Nov 23 et seq. 2021 The following remarks were prepared by Hon. David Kilgour, J.D. for an Uyghur human rights event taking place on Parliament Hill on November 23rd, 2021. For a full biography of Mr. Kilgour, please visit David-kilgour.com. Friends of the 56 recognized cultural communities across China, There are many important topics for our conference on China this week to consider, including what has happened to tennis star Peng Shuai. Most important perhaps are the range of proposals made by the all-party House subcommittee on human rights last year. Permit me to provide some context to realities there by addressing organ pillaging. China appears to be unique among almost 200 independent countries today in that its organ transplantations are government-managed. In mid-2006, David Matas and I did an independent investigation into persistent claims of forced organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners. We released two reports and a 2009 book titled Bloody Harvest. We concluded that since 2001 Beijing directed a network of forced vital organ-harvesting from prisoners of conscience--primarily Falun Gong. The organs were then sold to wealthy recipients in China and foreign ‘organ tourists’. Specifically, we found beyond any doubt from 18 kinds of evidence that between the years 2001 and 2005, at least 41,500 organs were sourced from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience across China, who were killed during the removals. Ethan Gutmann, author of The Slaughter (2014), later placed the persecution of the Falun Gong, Uyghur, Tibetan, and house Christian communities in context. He explains how he arrived at his “best estimate” that organs of 65,000 Falun Gong and “two to four thousand” Uyghurs, Tibetans and house Christians were pillaged in the 2000- 2008 period. Matas, Gutmann and I released an Update in 2016 in Washington, Ottawa and Brussels (accessible from www.endorganpillaging.org. ). It provided a careful examination of the transplant programs of hundreds of hospitals across China. We concluded that over two decades, the party-state directed a network of organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience. Our findings helped the US Congress and the European Parliament to pass nearly identical resolutions condemning the Chinese regime for harvesting prisoners of conscience. Based on the 2019 China Tribunal findings in the U.K., we learn that the Chinese authorities are still at it. At least ninety thousand transplants a year and the assurance of a back-up organ should the original organ fail is an inhuman commerce that has no equal anywhere. This reality in China can only be explained as resulting from the murders of readily available ‘prisoners’ – Falun Gong, Tibetans, Uyghur Muslims and Christians. It should be no surprise to nationals of countries with independent media that during about 40 days in late 2019 and early 2020 Beijing concealed and falsified information about the spread of COVID-19 within China. Xi Jinping pressured the World Health Organization (WHO) to delay issuing a global warning about the virus. With the world mostly unaware of the mortal danger, the virus began its march across the world.
When COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, Taiwan, for example, moved quickly to screen flights from there on December 31, 2019; ban entry by Wuhan residents on January 23, 2020; institute intensive testing and contact tracing; and bar all visitors from China on February 6th. If the WHO and its member-nations had adapted Taiwan’s practices, many of the millions of infections and at least five million deaths worldwide could have been avoided. For example, the biggest influx of COVID-19 carriers into Europe was about 250,000 Chinese citizens, with two-thirds flying back after their yearly new year’s vacation in China to their garment industry jobs in Italy. By January 11, 2021, there were 2.2 million confirmed cases in Italy and 79,203 deaths. European Union governments, Australia, and the U.S. demanded an independent investigation on how COVID-19 spread to humans. Xi until mid-January, 2021 blocked WHO and investigators from various countries entering Wuhan. Beijing continues to resist sharing data with the world about the origin of COVID-19 that might help combat future pandemics. Conclusion Former premier Wen Jiabao said some years ago, “The reform in China has come to a critical stage. Without the success of political structural reform, it is impossible for us to fully institute economic structural reform. The gains we have made… may be lost, new problems that have cropped up in China’s society cannot be fundamentally resolved and such historical tragedy as the Cultural Revolution may happen again.” Unfortunately, under Xi Jinping in recent years the rule of law/democratic reforms sought by Wen ended. Xi has in effect re-interpreted democracy as totalitarianism, including opposition to multi-party elections and independence of judges. Xi (習近平) is attempting to change the narrative by stressing that his government has eliminated extreme poverty in China, Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) last May courageously observed that “there are over 600 million people whose monthly income is barely 1,000 yuan [US$155], not enough to rent a room.” Democratic governments and our private sectors should examine why they are supporting the violation of so many universal values in order to seek to increase profits through trade and business with China. For years, this has resulted in national jobs being outsourced to China and continuous increases in our bi-lateral trade deficits. Canada alone has lost about 600,000 manufacturing jobs since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Are the rest of us so focused on access to inexpensive consumer goods that we ignore the human, social and natural environment costs paid by hardworking Chinese nationals to produce them? Thank you. Tazeen Hasan illustrates how the Indian Government uses arbitrary detention through anti-terror laws as a Settler-Colonial device against the Indigenous population of Kashmiris.
