ASSOCIATION OF WORLD CITIZENS

Case Postale 161.CH.1211 Genève 16. SUISSE
Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities 4 August 1999

Item 2: Questions of violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms:
The Banning of the Falun Gong and Subsequent Arrests of Practitioners in China

René WADLOW
Permanent Representative
United Nations, Geneva

 
The declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, adopted by consensus in the UN General Assembly on 25 November 1981 reaffirms rights contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and provides a framework for considering the right to freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief.
Article 1 states:
"1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have a religion or whatever belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.
2. No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have a religion or belief of his choice.
3. Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals, or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others. "
Article 6 specifically states the freedom:
a): To worship or assemble in connection with a religion or belief, and to establish and maintain places for these purposes;
b): To write, issue and disseminate relevant publications in these areas.
We are convinced that the banning by the Government of the Peoples Republic of China on 22 July 1999 of the spiritual movement Falun Gong/Falun Dafa and the subsequent arrest of leaders, massive destruction of publications and audio-visual material, and the prohibition of assembly of its practitioners are direct violations of the spirit and provisions of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, and of article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The limitations on the freedom of practice set out in article 18- " Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others — are no applicable in the case of the Falun Gong/Falun Dafa. The banning is arbitrary and is related to politically-motivated fears.
Fear is always a poor advisor when dealing with social movements. Therefore we appeal to the Sub-Commission to help the Government of the Peoples Republic of China to gain a harmonious perspective and to restore the rights of the practitioners of the Falun Gong/Falun Dafa spiritual movement.
I will develop briefly three points :
 
Falun Gong/Falun Dafa has its roots in the rich history and practice of Taoism in China Taoism has been part of the all-pervading culture of the Chinese people, manifested in many folk practices but also in painting, poetry and philosophy. Taoists often do not consider Taoism as religion but rather a method return to original way(Tao). Rigid organization can be hindrance. "The doors and windows built into a house fulfil their function by being void." is an aphorism attributed to the Taoist sage Lao-tzu.
Thus Taoism in China has never had an over-all religious organizational structure, though at times in the past, there were some large monasteries and societies based on Taoist thought. Taoism is a way of seeking harmony with nature, practiced in everyday life, a preference for being inconspicuous, undemanding and uncombative. Taoists have a breath of vision to submit gracefully to adverse circumstances when submit they must.
In China, there has never been a rigid wall of separation between Taoist and Buddhist ideas and practices. Thus the emphasis on Compassion (Shan) in the Falun Gong/ Falun Dafa draws upon this central virtue of Buddhism. Likewise there is a Buddhist emphasis on attitudes to avoid, those which may interfere with wholesome morality and are thus a hindrance to higher states of consciousness: greed, covetousness, malevolence, anger, malice, hypocrisy, spite, envy, miserliness, deceit, treachery, obstinacy, impetuosity, arrogance, pride and conceit. ( of: the Buddha, Simile of the Cloth, Middle Length Sayings I, Discourse 7 ).
The Falun Gong/Falun Dafa, created in 1992, made Taoist techniques of meditation, exercises and yoga available to a large number of people through lectures, workshops, publications and video-audio cassettes. It was however, largely by word of mouth and example that the movement developed. These techniques met wide-spread needs, and thus the movement spread quickly to all parts of China and englobed people from all walks of life.
When it was first introduced to the public in 1992, Falun Gong/Falun Dafa was registered with the Qigong Research Association of China. Qigong, also drawing upon Taoist techniques of exercise and breathing, is popular in China although the exercises are now often done for reasons of good health and are separated from their moral foundations. As the Falun Gong/Falun Dafa’s goal is to guide people to higher dimensions of consciousness, and knowing that power gained from the exercises can be dangerous if not done in a firm framework of spiritual and moral values, the founder Li Hongzhi withdrew Falun Gong/Falun Dafa from the Qigong Research Association of China. It would seem that the Chinese Government, worried about the growing popularity of the movement then refused to allow it to be registered under any other category. This means that Falun Gong/ Falun Dafa had no legal protection and no legal status in Chinese society, a situation that practitioners peacefully and patiently tried to rectify so that they could follow the spiritual system of their choice safely and without interference.
The government of the Peoples Republic of China seems to have felt that the practices of Falun Gong/ Falun Dafa leading to harmony, joy and vitality were particularly needed in The USA and so facilitated the departure in 1995 of the founder Li Hongzhi to the USA where he now lives and teachers. However, the Falun Gong/ Falun Dafa is based on the practice of each individual, and the movement continued to grow despite the departure of Li Hongzhi.
It was in April 1999 when practitioners of Falun Gong/Falun Dafa gathered to request registration of the movement outside the compound at Zhongnanhai in Beijing, where many Government leaders live, that Falun Gong/Falun Dafa drew wide attention to itself. It would seem that such a large assembly of people without advance police knowledge provoked Government concern. Some in the Government administration and the Party saw Falun Gong/Falun Dafa as a danger to the ideological monopoly which they wish to conserve.
Thus, by the middle of June 1999, the police and security forces had developed plans for wide-spread arrests and repression. By 22 July, all was in place. There was a governmental decree banning the movement, wide-spread arrests of leaders in many different provinces indicating the well-laid plans for repression. Book, audio-video cassettes have been seized and destroyed. These destructions have been widely shown on Chinese television — a communications advance over Nazi book burning but hardly a moral improvement.
As with past campaigns against dissident thought : Anti-Rightist Campaign(1957); Great Leap Forward (1958-1960); Cultural Revolution ( 1966-1976); Campaign to Eliminate Spiritual Pollution ( 1983-1984), There are now public confessions of errors by Party members who had practiced Falun Gong/ Falun Dafa, re-education sessions for Government civil servants, stories in the press of people who were not cured of illness by practices, Pressure is being put on people to stop Falun Gong/ Falun Dafa practice through threats to work, education, pensions, housing etc. There has even been a request to the US Government to extradite Li Hongzhi to China on a charge of unlawful assembly.
 
