(Clearwisdom.net) Greetings Master! Greetings fellow practitioners!
Three years ago, for the purpose of systematically submitting cases of persecution of Falun Gong to the United Nations' human rights organizations, we established the Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group. Here I will just share some of our experiences from the last three years.
It is necessary to first point out that before our group began, several practitioners in the US and Switzerland had already done a lot in this area. Our project is based on the solid foundation that they have laid down.
Part One: Systematic Submission of Persecution Cases to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Organizations
Towards the end of the year 2000, several practitioners began to consider filing lawsuits against individuals, as well as institutions, that participate in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Through some effort, we were able to find and contact several human rights lawyers. However, through our interactions with them, we found that they did not really understand the persecution. This was manifested in two aspects. First, they had no idea of the extent and severity of the persecution. After we made a long presentation, one of the lawyers said to us, "I have heard about the persecution of Falun Gong, but I never knew it is so severe." Second, they did not understand the nature of this persecution, and treated it as just as another typical human rights issue or another classic religious intolerance and persecution issue. Because of their lack of understanding, they were not particularly enthusiastic about helping us. These lawyers were supposed to have a special interest in human rights issues. If they had not paid much attention to the persecution, what could we expect from them?
At that time, the evil's lies and denial of any human rights violations also influenced people. Some Chinese people would not believe the evidence we provided. How could we better clarify the truth in depth and expose the evil?
We tried several ways. In the process, we got to know the United Nations human rights organizations, and systematically studied these organizations. The United Nations has a complete set of human rights organizations; the special rapporteurs assigned to lead these organizations have the responsibility to pay attention to, investigate, and report situations of severe violations. Their reports are authoritative and independent, and would be very convincing and helpful to our truth clarification. These were some of the positive impacts that we could see at that time.
When we discussed whether to initiate this project, we had two main concerns: whether there was still enough time left, and whether it would take too much of our energy. At that time, the persecution had gone on for almost two years, and the UN project was a slow process and would take a long time before we would see its effect. Would Fa-rectification be finished before we would see any fruits from this project? The UN project would also be a long-term commitment: once we started it, it would require high maintenance and persistent effort. Would it drag us down and preempt us from participating in other more important projects? Looking back, these were notions and selfish thoughts, but they did exist in our minds. Through our discussions, we realized that if we did not start the project, how would we feel one year later if we asked the same question of "whether it is too late?" How would we feel at that time if we realized that, "Oh, we could have done this for a year already had we started a year ago?" What kind of regret would we feel? As for the question of persistence, if practitioners in China can persist in jails, couldn't we persist in submitting reports that they had suffered and risked so much to send out? So after a few months of discussion and preparation, we began to submit cases of human rights violations in the name of the Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group.
The beginning of an undertaking usually is the most difficult. There are many human rights issues now-a-days. There are also many cases submitted to the United Nations human rights organizations. Why should they pay attention to us, the new kid on the block? Would they trust us and the information we supplied? The case submission had to satisfy the criteria designed by these mechanisms. Did our cases satisfy their requirements? Would they ignore our cases because we were not familiar with their formula? These were the first hurdles we sought to overcome quickly. So after we prepared and submitted some cases, we paid a visit to the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, and tried to interact with the special rapporteurs and their assistants face to face.
Once we were there, we could see all the things that could go wrong did go wrong. Some organizations did not understand us, and did not even look at our cases. For example, when we visited the assistants to the special rapporteur on human rights defenders, they were very perplexed. "Falun Gong is not a human rights group, right?" "Yes," we explained to them, "Everyone who has a concern in human rights causes knows that the first and the most difficult step in ending a persecution is the exposure of the persecution. Falun Gong practitioners' peaceful persistence to keep their rights not only has revealed the current persecution, but also has highlighted the overall human rights problem in China. Isn't that in and of itself a great contribution to and a defense of human rights?" We also used the examples of Chen Zixiu's daughter and Zhao Ming to show how they had risked their own safety to defend others' rights. They finally agreed that our cases were indeed suitable for their organizations, and have since reported quite a few of our cases.
Some rapporteurs did report a few of the Falun Gong cases, but were reluctant to do more. In one office, there was a thick stack of Falun Gong cases not being processed. The staff member there tried to find an excuse and told us that there were too many Falun Gong cases, and she could not just work on Falun Gong cases. We realized that in addition to submitting cases, we needed to help these staff members to have righteous minds. We explained to them that the cases we submitted were only a very small fraction of what was really going on. We asked, "Doesn't the number of cases show the severity of the situation, the more cases, the more you should pay attention?" As we talked, other practitioners helped to send forth righteous thoughts, and finally she changed her attitude. Through this, I realized the importance of having a righteous mind. Yes, we were there to submit cases and hoped to focus their attention on this critical issue. However, we were not there to beg for their help, because this was their work, their responsibility, too.
