(Clearwisdom.net) On May 13, 2008, World Falun Dafa Day, the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) announced the latest records for the global "Millions of Signatures" petition campaign. As of May 12, 470 thousand signatures have been collected in 94 countries worldwide, urging the Chinese Communist regime to stop its persecution of Falun Gong.
On New Year's Day 2008, the "Millions of Signatures Global Campaign" was initiated in Hong Kong, calling for an immediate stop to the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) persecution of Falun Gong. Petitioners also called on their own governments, parliaments, the International Olympics Committee, the United Nations, as well as other international human rights organizations, to take immediate action to help Falun Gong practitioners in China regain their freedom and human rights.
In 2008, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, and Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief from the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, published an updated report, which clearly requested the Chinese Communist regime to fully explain the allegation of taking vital organs from Falun Gong practitioners. According to CIPFG, one of the main aims of the "Millions of Signatures Global Campaign" was to further expose to the international community the inhumane persecution suffered by Falun Gong practitioners in China, as well as gather the wills of people around the world to stop this human rights persecution, which has persisted for nine years.
Mr. Qiu Huangquan, a vice chair of CIPFG in Asia said, "Everyone is very concerned about the persecution which Falun Gong practitioners suffer, and want to do something to help. What we want to do is very simple, we will gather signatures and petition, urging the Chinese Communist regime to bring an unconditional stop to the persecution of Falun Gong. This campaign is very simple, but will be very powerful. As a matter of fact, many fights for human rights are carried out through simple actions of many people. Our campaign of petitions would definitely not be a waste of time, and it will be very powerful."
According to the latest statistics, in the five major continents around the globe, the largest number of petitions have been collected in Asia, where the campaign has been supported by elite people of various fields in society. For example in Taiwan, 490 government officials, including county governments, speakers and deputy speakers of government councils, members of parliament, members of the legislative council, as well as local government workers have signed in support. From the education field, a total of 103 principles from universities, high schools and primary schools, as well as university professors, have supported the petition. Furthermore, the petition has been signed by over 200 renowned people in society from legal, medical, business and the arts fields. As more people learn of the persecution, they join hands to support CIPFG's anti-persecution campaign, and many righteous people pro-actively helped to collect more petitions.
According to CIPFG representatives, the campaign will end on July 20, with the hope that tens of millions of people world-wide will join this call for justice, in display of respect for human rights and freedom of belief.
