Report from the Stockholm International Conference on “Genocide in the New Era”: Preventing Campaigns of Genocide and the Persecution of Falun Gong

From 26th to 28th January 2004, as part of a worldwide tribute to the global recognition of human rights and the Intergovernmental Conference on Preventing Genocide, Friends of Falun Gong Europe and the International Advocates for Justice were joined by seventeen NGOs to sponsor “Genocide in the New Era”, an international conference attended by human rights attorneys and NGOs from Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Canada, Finland, Denmark, Taiwan, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States and other nations to address the widespread phenomena of genocide in China and the international persecution of Falun Gong practitioners around the globe.

During this meeting, the human rights attorneys and delegates came to the following conclusion regarding the features of “Genocide in the New Era”, as well as the countermeasures of preventing genocide:

More than one hundred and thirty nations have signed the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and thereby agreed to “prevent and punish” the perpetrators of the crime of genocide irrespective of their title, status, or rank. Nonetheless, the Crime of Genocide continues to occur around the globe without adequate mechanisms for prevention and legal redress. In 1999, Jiang Zemin, the former President of China, initiated a campaign of genocide and torture to eradicate the wide spread belief in and practise of Falun Gong in the People's Republic of China. Jiang Zemin has extensively sponsored an international campaign of persecution, including direct interference in the domestic policies of democracies around the globe in conjunction with the deployment of threats, hate crime, propaganda, slander and defamation on an international scale - all geared to eliminate the practice of Falun Gong around the world.

Conscious of our obligations as human rights attorneys and NGOs, we are committed to doing our utmost to stop the campaigns of genocide and persecution against Falun Gong around the globe. We are committed to supporting the Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum 2004 and the particular resolutions. For example, we shall cooperate in the search for effective measures against genocidal dangers with all members of the family of nations, with the United Nations and other relevant global and regional organisations, as well as with non-governmental organisations, labour organisations, the media and with business and academic communities.

We shall cooperate in the use and development of practical tools and mechanisms to identify as early as possible and to monitor and report genocide threats to human life and society in order to prevent the recurrence of genocides and mass murders.
We support the use and development of tools and mechanisms to identify and prevent the Crime of Genocide. These include the identification of the multiple forms and modalities of genocide, not only through physical death but the eradication of commonly held belief of religious and cultural groups, education through formal and informal structures, the dissemination of knowledge to those involved in government, international organisations, non-governmental organisations, humanitarian and peace support operations and the media, the support of survivors of genocide to rebuild their communities, and the insurance that the perpetrators of genocidal acts are brought to justice.
We are committed to exploring the options presented at this conference for action against the genocide and international persecution of Falun Gong in China and elsewhere around the globe, and hope to have opportunities to share with the participants of the Stockholm International Forum the information and ideas of the many NGOs and human rights attorneys on an ongoing basis.

We agreed that the continuing persecution of some hundred million Chinese citizens by the government of the People's Republic of China for their moral beliefs is a most serious manifestation of genocide as defined in Article 2 of the 1948 Genocide Convention and is unacceptable in the world today, prejudices the development of cooperation and trust between nations and warrants further efforts by governments with a view to its termination.