Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly

According to the information received from several NGO’s hundreds of well-off Japanese and other nationals are turning to China’s burgeoning human organ transplant industry, paying tens of thousands of pounds for livers and kidneys, which in some cases have been harvested from executed prisoners and sold to hospitals.

According to Reuter’s news reporting, the United Nations’ torture investigator said that thousands of Falun Gong followers were being held at a Chinese concentration camp, and some had been killed.

Considering the recommendation 1611 (2003) on trafficking in organs, the Parliamentary Assembly should call on member countries of the Council of Europe to use their contacts to influence China.

-       to allow the United Nations and other rights organizations to conduct independent investigations of all its labour camps and other detention facilities where prisoners of conscience are held.

-       to allow international rights organisations to immediately investigate the conditions of all Falun Gong practitioners and other dissidents held in all labour camps, jails and detention centres.

-       to allow international organisations to investigate all non-voluntary or undocumented removals and sale of organs from Chinese people.

All these considerations show that there is a need for a public hearing on the organ harvesting in China.

Signed ¹:

LINDBLAD, Göran, Sweden, EPP/CD
GROSS, Andreas, Switzerland, SOC
HERKEL, Andres, Estonia, EPP/CD
HÖRSTER, Joachim, Germany, EPP/CD
MERCAN, Murat, Turkey, EPP/CD
MIHKELSON, Marko, Estonia, EPP/CD
OHLSSON, Carina, Sweden, SOC
PAPADIMITRIOU, Elsa, Greece, EPP/CD
SEVERINSEN, Hanne, Denmark, ALDE
SEYIDOV, Samad, Azerbaijan, EDG
WODARG, Wolfgang, Germany, SOC

¹     SOC: Socialist Group
       EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party
       ALDE: Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
       EDG: European Democratic Group
       UEL: Group of the Unified European Left
       NR: not registered in a group