Condemning 15 Years of Continued Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners
WHEREAS, Falun Data, also commonly called Falun Gong, is a traditional spiritual practice that involves meditation exercises and a moral principle centered on the values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance; and
WHEREAS, Falun Data is considered to be a form of spiritual exercise that draws energy to the body in order to maintain health and a peaceful approach to life; and
WHEREAS, Falun Data, practitioners are people of all social background, races, religions, and age groups; and
WHEREAS, the practice has continually grown in popularity and is now practiced in over 100 countries, and has benefited tens of millions of people; and
WHEREAS, Since July 20, 1999, Jiang Zemin, the then-leader of the Chinese Communist Party launched a campaign to eradicate Falun Gong; and
WHEREAS, as documented by the United States Department of State, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and many other governmental and third-party organizations; over 3700 Falun Gong practitioners have been persecuted to death, and some of their bodies were missing internal organs; and
WHEREAS, The U.S. Department of State in its 2011 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices stated, "Overseas and domestic media and advocacy groups continued to report instances of organ harvesting, particularly from Falun Gong practitioners and Uighurs"; and
WHEREAS, Canadian human rights attorney David Matas and former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific David Kilgour co-wrote the investigative report "Bloody Harvest: Revised Report into Allegations of Organ Harvesting of Falun Gong Practitioners in China"; and
WHEREAS, The Matas-Kilgour report concluded that the organ harvesting allegations were true and that tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners may have been killed for their organs; and
WHEREAS, Kirk C. Allison, Ph.D., Director of the Program in Human Rights an...
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