countries where prevention, mitigation and remediation is not possible.

Those potentially affected include universities, medical schools, hospitals, independent professional bodies, transplantation societies, focusing on a number of medical collaborations including clinical training, clinical research, grants and funding and the provision of medical equipment and drugs.

Managing partner Wayne Jordash QC commented: “Unfortunately the transplantation community can be complicit in unethical organ transplantation practices, often unknowingly. Our legal advisory report and policy guidance is aimed at helping the industry avoid involvement in forced organ harvesting and related violations. The medical community must join in the global effort to stamp out all types of unethical organ sourcing. Together, this trade in human misery must be stopped.”

Dr Julian Sheather, special adviser in ethics and human rights at the British Medical Association added: “Medical establishments including hospitals, research facilities, professional societies, funding bodies, companies and journals have an international responsibility to respect everyone’s human rights and must work to identify and resolve any harm they may cause or contribute to through their practice or be linked to through professional partnerships.”

https://www.lawscot.org.uk/news-and-events/legal-news/trafficking-danger-for-transplant-professionals-report/

Chinese Communist Party Forcing Youngsters To Join Its Youth Organizations during the Epidemic

(Minghui.org) While the schools in China remained closed due to the Wuhan virus in early March 2020, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a nationwide campaign to force youngsters to join its affiliated organizations (the Young Pioneers and the Communist Youth League) via “DingTalk,” the largest mobile app Chinese students are using to study at home. It was developed by the Alibaba Group in China, and has more than 100 million users.

In addition to being forced to join the CCP’s Youth League, elementary school students are also required to attend weekly political classes, watch the CCP’s flag-raising ceremonies, take and upload photos of them saluting the red flag, and write weekly thought reports.

Middle school students are required to “study” the CCP’s glorious history, watch its brainwashing news every day, and then take exams. All of their answers and browsing history is recorded by the backend server. Some schools use such data to assess qualifications for “honor students.”

Coercive Measures

This is how the CCP forces youngsters to join its organizations:

First, parents are required to choose to have their child join either the Young Pioneers or the Communist Youth League. They have to fill in their child’s details, including name, ID number, ethnicity, cell phone number, etc.

A screenshot of the submission must be sent to the student’s head teacher. If that doesn’t happen, the teacher keeps reminding the parents, telling them the screenshot is “mandatory.”

Some teachers revealed that orders to do this came from the school district and education bureau, which were passing the orders down from higher-ranking CCP officials.

“My Kids Don’t Want to Participate”

Many teachers and parents alike were disgusted by what they were being forced to do.

A parent in Jingjin County, Hebei Province, complained, “It says in the first paragraph, ‘If you are willing to participate.’ My kids don’t want to participate. I’ll stop using the software on the phone.”

But the technical support staff from “DingTalk” told the parent that if their kids didn’t join, they would be deemed anti-China and anti-Party, which would mean that the students could be deprived of opportunities to attend college, join the military, find jobs, or even get married.

The parent argued, “It has nothing to do with being ‘anti-China’ or ‘anti-Party.’ It’s only a matter of whether we use the software or not. If they force parents to urge their kids to join (the CCP organizations), that will make the parents really resentful,” the parent said.

“This is my job,” replied the technical support staff.

“I Don’t Want My Students to Join, Either”

After being forced to join the CCP, a primary school pupil issued a declaration that she was quitting. It said: “After I started studying online, my head teacher forced me to join the Young Pioneers on my mobile phone. My mom helped me fill out the details, including my name, phone number, ID, etc. I never wanted to join the Young Pioneers, and I want to declare that I’m quitting the organization now. Signed: Xiaole.”

A primary school teacher (“Qiu”) from the same county said, “The principal has repeatedly urged us to make sure that every student in our class has joined the Young Pioneers so that we can complete the ‘Home Project.’ It’s the same for the whole school district. It’s an order from the Education Bureau.”

Teacher Qiu said they had reported complaints to their superiors, but nothing was done to address the issue.

“The head teachers in our school are under orders to require parents to register their children to join the Young Pioneers.”

“Parents and pupils do not want to do this, and I don’t want my students to join, either, but the principal forced us to,” said teacher Qiu.

http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2020/4/7/183943.html
Chinese version available

Inspiring Peaceful Resistance

While the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) issued a directive to “fight Falun Gong to the end,” tens-of-millions of Falun Gong practitioners have responded by enacting one of the largest peaceful civil disobedience efforts in history.

This is a success story in the making—an enactment of real-life triumph of good over evil.

Since the persecution began in 1999, the CCP’s propaganda mega-machine has pumped-out falsified news reports and opinion pieces across every Chinese media outlet imaginable, aiming to “stamp out” Falun Gong and to turn the hearts of Chinese citizens against the peaceful practice. But Falun Gong practitioners have never lost sight of the good nature of their fellow Chinese. After all, the CCP does not represent the Chinese.

Courageously risking the worst possible treatment if they are caught, millions of Falun Gong practitioners have embarked on a great grassroots effort, using various means of telling the truth about the injustice played against them. They have printed fliers, newspapers, and posters. They have burned DVDs, with the intention of delivering the truth to every house, village, and city in China. By telling these truths and demonstrating the living embodiment of the principals they practice, they have stripped away the lies told by the CCP propaganda network. Thus they are gradually extracting the poison from the minds of the Chinese citizens toward them.

By focusing on the good nature of the Chinese, Falun Gong practitioners seek to awaken their consciences. Even as they are mistreated in the worst possible ways, the practitioners strive to maintain their compassion and tell the truth to their torturers. If these jailers, torturers, and executioners do have a conscience remaining, it makes it impossible for them to carry out the persecution against a kind, innocent, and peaceful group.

Throughout the last fifteen years, Falun Gong has remained strong in heart, validating the principles of truth, compassion, and forbearance, even when under direct fire by what is likely the largest tyrannical regime in history, the CCP.

Outside of China, overseas Falun Gong practitioners, lawyers, human rights activists, and others interested in justice and rights have worked hard to help the cause. They have sought to counter the lies and defamation spread by the Chinese embassy system and the overseas CCP media.