[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 530 Engrossed in House (EH)]
In the House of Representatives, U.S.,
March 3, 2004.
Whereas the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in
Geneva, Switzerland, is the most important international forum for
discussing human rights and expressing international support for
improved human rights performance;
Whereas according to the Department of State, the United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom, and international human rights
organizations, the Government of the People's Republic of China
continues to commit well-documented human rights abuses against the
Chinese people;
Whereas the People's Republic of China has yet to demonstrate its willingness to
abide by internationally accepted norms of freedom of belief,
expression, and association by repealing or amending laws and decrees
that restrict those freedoms;
Whereas the Government of People's Republic of China continues to ban and
criminalize groups it labels as cults or heretical organizations;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China has repressed
unregistered religious groups and spiritual movements and persists in
persecuting persons on the basis of unauthorized religious activities
using such measures as harassment, surveillance, job discrimination,
exorbitant fines, prolonged detention, physical abuse, incarceration,
and closure or destruction of places of worship;
Whereas international human rights organizations have documented that torture,
maltreatment, the use of confessions extracted through torture, and
other abuses while in detention are rampant in the Chinese legal system;
Whereas the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners has been particularly harsh;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China launched a brutal
campaign to eradicate Falun Gong from their country;
Whereas since this time large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners have been
arrested, subjected to harsh reeducation efforts, and some have even
been tortured to death;
Whereas Falun Gong practitioners continue to report harassment and acts of
violence at the hands of foreign nationals which have occurred against
them during peaceful protests in the United States and other countries;
Whereas the Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently investigating the
possibility of links between attacks against Falun Gong practitioners in
the United States and the Government of the People's Republic of China;
Whereas Catholics who remain faithful to the Pope and in communion with Rome
face continuing restrictions, including difficulties holding worship
services, obtaining building permits for churches, and training clergy;
Whereas Protestant house church leaders are facing increased pressure to
register with the official Protestant church or face harassment,
detention, and destruction of their places of worship;
Whereas many Catholic and Protestant leaders and believers have been imprisoned
or subject to house arrest including Su Zhimin, a Catholic Bishop who
was reportedly arrested in 1997 and who is currently reported to be in
very poor health;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China continues to exert
tight control over the religious and cultural institutions of Tibetan
Buddhists and Uighur Muslims, using torture, arbitrary arrest, and
detention without public trial against these individuals for peacefully
expressing their religious or political views;
Whereas the whereabouts of Gendun Choekyi Nyima, the boy identified by the Dalai
Lama as the 11th Panchen Lama, are still unknown;
Whereas Gendun Choekyi Nyima was 6 years old when the Chinese authorities took
him and his family away in 1995;
Whereas it is believed that the Chinese authorities are holding him in a secret
location;
Whereas Tibetans caught displaying photos of the 11th Panchen Lama or the Dalai
Lama face harassment, fines, and detention;
Whereas in January 2003, the Government of the People's Republic of China
executed a Tibetan man named Lobsang Dhondup without due process and
despite repeated assurances to United States officials that his case and
that of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche would be would reviewed by the Chinese
Supreme People's Court;
Whereas this review never happened and Tenzin Delek Rinpoche remains on death
row, in the second year of his suspended death sentence;
Whereas enforcement by the Government of the People's Republic of China of its
one-child per family policy has been cruel and inhumane and has included
the use of forced abortion and forced sterilization;
Whereas this one-child per family policy has led to the abandonment and
infanticide of baby girls and a disproportionate number of male children
in China, which will have serious and detrimental sociological impacts
on China for years to come;
Whereas 14 years after the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen
Square, many protesters remain in prison and no independent
investigations have taken place regarding the massacre that occurred
during those demonstrations;
Whereas authorities in the People's Republic of China have continued their
efforts to extinguish expressions of protest or criticism and have
detained and sentenced scores of citizens associated with attempts to
organize peaceful protests, to expose corruption, to preserve their
ethnic minority identity, and to use the Internet for the free exchange
of ideas;
Whereas many prisoners in China are confined to state run psychiatric hospitals
for simple acts of expressing their thoughts on political issues, like
veteran human rights activist and prisoner of conscience Wang Wanxing;
Whereas many Chinese prisoners are in Laogai, forced labor camps in which
inmates are subject to various forms of cruel and forced labor;
Whereas the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international
human rights organizations have been denied access to the Chinese prison
system;
Whereas it well documented that organs taken from executed prisoners are sold
for use in transplants in China and abroad;
Whereas the percentage of transplant kidneys estimated to be derived from
executed prisoners in China has been put as high as 90 percent of all
transplanted kidneys in China;
Whereas organs reported to be harvested from executed prisoners in China include
corneas, kidneys, and hearts;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China agreed during the
December 2002 session of the United States-China Bilateral Human Rights
