China accused of harvesting organs from minorities
- 5 years ago
BEIJING — A senior lawyer has urged the United Nations to investigate the issue of forced organ harvesting in China.
In a speech to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Sept. 24, Hamid Sabi presented evidence from the China Tribunal, a panel looking into the issue of organ harvesting in China.
He stated that hundreds and thousands have fallen victim to organ harvesting, mainly members of Falun Gong, a spiritual group, as well as the Muslim Uyghur minority ethnic group.
Falun Gong has been banned in China since 10,000 members staged a silent protest outside the headquarters of the ruling Communist Party in Beijing in 1999.
Hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs have been detained by the Chinese government and sent to reeducation camps since 2019, the New York Times reports.
In a report released by the China Tribunal, the panel said organ harvesting involves cutting out the heart and other organs such as the kidneys, liver, lungs, cornea and skin from prisoners of conscious.
The organs are then offered to patients who have to wait as little as two weeks to receive a transplant.
In comparison, the report noted that patients in other parts of the world have to wait months or years to receive an organ transplant.
China has repeatedly denied accusations of forced organ harvesting and claims that it stopped extracting organs from executed prisoners in 2015, Reuters reports.
In a speech to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Sept. 24, Hamid Sabi presented evidence from the China Tribunal, a panel looking into the issue of organ harvesting in China.
He stated that hundreds and thousands have fallen victim to organ harvesting, mainly members of Falun Gong, a spiritual group, as well as the Muslim Uyghur minority ethnic group.
Falun Gong has been banned in China since 10,000 members staged a silent protest outside the headquarters of the ruling Communist Party in Beijing in 1999.
Hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs have been detained by the Chinese government and sent to reeducation camps since 2019, the New York Times reports.
In a report released by the China Tribunal, the panel said organ harvesting involves cutting out the heart and other organs such as the kidneys, liver, lungs, cornea and skin from prisoners of conscious.
The organs are then offered to patients who have to wait as little as two weeks to receive a transplant.
In comparison, the report noted that patients in other parts of the world have to wait months or years to receive an organ transplant.
China has repeatedly denied accusations of forced organ harvesting and claims that it stopped extracting organs from executed prisoners in 2015, Reuters reports.