Kashmiri youth are being booked under draconian laws for celebrating Pakistan's victory in the Indo-Pak cricket match in Indian-administered Kashmir and India, local Indian and international media reported. Also, Kashmiri students in Punjab and the Uttar Pradesh States of India were beaten by the mob after the Pakistani victory over Indian Cricket Team. According to Al-Jazeera, the Police in Indian-administered Kashmir have filed criminal cases under a stringent anti-terror law against the students of two medical colleges in Indian-administered Kashmir for celebrating Pakistan's victory against India in the T20 World Cup. The cases were filed under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Activities Act, one of the few controversial laws condemned by human rights groups and the United Nations. Also, according to the Guardian, police in Agra, Bareilly, and Mohali have arrested seven Kashmiri students for allegedly celebrating Pakistan's victory over India in a cricket match. According to Indian national media, the college suspended them because they were accused of posting messages on social media supporting Pakistan. In a tweet, Uttar Pradesh's chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, famous for his genocidal remarks against Muslims in his election campaign, said that the three might be charged with sedition. Police have already charged them for cyberterrorism and "promoting enmity among groups" that police accused them of after the arrests on Wednesday. The Himalayan region of Kashmir is an internationally disputed predominantly Muslim territory where the Indigenous population is struggling to fight for the right to self-determination. Kashmir is claimed by India and Pakistan, which rule over parts of it. Recognized by India, Pakistan, and United Nations Security Council in 1948, the right to self-determination to Kashmiris has been consistently denied by the Indian Government in the last seven decades. Anti-India sentiments are very high in Kashmir. A vast majority of Kashmiris support the merger with Pakistan, while the rest want to establish an independent State. According to the United Nations and human rights organizations, the Indian Government and security forces have committed grave human rights violations against Indigenous Kashmiris i-e extrajudicial killings, rapes, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, torture, shooting peaceful protestors fatally, or using pellet guns to blind the civilians on a massive scale. India uses controversial sedition and terrorism laws long condemned by human rights organizations like Amnesty International as lawless laws to curb the dissent in Kashmir to detain peaceful civilians arbitrarily. Booking medical students over cricket match celebration in criminal cases under anti-terror laws is a heinous and harrowing human rights abuse. Nevertheless, the global silence over India's atrocities is more harrowing to maintain and forward its settler-colonial agenda. The crime of these students was nothing but to exercise their freedom of speech and expression. The families have appealed to the Government to release their loved ones. Freedom of speech is a fundamental human right according to the Universal Declaration of Human rights, Ban on freedom of speech is against article 19 (1)(a) of the Indian constitution that says, 'all citizens have the right to freedom of speech and expression.' 'Freedom of Speech and expression means the right to express one's own convictions and opinions freely by words of mouth, writing, printing, pictures, or any other mode.' India claims to be the largest democracy in the world. Yet, the world is silent over the lawless settler-colonial tactics of the world's 'so-called' largest democracy. Arresting medical and engineering students for supporting a particular sports team shows the fears of the Indian Government and frustration over their failure to colonize Kashmir successfully. According to independent estimates, India is using the brutal force of over 600,000 to 900,000 security forces in an area 132 km in length and 35 km in width, making it the most militarized region globally. Yet, the Indian Government is frustrated that this massive force can't discipline Kashmiris to support India in the cricket match. Using anti-terror laws to detain the civilian population is a shameless settler-colonial tactic arbitrarily, which should be condemned by the United Nations, governments, and human rights organizations worldwide. Tazeen Hasan is a research fellow and campaign lead against arbitrary detention at Justice For All Canada. Ayyoub Tayebi