Dialogue to invite, without conditions, the United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom, the United Nations Special Rapporteurs
on Religious Intolerance and Torture, and the United Nations Working
Group on Arbitrary Detention to visit China;
Whereas none of these visits have taken place in the last year and, in the case
of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, two
agreed upon trips were canceled because of unacceptable conditions
placed on the visit by the Government of the People's Republic of China;
Whereas the United States decision not to introduce a resolution calling upon
the People's Republic of China to end its human rights violations in
China at the 59th Session of United Nations Commission on Human Rights
in Geneva was based, in part, on the belief that the aforementioned
agreements signaled a good faith commitment on the part of Chinese
officials to improve human rights practice in China;
Whereas when well-founded, balanced, and accurate resolutions regarding human
rights in China were raised in previous sessions of the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights, the Government of the People's Republic of
China strongly pressured other countries to oppose the consideration of
those resolutions;
Whereas since the last session of the United States China Bilateral Human Rights
Dialogue, a number of very troubling incidents have occurred,
including--
(1) the arrests of a number of democracy advocates,
(2) the detention and torture of 18 Tibetans who were forcibly
repatriated from Nepal with the cooperation of Chinese officials, in
contravention of international law,
(3) the ongoing forced repatriation of North Korean nationals, who upon
return to North Korea will face almost certain arrest, torture, or even
death,
(4) the arrest and sentencing of Internet essayists and labor
protesters,
(5) the execution of Lobsang Dondrup and continued detention of Tenzin
Delek Rinpoche, and
(6) the continued refusal to allow access by United States diplomats
and family members of the accused to the trials of those detained for
political or religious activities;
Whereas the People's Republic of China has signed the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, but has yet to take the necessary steps to
make the treaty legally binding;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China is a party to the 1951
United Nations Convention Relating to Refugees and its 1967 Protocol;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China is a party to the
United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel,
Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; and
Whereas the Constitution and laws of the People's Republic of China purport to
provide for fundamental human rights, however, the protections of these
rights are often ignored in practice: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That--
(1) it is the sense of Congress that--
(A) the United States Government should continue to insist
that the People's Republic of China adhere to fundamental human
rights principles and allow its citizens the full enjoyment of
those rights;
(B) at the 60th Session of the United Nations Human Rights
Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, the appropriate
representative of the United States should introduce a
resolution calling upon the People's Republic of China to end
its human rights violations in China and meet internationally
recognized standards for human rights;
(C) the United States Government should take the lead in
organizing multilateral support to obtain passage by the
Commission of such a resolution and should draft the resolution
in such a way as to highlight specific human rights abuses;
(D) all countries with representatives at the 60th Session
of the United Nations Human Rights Commission should support
passage of such a resolution and resist efforts by
representatives of the People's Republic of China to oppose the
consideration or passage of such a resolution; and
(E) United States Government officials and officials from
other governments should continue to speak out in international
forums and elsewhere against Chinese repression of religious and
political freedom, persecution of Tibetans, Falun Gong
practitioners, Catholics, Protestants, and Uighur Muslims, the
unjust arrest and detention of religious leaders and political
dissidents, harsh conditions in Laogai and other prisons,
coercive family planning policies, and the forced return of
North Korean refugees; and
(2) Congress urges the Government of the People's Republic of
China--
(A) to take the necessary measures to stop the persecution
of all religious practitioners and to safeguard fundamental
human rights;
(B) to stop the forced return of North Korean refugees, to
allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees access
to North Koreans inside China, and to work with the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to develop a viable
solution to the humanitarian crisis involving North Korean
refugees;
(C) to end its coercive one-child per family policy and
ensure that no national, provincial, or local government
officials subject women to forced abortions or sterilizations;
(D) to immediately hold an open and transparent
investigation into the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy
demonstrators in Tiananmen Square, to release all the prisoners
held in connection with that event, and to pay compensation to
the families who lost their loved ones;
(E) to release from detention all prisoners of conscience,
persons held because of their religious activities, and persons
of humanitarian concern;
(F) to release the 11th Panchen Lama identified by Dalai
Lama and allow him to undertake his rightful role;
(G) to allow the Chinese people to practice freely and
openly their religious beliefs;
(H) to adhere to the provisions and guidelines of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the United
Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel,
Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and the 1951
Convention Relating to Refugees and its 1967 Protocol; and
(I) to allow, immediately and without restrictions, visits
to China by the United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom, the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on
Religious Intolerance and Torture, the United Nations Working
Group on Arbitrary Detention, and the International Committee of
the Red Cross.
Attest:
Clerk.