CONFERENCE ON THE CCP’S FORCED ORGAN HARVESTING – with opening remarks by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC
AUSTRALIAN SENATORS CALLED THE PRC’S ACTIONS “GENOCIDE”
(Canberra, ACT, 3/4/2021) — Speaking at the Conference on the CCP’s Forced Organ Harvesting on 2/24/2021, Australian Senator Eric Abetz called forced organ harvesting “barbaric,” which “the world [needs] to speak out against … with ever greater vigour.”
Senator Abetz, who is the Senate’s Chair of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee and Deputy Chair of Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee, also called the CCP’s actions against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang a “genocide.” He stated: “The CCP’s programme of forced organ harvesting is, unfortunately, only one of the many human rights abuses committed, along with the genocide carried out against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, the Social Credit System, the imprisonment of political dissenters, not to mention the violation of the U.N sanctioned Sino-British Joint Declaration in Hong Kong and the crushing of Hong Kongers’ freedom. Such contempt for human rights is an ugly reality for China’s people and an affront to the ideals of humanity.”
In his speech, Senator Abetz strongly affirmed that Australia will not comply with China’s pressure to “relent to its economic coercion and stay silent on its human rights abuses.”Addressing parliamentarians from Canada, European Union, Sweden, New Zealand, and United States, Senator Abetz added: “It is heartening that representatives from so many nations are here today. We know we can only affect change with greater awareness and a strong united voice. That’s why this conference is so important. The oppressed deserve nothing less.”
With that united voice another Australian senator, Senator Rex Patrick, urges fellow upper house members to call China’s treatment of the Uyghur Muslim minority a genocide, after similar parliamentary motions passed in Canada and the Netherlands. The US State Department has already declared that the PRC has committed genocide against the Uyghurs. Parliaments in UK, Belgium and Turkey are considering similar resolutions and legislations.
Australia’s proposed motion, placed on the Senate’s notice paper for March 15, also calls on the PRC “to immediately end torture and abuse in detention centres; abolish its system of mass internment camps, house arrest and forced labour; cease all coercive population control measures; and end the persecution of Uighurs and other religious and ethnic minorities in Xinjiang and elsewhere in China.” Commenting on the motion, Linh Nguyen, one of the conference organizers, expressed hope that “at least by rectifying words to correspond to reality, we can be on the right side of history and show our children that we have the moral clarity and conviction to keep humanity’s promise of Never Again.”