Recently, Canada has once again been given a grim reminder of the country’s dark past. With the discovery of multiple mass graves at the sites of former residential schools across the nation, we have had to revisit the systemic racism, atrocities, and injustice the Indigenous population of Canada has been subject to. The Indian Residential School (IRS) system is one of the most egregious examples of this. Their role was “to kill the Indian in the child”, according to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP). Aboriginal children were taught to be ashamed of their culture and heritage in an attempt to assimilate them into Canadian culture. They were also victims of physical and sexual abuse and neglect at the hands of their “educators”, and yet there was little to no proper schooling involved. Such an experience at a young age is bound to have negative consequences on survivors’ mental and physical state. Sure enough, adults who were enrolled in the IRS are more likely to suffer from mental and physical health complications. This is in addition to the historical oppression that the First Nations have faced since these lands were colonized by European settlers. The Aboriginals’ territories were slowly and methodically encroached on, and by the time the dominion of Canada was formed in 1867, the aboriginals had already seen their holdings greatly reduced. The Canadian government continued to break treaties and seized even more land while pushing the natives to places less suited for agriculture and economic development. Hate crimes, racism, and discrimination also endured for centuries in Canada, and unfortunately we cannot say that these issues are behind us. Historical and Intergenerational Trauma It has become apparent that the negative effects of the IRS and the historical trauma that the Aboriginals suffered through are not limited to the individuals who experienced them. Intergenerational trauma (or transgenerational trauma) is when the effects of one generation’s negative experiences is passed down to the next, and this phenomenon is present within Aboriginal communities across Canada. Family members of IRS survivors are more likely to suffer from mental health problems like their parents than the children of Aboriginals who did not attend the schools. The IRS robbed future mothers and fathers of parenting skills and proper human interaction. They were also removed from their cultures and tribal teachings, stripping away an integral part of their identities. These issues have been passed on to the next generation of Aboriginals, creating a cycle of dysfunctional mental health/ family dynamics. Understanding the Issue Awareness about the historical plight of First Nations peoples is incredibly important to understand what exactly they have been and are going through. Thankfully, the Canadian education system is improving when it comes to teaching about the plight of the Indigenous peoples of Canada, with the news and media crucially filling in holes left out by the curriculums that still need improvement. Canadians have a personal responsibility of learning about the people who we live with and, in many cases, whose land we live on. It is imperative as knowing more about them helps us empathize and understand the situation many of them are in now. When we see the epidemic nature of drugs and alcoholism within indigenous communities (at rates much higher than the national average) we must understand that these are symptoms of an issue spanning generations. Many communities have been stuck in a cycle of poverty for decades and so cannot pull themselves out of the socio-economic turmoil that comes with financial insecurity. How To Move Forward The First Nations aren’t the only group of people to suffer from historical and intergenerational trauma; however, they haven’t been given the opportunity to treat the effects of the injustice that has plagued them for centuries. Internally, the Aboriginals have started to come together as a group to reignite their culture and mend their social fabric. They know their situation better than anybody and several Indigenous organizations work towards these goals. Currently, it seems they struggle to reach many Indigenous communities outside of reserves. The Canadian government has the greatest responsibility and ability to lift them out of this endless cycle of suffering. Ottawa needs to start atoning for its past actions by investing considerable sums of money into indigenous communities to try to improve the economic situation. The poverty that the Aboriginals were thrust into due to systemic racism and discrimination must be overcome so that they can heal from their past and current traumas. This brings us to the abysmal mental health coverage for Canadians in general. This needs to change as mental health issues run rampant within Indigenous communities and are both a symptom and cause of other socio-economic issues. Youth programs are also needed to help engage young aboriginals with school or in after school clubs to help them reconnect with their roots. Hypocritical apologies will not change the situation hundreds of thousands of Canadians are in. The Canadian government needs to take ownership of its crimes and begin making amends. We can garner more support for our cause by allying with those who already campaign for policies that focus on mental health and investment in oppressed minority communities. Organizers, activists, and concerned citizens must outline to the government that deflecting blame onto the Catholic Church will not excuse it of its participation in tandem with said institution in causing many of the issues Aboriginals face today. To not only do this but go the other way and continue to force the Aboriginals off their land in the name of economic development (see the Trans Mountain Pipeline) is absurd. Voters need to make clear this is a priority for many Canadians so that politicians will address it seriously and cease their lip service. As usual, it is only through coming together as a united front will we be able to make meaningful change. Taha Ghayyur is Executive Director and human rights advocate at Justice For All Canada.
