H.Res.530 - Urging the appropriate representative of the United States to the 60th Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to introduce a resolution calling upon the Government of the People's Republic of China to end its human rights violations in China.108th Congress (2003-2004)

Shown Here:
Engrossed in House (03/03/2004)

[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Printing 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.