UK: Statement from Dr Stephen Ladyman MP for World Human Rights Day

Freedom of association and freedom of thought are inalienable rights for all people. Practitioners of Falun Gong are as entitled to enjoy those rights in the Peoples of Republic of China as they are in the United Kingdom.

Repression of human rights, unfair imprisonment and torture are unacceptable anywhere and against any people in the 21st century and they have no place in any modern nation.

I call on the new leadership of the People’s Republic of China to demonstrate its real commitment to reform, and to show that China will take its place as a modern nation in the modern world, by respecting the rights and freedoms of practitioners of Falun Gong.

And I call on all nations, as they continue to build trading relations with China, and as we move towards the Olympic Games in Beijing, to use all their influence to insist on human rights reforms in the People’s Republic of China.

Steve Ladyman
MP for South Thanet