Imagine being forced to evict your ancestral home by a man who is now the Prime Minister of your country. I recently heard from a prominent member of the Sri Lankan Muslim community in Canada about his mother's traumatic ordeal with the hospitals in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She was falsely diagnosed by one hospital to have Covid-19, due to which they would force her to stay in the hospital for 14 days (and pay ridiculous amounts of money) before they would operate on her for a medical condition. She was already traumatized, knowing that most of her Muslim friends who contracted COVID-19 ended up in ICUs and died in the same hospital. Many were cremated, against the Muslim tradition, despite an international outcry (Sri Lanka was the only country in the world that carried our mandatory cremations of Covid-19 deaths). Others had their Janazah (funeral prayers) done in faraway cities without family and friends. This is a result of ongoing systemic Islamophobia campaigns in Sri Lanka. Muslims are targeted for material gains in the guise of following Covid-19 protocols, and their lives and even deaths are not respected and honoured like others. This is yet another example of the medial inequities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic that impact racial and religious minorities around the world. The last two years have been exhausting for his mother for another reason, physically, emotionally, and socially. She, along with many others, were forcefully evicted from their ancestral homes, when the current Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was the Defense Secretary of the country at the time, planned to sell their lands in the heart of Colombo to Chinese businesses. People being evicted were dumped into tiny, overpriced apartments. His mother, being an active and a vocal member of the Muslim community in Colombo, resisted the eviction and refused to leave her ancestral land as their houses were being demolished. This prompted Mahinda Rajapaksa to visit his mother's house and personally threaten her to evict or be ready to face a gun on the head otherwise. This is an orchestrated Islamophobic campaign at play in Sri Lanka. These are heartbreaking stories we don't hear about. These are not isolated stories. It sounds very similar to a playbook used by human rights violators and genociders of other Muslim minorities around the globe. May God protect all the marginalized being evicted and targeted for their faith in their own indigenous lands, Ameen. You can learn more about the Sri Lankan Muslim human rights situation here: https://www.justiceforallcanada.org/srilankataskforce.html Author: Ayyoub Tayebi
In the past decade, the Chinese government has been quietly and methodically committing genocide against the ethnic Muslim-majority Uighur population of Xinjiang. It is no longer a discussion of whether this crime against humanity is occurring or not; there have been several reports and studies carried out by government bodies, independent thinktanks, and journalists that prove it, despite the best efforts of the Chinese Communist Party to conceal their actions. It is a testament to the vice-like grip it has on the country that an atrocity of such scale has been kept under wraps. Only relatively recently have the horrors that the Uighurs have been subject to come to light, which include mass forced sterilization, internment camps, sexual violence and forced labour. Within the camps and in their policies, the Chinese government also seeks to destroy the cultural and religious foundation of the Uighurs and their society. This is an effort to homogenize the population of the Xinjiang region, which is being flooded with ethnic Han Chinese from other parts of China in order to make the Uighurs a minority in their own homeland. This process is called Sinicization: a strategy implemented by the rulers of China for millennia. The native tribes of southern China were subject to it and so were the Mongolians living within the borders of the ancient empire, and now the Uighurs see themselves becoming the next victim of this systematic eradication and forceful assimilation. However, this is the 21st century. Human rights should be respected, and cultural genocide will not stand. Countries must take a stand for the values they claim to uphold. However, that is not a straightforward task, as the current situation is unique in terms of aggressor states. Most genocides in recent history have been committed by relatively poor or weak countries, such as Serbia, Rwanda, and Cambodia. On the other hand, China is an economic stronghold with a strong global trade influence. That does not mean we must stand by and watch like we did during the Rwandan genocide only to regret it later. We must find other methods to put an end to China’s actions. One such method is economic sanctions. It is what most states use when they want to punish a nation for violating international law. They have been devastatingly effective against countries like Russia and Iran, but again, China is another animal. China’s economy is closely tied to that of the world, so any restrictions placed on major industries will be detrimental to many nations. