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2010 UN Report Highlights Falun Gong Persecution in China
Wed 1 Sep 2010 10:45 am filed by Keith Harris -
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2010 UN Report Highlights Falun Gong Persecution in China

Wed 1 Sep 2010 10:45 am filed by Keith Harris -

As in previous years, allegations of severe human rights violations in China were a significant component in reports presented at the 13th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, held in Geneva from March 1-26th. Three UN Special Rapporteurs detailed ongoing violations of Falun Gong Practitioners' human rights in their annual investigations and conclusions to the UN. The Rapporteurs included Manfred Nowak, whose mandate is to investigate torture; Asma Jahangir, whose mandate is freedom of religion and belief; and Margaret Sekaggya, who investigates the status of human rights defenders around the world.

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REPORT INTO ALLEGATIONS OF ORGAN HARVESTING OF FALUN GONG PRACTITIONERS IN CHINA

Human rights news

January 16, 2005
Civil Rights Movement Inspired By King
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Lecture Boston University
Delivered by John Hume
Ladies and Gentlemen, Distinguished Guests. It is a great honor to be asked to deliver the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. lecture here in Boston University, Dr. King's alma mater. I have long been a student of Dr. King and strongly believe that he was a prophet for this millennium. I believe his passion for peace will yet outlive man's weakness for war. I believe with him that what we achieve in the future will happen not through the weapons of war honed in the recent past century but through the moral force and wisdom which he embodied, a moral force and wisdom for which a strong foundation was laid in this very institution during Dr. King's days as a graduate student here at Boston University.

Martin Luther King dreamed of a land free from racial hatred and segregation. He strived for a country where service would replace suppression, and he endeavoured towards a world where leadership and non-violence would take its rightful place in the order of the world, removing exploitation and war.

Dr. Martin Luther King inspired all of us with his words and with his vision. His voice and his dream called the people of the United States to live up to the idealism of the true idea behind this country -E Pluribus Unum - from many we are one.......Those are the same words that inspired us to work for peace in Ireland and which describe the greatest peace building project in the history of the world - The European Union.

But - As you all know - Dr. King did not just create ideas. He did not merely promulgate a message. He did not hide behind the anonymity of the pen or the sanctity of the preacher's pulpit. He was a man of action, a man of dedication, and a man who bore the heavy burden of responsibility. He knew that this was a course that would not be easy.

And yet, he set out bravely on that course, inspired by his faith and by the ideas of common humanity, justice and love. While it is easy now to look back and to think that freedom and fairness would surely win out, the truth is that every day when Martin Luther King went to work he put himself in danger. He stood up to abuse of power and intolerance.

And still, despite the intimidation, the jailing and the beatings, he continued on his determined path of non-violence. He did this so that every American could be free and so that the message of love and non-violence would inspire those of us from afar who also dreamed of justice. Tragically, he would sadly pay the ultimate price on the way to realizing the bounty of democracy for this land.

And while we should mourn his passing and his loss, not only to those who loved him but also to all those he served without ever meeting, we must always remember. At a special time such as the Martin Luther King Holiday, we should remember his sacrifice and his legacy. But more importantly than that, we must strive every day to make his dream a reality. In our homes, in our communities, in our schools and in our governments, we must continue the struggle for respect, freedom and justice that he espoused so greatly.

Today more than ever, this is an obligation for Americans and for all of us around the world. Those triple evils of war, racism and poverty are with us today as much as ever. We must live by his values of compassion and dignity not only to our neighbors and our friends, but also to those we do not know in far away lands. We must even challenge ourselves, as Dr. King did, to strive for these highest of values even with our enemies and those who would hurt us. Otherwise, we hurt ourselves.

Our Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland took its lead from this part of the world. We believed in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King. We believed in inclusivity, not exclusivity. We believed that true unity among all the Irish people was unity based on agreement, not just unity of the soil. Those in the United States who struggled for justice were our example.

When I first entered public life as a young man in 1968, I was very heavily influenced by Martin Luther King as we started the Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland. I had read a lot of what he had said and quoted him regularly in my speeches.

“We Shall Overcome” became virtually a hymn to us and our party, indeed it is still sung every year at the end of our annual convention. Martin Luther King was a very inspirational leader and his philosophy is a philosophy that is very meaningful for any area where there is injustice, hatred and conflict, as there was in Northern Ireland.

Martin's dream for this great country of the United States - a new day where hope, justice and opportunity will replace hatred, division and despair - drove us in very dark times. Those are behind us now in Ireland, but we still have a long way left to travel. We all must stay true to our course and travel further each day.

As we enter the new century and new millennium we are living through one of the greatest revolutions in the history of the world. As a result of that major revolution in transport, technology and telecommunications we are living in a much smaller world and the peoples of the world are living much closer together and in more contact. For that reason we are in a stronger position to shape the world and one of our major objectives, therefore, should be to take the necessary steps to create a world without war or conflict. For that reason, we should study major examples of conflict resolution, identify their principles, and create the circumstances to apply those principles to any area of conflict in the world.

