Geneva, Switzerland, Sep 26, 2019 / 14:30 pm
The Chinese government is harvesting organs from religious and ethnic minorities, a human rights organization told the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday.
The China Tribunal, which calls itself an "independent, international people's tribunal" that investigates allegations of organ harvesting in the country, is led by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC. The tribunal said they found evidence that China is continuing to forcibly collect organs from political and religious prisoners, despite saying they stopped the practice four years ago.
"Forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience, including the religious minorities of Falun Gong and Uighurs, has been committed for years throughout China on a significant scale, and that it continues today," said Hamid Sabi, a lawyer for the China Tribunal speaking at the UN meeting.
The tribunal estimated that "hundreds of thousands" of people have been used to harvest organs, including hearts. This constitutes crimes against humanity, said Sabi, and is equivalent to genocide.