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that any will risk disrupting trade with the economic giant. This vested financial interest is also present within the U.N. as an organization, as China is one of its main sources of funding and therefore is less willing to bring the genocide to the member states’ attention. Like the United States, its superpower status allows it to flaunt international laws and regulations without facing much resistance. That does not mean they are invincible though, and economic sanctions can be useful if used effectively. One of the reasons the Chinese government is seeking to homogenize the Xinjiang region is because it has oil and gas resources they wish to exploit and don’t want the local population to get in the way of any endeavors they undergo in their homeland. Sanctioning Chinese companies and individuals (mainly energy corporations) investing/expanding into this region would slow the regime’s plans for the autonomous territory. If this underlying reason for the genocide is halted, then this could dissuade the government from continuing the costly and henceforth unnecessary genocide. Economic sanctions are slow to work and often impact the local population instead of the state, which is why this solution can prove to be problematic. There are other major ways countries can demand action against the Uighur genocide, chief among them recognizing it as such—a genocide. Some countries like the United States and Canada have already taken the lead in this regard. While recognizing the genocide may seem a relatively small action that holds no weight, they inspire other nations to do the same. Presently, many countries are afraid of retaliation if they speak out against China on the world stage. Therefore, a strong international condemnation is needed. The Chinese government can’t impose punitive measures against the entire world, as that would make them lose the world standing they have worked for decades to attain. Once it is faced with insurmountable pressure from all sides, it will have to decide between continuing persecuting the Uighurs or international endeavors such as its Belt and Road Plan, which would be dead in the water without support from nations around the globe. Another potential method is confiscating China’s vote in the General Assembly (the main organ of the U.N. where important matters are discussed and legislation is written). This too will only be symbolic in nature if it is done as a standalone measure. This is due to China having leverage over many small states, who must vote in favour of China at the General assembly in order to protect their own national interests. The vote confiscation would have to come with replacing China as their economic and military benefactor. Admittedly, this would require a great amount of effort and resources, but it would be worth it, as not only could this be used to stop the genocide, it will isolate China internationally, making it easier to punish them for other human rights abuses and breaches of international law. The Chinese government is ruthlessly pragmatic; the world must show the CCP that continuing the genocide is not in their best interests when considering China’s other geopolitical objectives. The direct pressure on China for its crimes will come from governments, but civilians also have a role to play in saving the Uighurs. The aforementioned potential solutions require various governments to make stopping the genocide a goal they are willing to fight for. Let’s not be naïve; they won’t do this out of the goodness of their hearts. Going against China is risky business, and states won’t do so unless they have reason to do so. Before the nations of the world put pressure on China, we citizens must put pressure on our governments to address the issue seriously. We must raise awareness and be outraged at the events occurring in Xinjiang and make it known that this cannot be happening in today’s world. Nowadays, we have many platforms on which to inform people of current events. Social media has risen recently as a considerably effective method of doing so. Seeing the buzz about these topics on social media, traditional media outlets will focus on these issues that have everyone so worked up, resulting in a positive feedback loop. From there, we can turn to petitions and peaceful protests. The genocide must be at the forefront of the popular conscience. The unrest is unlikely to force the governments’ hands, but they will not want to face domestic pressure for actions committed by another state. Peacefully stopping a genocide being committed by a superpower is no easy feat. There is no precedent for it, but giving up would be abandoning the Uighurs to a dire fate. Fortunately, there are methods that can be pursued, and as millions of lives hang in the balance, we should not hesitate to exhaust each one. Help spread awareness about the Uighur genocide anyway you can. Citations Canada, G. A. (2021, April 23). Canadian Sanctions Related to People's Republic of China. GAC. https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/international_relations-relations_internationales/sanctions/china-chine.aspx?lang=eng. Carnegie Council. (n.d.). How Can We Prevent Genocide? Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/education/008/expertclips/026. Kirgis, F. L. (1996, January 22). Enforcing International Law. ASIL. https://www.asil.org/insights/volume/1/issue/1/enforcing-international-law. Koplow, D. A. (2013). Indisputable Violations: What Happens When the United States Unambiguously Breaches a Treaty. Georgetown; Georgetown University Law Center. Samuel, S. (2021, March 10). China's genocide against the Uyghurs, in 4 disturbing charts. Vox. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22311356/china-uyghur-birthrate-sterilization-genocide. United Nations. (n.d.). Uphold International Law. United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/our-work/uphold-international-law. |