The European Union is an excellent example of conflict resolution and therefore the means of creating this union should be deeply studied. To put it mildly, I do not have a reputation as someone who has new and original thought in every speech, and one of the examples I like to use frequently is the story of my first visit to Strasbourg when I was elected to the European Parliament in 1979. I went for a walk and crossed the bridge from Strasbourg in France to Kehl in Germany. I stopped in the middle of the bridge and I meditated. I thought that there is France and there is Germany and if I had stood on this bridge thirty years ago after the end of the second world war - the worst half century in the history of the world with the slaughter of millions of human beings in two world wars - and if I had said don't worry, the historical conflicts of the peoples of Europe are ended and in a number of years you will all be united in a European Union, I might have been sent to a psychiatrist. Yet it happened and I thought that since the European Union is the best example in the history of the world of the ending of wars and conflict, its principles should be studied: And when studied it will be found that the three principles at the heart of the European Union can be applied to any area of conflict in order to achieve resolution. That's what you will find when you study the three principles at the heart of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, they are the three principles at the heart of the European Union. And what are they? Principle number one is respect for difference. When conflict is examined anywhere in the world what is it about? Difference. Difference, whether it is difference of race, religion, or nationality, is an accident of birth. No person chose to be born into any community. Therefore, why should difference be fought about, it is something that should be respected. There are not two people in this world who are the same. Difference is of the essence of humanity, therefore it is not something we should ever fight about. It is something we should totally respect. That obviously is a very simple statement, but if it were to be accepted in the whole world then it would make a major contribution to the end of conflict. That principle - respect for difference - is the first principle of the European Union.

The second principle is the establishment of institutions that respect those differences. There is a European Council of Ministers and every country has a representative on that council. There is a European Commission, and every country has a Commissioner and staff in the commission. The third institution is the European Parliament, where every member country has elected representatives.

The third principle is the most important - what I call the healing process. The representatives of all the people of Europe work together in their common interests - social and economic development. In other words, as I often say, they spill their sweat and not their blood. As they do they have broken the barriers of centuries resulting in a new Europe that is still evolving.

When historians look at the Good Friday Agreement of Northern Ireland, they will see the same three principles. Principle number one - respect for difference. The identities of both communities are fully respected in the Agreement. Principle number two - institutions that respect both identities. In order to do so, a legislature is elected by a system of proportional voting, not bullet voting for one candidate, in order to ensure that every section of society is represented in the Assembly. The Assembly takes this a step further and also elects the government by proportional voting and ensures that all of the people have representatives in government. When those institutions are firmly in place, the third principle - the healing process - will go into action and will ensure that the representatives of all sections of our people will be working together in their common interests - social and economic development - rather than waving flags at one another or using bombs and guns against one another. They will be, as I have often repeated, spilling their sweat and not their blood, breaking down the barriers of centuries as our common humanity transcends our difference and in a generation or two, once this process gets underway, a new Ireland will evolve based on agreement and respect for difference.

Those are three very simple and fundamental principles, but they are very profound. Indeed, something which is rarely mentioned is that they are the exact same principles espoused by the founding fathers of the United States of America. I first learned them when I went to visit the grave of Abraham Lincoln and I saw written there a summary of that philosophy, which in my opinion could create peace in the entire world today. That summary is three Latin words - E Pluribus Unum - In other words from many we are one, the essence of our unity is respect for diversity. When outsiders look at the United States they see tremendous diversity given the many countries from which the population has come from, yet the institutions of the United States were built to respect diversity. Presidents cannot be Presidents for their entire life, only for a fixed period of time. The same principles also apply to many Governors and Mayors. No one branch of government has outright power. In other words the leadership of the United States, even though it is an enormous country, work together in their common interest.

That is a philosophy that the whole world needs today. As I have already said, because we are today living in a much smaller world because of technology, telecommunications and transport, it is a world that we are in a stronger position to shape. There is no doubt that the European Union and the United States of America by coming together could give the best and most powerful leadership in shaping the world. The time has come as we enter the new century and the new millennium to create a world in which there is no longer any war or conflict; no longer a world in which human beings kill one another.

And of course the best way to achieve that is for the largest countries in our smaller world today to work strongly together to promote dialogue in areas of conflict, particularly about the three principles in order = to create a world in which areas of division will respect their differences, build institutions that do so and work together in their common interests. I believe that this is the great challenge facing our generation and naturally I hope that the challenge will be taken up and we will have a world of the future in which there is no longer any war or conflict. Let us create a world in which E Pluribus Unum is a summary of that philosophy of the entire world.

Ladies and gentlemen, let us hope now that we shall overcome.

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