Human Rights Torch to make its way in China

PRESS RELEASE

CIPFG Launches One Million Signature Campaign
Announces Plans for Human Rights Torch Relay to Enter China

MWC: As part of its ongoing efforts to end the Chinese government’s brutal treatment of Falun Gong practitioners, the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) has begun a campaign to secure one million signatures on a worldwide anti-persecution petition. The signatures will be gathered ahead of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and will be presented to the International Olympics Committee, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, international human rights organizations, and various governments and parliaments around the world.

The global anti-persecution petitions will demand that the Chinese Communist regime immediately stop its persecution of Falun Gong, unconditionally release all Falun Gong practitioners in detention, and end suppression of righteous individuals who support Falun Gong, such as human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng.

Since CIPFG was established in 2006, it has continuously exposed, on an international level, the Chinese Communist dictatorship’s contravention of various international human rights conventions – such as the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – and its severe lack of respect for human dignity. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has ruthlessly persecuted and deprived the Chinese people of their fundamental rights, including freedom of speech, freedom of press, and freedom of belief. Despite promises the CCP made when awarded the 2008 Olympics, these violations have not improved in the least, but instead have worsened.

Throughout the last eight years, the CCP has committed chilling crimes against Falun Gong practitioners throughout Mainland China, including unscrupulous arrests; sentencing practitioners to forced labor camps; torture; murder; and organ harvesting from living practitioners. The persecution of Falun Gong is the most severe human rights disaster in China today.

In response to urgent requests from Mainland Chinese, the Human Rights Torch Relay (HRTR) flame will enter China in the spring of 2008. HRTR will then relay throughout China, which means there will be two Human Rights Torches relaying around the world simultaneously. This will allow the Chinese people who participate in this endeavor to voice their heartfelt calls for support to the international community.

The Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong invites people of good will around the world to join us in bringing an end to the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. For information about how you can help, please contact us at:

http://www.cipfg.org