Some organizations had ignored our cases because of their formula. I remember in several offices, the assistants pointed to several stacks of papers and told us, "Those are all Falun Gong cases." When we asked if they had acted on them, we were told that they did not because they did not know or trust the source, and that the formula was not correct. We then showed them the cases we had newly prepared following their formula, and asked them to point out what we may be doing wrong or anything that was missing. We also told them that they could count on us to be a reliable source of cases and information.
In Geneva, we also discovered a problem that we had not foreseen. The evil had spread its lies inside the UN human rights institution. Some of the staff had a great misunderstanding of us. Some even tried to make us give up our effort. We clarified the truth to them, and kept strengthening our righteous thoughts. Once, after a visit to an office, a young staff person asked, "We heard Falun Gong was a cult; is it true?" We took advantage of her question and asked for a small forum for us to give a brief introduction. Several staff members were quite happy to learn the facts.
Some officials or staff members were influenced by the evil lies, and did not act on our cases. On one occasion, we visited the chairman of a working group. He had visited China in 1999, clearly had a misunderstanding of us, and was cold to us. We tried to create opportunities to talk to him, and even when he took a break from his meetings, we tried to talk to him. Finally, we had a second meeting with him. We clarified truth, and sent forth righteous thoughts. He quickly changed and told his assistants to pay attention to our cases.
At times, we wondered if we were too aggressive in making our requests. One practitioner from Sweden with her Celestial eye open told us that she saw the whole building entangled by a giant octopus, and evil elements filled the building. We realized, if we do not actively clarify the truth and help people there to place themselves well, all these people may be eliminated after Fa-rectification.
With our collective effort, we were able to add seven additional UN organizations to work with us on our project and they were ready to receive the reports on our cases.
Through this process, we realized the importance of the quality of our work. In order to be most effective, we needed to learn about the different organizations, their ways of working, their emphasis, their formula, and how to select cases that best fit them. We also need to pay attention to the quality and presentation of our cases, and make them credible. With our collective effort, within a short time, we overcame the early hurdles, and no longer have worry about the formula or criteria.
As with all other Fa-rectification projects, persistence is critical. Only a small portion of our cases have been taken up by the UN organizations, which at times made us wonder if our effort was worthwhile. But we dared not let down our efforts. It was our decision that even if this could help only one practitioner in China, it would be worthwhile.
Because of the courage and persistence of practitioners in China, we are able to continuously provide detailed and credible information to the United Nations, and establish very good relationships with various human rights organizations. Their intervention, in turn, directly results in pressure on the Chinese government. This is apparent from the responses that the Chinese government gave to the special rapporteurs. For this reason, the evil has continuously tried to undermine our effort. The most obvious sign is that whenever an organization has intervened on a significant number of our cases, the assistants to the special rapporteurs were then be replaced. At the early stages of our project, this indeed caused significant difficulty with the continuity of our effort, because we had to start over with a new assistant who was not familiar with our situation. The only way to deny this old arrangement was through a more persistent effort from us. As Fa-rectification progresses, the evil has become weaker and weaker and cannot control people. Many new assistants picked up our cases right away, and more and more of our cases have been used. This year when we visited Geneva again, a new assistant that we had never met before said to a practitioner, "You are the most persistent person I have ever met."
Looking back, our effort has not been in vain. We already know of a few cases in which practitioners were released after the intervention by the special rapporteurs. At the same time, our cases also helped some UN human rights officers to know the truth and reject the lies by the Chinese government. There was an assistant who stood up against pressure and insisted on reporting Falun Gong cases. Several other assistants have been removed from their position, but they have placed themselves well for the future. A lawyer who helped us to start the UN project made several strong statements in the UN against the evil, including characterizing the persecution as state terrorism, and exposing the Tiananmen Square Staged Self-immolation Incident.
The entire process has also helped me to understand the evil nature of this persecution. When working on some cases of so-called "transformation" [where practitioners have renounced their belief under extreme mental and physical pressure], I had the opportunity to interview several victims and to understand what they went through. I realized, to make beings commit sins against Dafa is the one way the old forces have used to destroy lives. Physical destruction can only destroy lives in this dimension, not their real lives. Why does the evil force people to transform and deceive people, trying to make them hate Dafa? It is to destroy their main spirit. Nothing is more evil than this.
