Ireland: Speech from Jim Loughlin of Amnesty International

This speech was given at Irish practitioners’ activities to commemorate four years of persecution on July 20th 2003.

China is a country that is governed by law. It’s a law that means that if you speak out and criticise the government, you can end up in a labour camp. If you’re a woman who has had more that one child, under the one child only policy, you can be forcibly sterilised or has happened in some cases, a woman can be locked in a room until she agrees to have an abortion. If you try to speak out and join an independent trade union, or if you take part in a religious vigil, you can end up in a labour camp. This is the kind of law China uses to repress and control the people. The government of China has only one criteria; it is to maintain power and to hold onto every aspect of life, and anyone who challenges that system is likely to suffer imprisonment, torture and possibly even death. Amnesty has documented thousands of cases of people who have suffered that fate. At the moment, there are more than 200,000 people in labour camps in China for crimes which are no longer even listed by the Chinese government as crimes. In the labour camp, people have to endure beatings, starvation and death and this happens on a daily basis. And as we speak, thousands of member of the Falun Gong movement face exactly that fate.

Amnesty International is calling on the government of China to take effective steps to stamp out torture, to allow freedom of expression and to abide by their commitments under international human rights law.

At the moment also, the government of China is trying to force new repressive legislation through the courts of Hong Kong, which would seriously restrict freedom of expression, freedom of association and the right to speak out publicly. All of us who are here believe in same things; we talk about human rights, but sometimes, we get caught up in the legal mechanics of the law, and the language of human rights. We forget what it is to simply be human, to have the right to live, to believe, to live our life on human terms and that is something that is being denied to people in China on a daily basis.

Amnesty International calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Feng Liu and the other members of the Falun Gong movement, who are currently being held in prison or under house arrest in China. And we hope that you as members of the public will lend your support to this campaign and continue to keep up the pressure on the government of China.

Thank you very much.