What is to be done: This August session of the Sub-Commission is the first UN Human Rights body able to deal with the question fully after the 22July 1999 banning. The nature and the scale of the repression and arrests make this an emergency situation on which the Sub-Commission is mandated to act.
The banning of the Falun Gong/Falun Dafa is a qualitative change in the practice of the Government of the Peoples Republic of China. In the past, there have been questions raised in the Commission on Human Rights concerning the rights to religious practice of Roman Catholic and Protestant Christians in China and of Tibetan schools of Buddhism. ( See the report of the in situ visit of Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance, Mr Abdelfattah Amor, E/CN.4/1995/91 and his subsequent yearly reports ). In the case of the Christians and the Tibetan schools of Buddhism, there is usually a recognized clergy, buildings for worship or study, and specific scriptures.
This is not the case for Falun Gong/Falun Dafa. Thus there is a danger that repression will be more widespread and arbitrary. There is danger that the Public Security Department forces still strike out arbitrarily at people doing meditation exercises of holding spiritual beliefs concerning reincarnation, spirits, cycles of human evolution etc. The more a belief system is diffused, the closer it is to traditional folk beliefs often called superstitions by Government ideologues, the more arbitrary the repression can be. There are already many reports of police brutality in breaking up meetings of practitioners, usually meeting in public parks.
Thus, it is our duty to help the Peoples Republic of China to avoid another ideological campaign which not only violates international norms on freedom of belief but is also socially damaging.
China faces very real problems of unemployment due to economic restructuring; real problems due to rural to urban population movements, real problems due to population pressure upon the resources of food, water, housing etc. There are also real problems in the ideological philosophical sphere as Marxist explanations of society and history are inadequate, but there is no other dominant ideology or philosophy taking its place.
We can sympathize with Chinese intellectuals and administrators trying to meet all these problems at the same time. But we must say clearly that repression of spiritual movements will not provide solutions for these problems. Freedom of belief and exchange of ideas are essential to human progress.
Thus we in human rights community have a duty to uphold the norms set out in the universally-recognized Declarations and Covenants. We also have a duty to help the governments and people of States to find proper solutions when, through fear and bad advice, they take short-sighted measures which are harmful and destructive of social harmony. The banning and repression of Falun Gong/Falun Dafa is such a short-sighted and destructive measure. We are sure that the Sub-Commission will take strong and appropriate action to help the Peoples Republic of China to advance freedom of belief by lifting the ban on Falun Gong/Falun Dafa.