Part Two: Clarifying the Truth to the United Nations Human Rights Commissioners
The annual meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission is an important human rights event. Every UN member country has representatives there, and therefore it is a good opportunity for us to clarify the truth. In the past, we had been focusing on democratic countries that we thought would support human rights, and largely stayed away from governments that have a close relationship with the Chinese government. This year, however, we made an important breakthrough. I want to share my own understanding of this breakthrough.
There is one special rapporteur from a former communist country who repeatedly refused to take up Falun Gong cases. I once raised a question to her in a public meeting. Ever since then, we have not seen eye-to-eye with one another. This year, I learned that she would be leaving. I had a struggle with myself. Part of me did not want to let go of my pride to talk to her, and part of me wanted to talk to her to remove her misunderstanding of Dafa. On her last day there, I finally gathered enough courage and approached her. She was guarded at the beginning and said she had only five minutes to talk. After I talked for a few minutes, she told me that she had twenty minutes. After listening for a while, she suddenly asked, "Why do you encourage people to commit suicide?" I was startled, and asked why she would believe such a lie. She told me that the Chinese ambassador to the UN told her so.
It became clear to me why she had avoided our cases. At the same time I felt fortunate to have the opportunity to clarify truth to her. At that point, another practitioner joined us, and in less than ten minutes, we were able to help her change her attitude towards Dafa. This was probably the most important moment for me inside the UN. I suddenly understood what Teacher said, "How many lives can a Dafa disciple save?" I further thought about how many more lives a well-cultivated Dafa disciple could save. However, I have cultivated so poorly; even at home I have often shouted at my wife, and have been dragged down by some low attachments for a long period of time. How far away I am from being a good practitioner! This incident was a breakthrough for my personal cultivation and truth clarification. Since then, I have been able to talk to representatives from human rights-violating countries like Cuba, Ethiopia, and Toga.
Shortly after that incident, I had a need to borrow something from my neighbor in the hotel. When I returned what I borrowed from him, I thought to myself, I should leave a benevolent thought for him, so I gave him a chocolate bar as a gift. He was very happy and started a conversation with me. To my surprise, he was a former ambassador from a country to China, and was that country's current representative to the United Nation. The conversation quickly led to the subject of Falun Gong, and he also asked about suicide, and told me the Chinese ambassador had told him about this. The next night, I visited him again and showed him the "False Fire" VCD. Five minutes into the program, he was visibly angry, and loudly discussed something with his associate. I could not understand their language, but I could see they were upset. The ambassador finally said to me, "This is lies and hatred. They deceived me, made me think badly about Falun Gong." I could see that nobody likes to be lied to. Several months later, I read in the news that this ambassador was assassinated, and was glad that he had been able to come to know some of the facts.
I shared those two incidents with other practitioners in the UN, and we organized two showings of "False Fire" and passed out many VCDs. The effect was very good.
In our truth clarification to the UN, practitioners paid attention to clarifying the evil nature of the persecution, and to helping representatives and Non-governmental Organization (NGO) members understand how the persecution affects them. In our speeches, we not only talked about the persecution practitioners have suffered, but also pointed out that the police, the torturers, and those who were deceived to harbor hatred are the second victims. We further pointed out that all humanity, our conscience and common values, and the international community as a whole have become the third victim of the evil's coercion. The benevolence of practitioners, and how we speak for others' well being, was observed by many. Some NGO members pointed out that the conscience we talked about should be the ethical standard of the UN.
Thanks to Teacher's mercy, thanks to fellow practitioners' efforts, I have had the opportunity to participate in a Dafa project. What I shared above happened quite a while ago. Just a few days before I came to this Experience-sharing Conference, I read Teacher's most recent poem. The last sentence, "Cease not your steps on the path of return" really shook me up. I realized that lately not only have I ceased my steps, but I have actually fallen down. So many things that I should have done but did not, so many opportunities missed, all because I have slacked off. As for the UN project, there are at least four areas that can be improved: 1) coordinate better with practitioners from different countries to bring the truth to more countries; 2) coordinate better with other projects to maximize the synergy; 3) provide more information to the UN, in addition to cases, and systematically clarify the truth; and 4) bring reports from the UN to the media to maximize the exposure of the evil. We welcome suggestions in all of these areas, and hope that more practitioners can join us or give us support.
I want to end my sharing with Teacher's new poem, "On Reading Weathering the Storm:"
Born into a sphere of suffering
Man struggles just to survive
One day, behold, the Great Law gained
Cease not your steps on the path of return.
Thank you.
