Switzerland: Statement by International Educational Development Supporting the Lawsuits Filed by Falun Gong Practitioners Outside China

On August 6th 2004, at the fifty-sixth session of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, item 6:specific human rights issues, the representative of International Educational Development brought before the meeting the lawsuits filed by Falun Gong practitioners outside China and expressed her organisation's support for the action taken by the practitioners. The following is an extract from her statement:

“ In our statement under this item in 2001 we presented the “State Terrorism” in China regarding the millions of Falun Gong practitioners. Since that time, courts in the United States have ruled against officials in China who were served while in the United States for gross violations of human rights against Falun Gong practitioners. Our organisation participated in several of these successful legal actions. We are now pleased to report that courts in Tanzania have shown the same inclination to allow domestic legal action, as on the 3rd August 2004 a Tanzanian court issued a preliminary judgement against a member of the Chinese state council. We also note the shooting of a Falun Gong practitioner in South Africa on the 28th June 2004. This victim is an Australian, who had arrived in South Africa to file criminal lawsuits against Chinese officials visiting South Africa who are alleged to be responsible for the office in China responsible for the reign of terror against Falun Gong. We are pleased that the authorities in South Africa are investigating this. However, we must point out that the Chinese authorities have pursued Falun Gong practitioners outside of China for some years.”.

In August 2001,the International Educational Development (IED) made a statement condemning the persecution of Falun Gong and describing it as “State Terrorism”. This Office asked the United Nations Sub-Commission for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and the international community to put an end to such terrorist behaviour. The Office noted in its statement that “families have been broken up because some of their members have been killed by the regime, people have been destroyed by severe torture, by imprisonment in mental hospitals where they receive brutal treatment, or through heavy labour in forced labour camps, and other practises of this kind”. According to a report on August 6th 2001 in the International Herald Tribune, the regime admits it had officially ordered violence against practitioners so as to eliminate Falun Gong,” and in August 2004, at the 56th session of the United Nations Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, International Education Development (IED) again recalled, in its statement, its intervention in August 2001.