Clarifying Truth in the United Nations Human Rights Offices

Clarifying Truth in the United Nations Human Rights Offices

A Practitioner from San Diego

[PureInsight.org] Three years ago, for the purpose of systematically submitting cases of persecution of Falun Gong to the United Nations (UN) human rights mechanisms, we established the Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group. Here I just share some of our experiences throughout the last three years.

It is necessary to first point out that before the establishment of our group, some United States practitioners and Geneva practitioners had already done a lot in this area. Our project is based on the solid foundation that they laid down.

Part One: Systematic Submission of Persecution Cases to the UN Human Rights Apparatus

Towards the end of the year 2000, several practitioners began to consider filing lawsuits against the individuals and institutions that participate in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. Through some effort, we were able to locate and contact several human rights lawyers. However, through our interactions with them, we found that they did not really understand this persecution. This was manifested itself in two ways. First, they had no idea about the extent and severity of the persecution. One of the lawyers said to us after we gave him a long presentation, "I have heard about the persecution of Falun Gong, but I never knew that it is so severe." Secondly, they did not understand the nature of the persecution, and treated it as simply another typical human rights issue or instance of religious intolerance and persecution. Because of their lack of understanding, they were not particularly enthusiastic about helping us. And, these lawyers are lawyers who were supposed to have a particular interest in human rights issues. If even they did not pay much attention to the persecution, what can we expect from others?

At that time, the evil's lies and denials of human rights violations also influenced some people. We wondered, "How can we clarify the truth and expose the evil more effectively and in-depth?" We tried several ways. In the process, we got to know more about the UN human rights systems, and systematically studied their mechanisms. The UN have a fair and complete set of human rights mechanisms, and the special rapporteurs assigned to lead these mechanisms have the responsibility to take note of, investigate, and report situations of severe violations. Their reports are authoritative and independent, and could be very convincing and helpful to our truth clarification. These were some of the positive results that we could see at that time. However, when we discussed whether to initiate this project, we had two main concerns: whether there was still enough time left and whether it would cost too much of our energy. At that time, the persecution had gone on for almost two years, and the UN project was a slow process and would take a long time to show any results. Would the Fa rectification finish before we even see the fruition of this project? The UN project would also be a long-term commitment, once we started it, it would require high maintenance and persistent effort. Would it drag us down and forestall us from participating in other more important projects? Looking back, we find now that these were all notions and selfish thoughts, but they did exist in our minds. Through our discussions, we realized that if we did not start the project, how would we feel one year later if we ask the same question of "whether it is too late?" How would we feel at that time if we realize that "Oh, we would have been doing this for a year already had we started a year ago?" What kind of regret would we feel? As for the question of persistence, if practitioners in China can persist in jails, couldn't we persist in submitting the reports that they had suffered for and risked so much to send out? So after a few months of discussion and preparation, we began to submit violations cases in the name of the Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group.

The beginning of an undertaking usually is the most difficult. Nowadays there are many human rights issues. There are also many cases submitted to the United Nations human rights mechanisms. Why should they pay attention to us as the new kid on the block? Would they even trust us and the information we supplied? The case submissions had to satisfy the criteria designed by these offices. Did our submitted cases satisfy their requirements? Would they ignore our cases because we were not familiar with their system? These were the first hurdles we sought to overcome quickly. So after we prepared and submitted some cases, we paid a visit to the UN High Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, and tried to interact with the special rapporteurs and their assistants face to face.

As soon as we were there, we could see all the things that could go wrong did go wrong. Some offices did not understand us, and did not even look at our cases. For example, when we visited the assistants to the special rapportuer on human rights defenders, they were very perplexed; "Falun Gong is not a human right group, right?" "Yes," we explained to them, "However, everyone who has a concern in human rights causes knows that the first and the most difficult step in ending a persecution is the exposure of the persecution. Falun Gong practitioners' peaceful persistence to their rights not only have revealed the current persecution, but also highlighted the overall human rights problem in China. Isn't that in itself already a great contribution to and a defense of human rights?" We also used the examples of Chen Zixiu's daughter and Zhao Ming to show how they had risked their own safety to defend others' rights. They finally agreed that our cases were indeed suitable for their office, and have since reported quite a few of our cases.

Some offices did report a few of Falun Gong cases, but were reluctant to do more. In one office, there was a thick stack of Falun Gong cases not being processed. The staff member there tried to find an excuse and told us that there were too many Falun Gong cases, and she could not just work on Falun Gong cases. We realized that in addition to submitting cases, we needed to help these staff members have righteous minds. We explained to them that the cases we submitted were only a very small fraction of what was really going on, and we asked them, "Doesn't the number of cases show the severity of the situation, or in other words, the more cases, the more you should pay attention?" As we talked, other practitioners helped to send forth righteous thoughts, and finally we changed her attitude. Through this, I realized the importance of having a righteous mind. Yes, we were there to submit cases and hoped to get their attention. However, we were not there to beg for their help, because these cases were also their work and their responsibility.

Some offices had ignored our cases because of a formula. I remember in several offices, the assistants pointed to several stacks of papers and told us, "Those are all Falun Gong cases." When we asked if they had acted on them, we were told that they did not because they did not know nor trust the source, and that the formula was not right, etc. We then showed them the cases we newly prepared following their formula, and asked them to point out what we might be doing wrong or missing. We also told them that they could count on us to be a consistent source of cases and information.

In Geneva, we also discovered a problem that we did not foresee, that is, the evil spread its lies inside the UN human rights institution. Some of the staff there had misunderstanding towards us, some even tried to make us give up our effort. We clarified the truth to them, and kept strengthening our righteous thoughts. One time when we visited an office, a young staff member asked, "We heard Falun Gong was a xx. Is that true?" We took advantage of her question to ask for the permission to set up a small forum to give a brief introduction to Falun Gong. Several staff members were quite happy to learn about the facts.

Some officials or staff were influenced by the evil lies, and did not act on our cases. Once we visited the chairman of a working group. He had visited China in 1999, and clearly had misunderstandings and apathy towards us. We tried to create opportunities to talk to him. Even when he took breaks from meetings, we tried to talk to him. Finally we had a second meeting with him. We clarified the truth to him, and sent forth righteous thoughts. He quickly changed and told his assistants to pay attention to our cases.

At times we wondered if we were too aggressive in making our requests. One practitioner from Sweden with her Celestial Eye open told us, however, that she saw the whole building entangled by a giant octopus and filled with evil elements. We realized that if we did not actively clarify the truth and help these people to position themselves well, all of them could be eliminated after the advent of the Fa rectification.

With our collective efforts, we were able to get seven additional UN offices to work on and report on our cases.

Through this process, we experienced the importance of the quality of our work. To do the best we can, we must learn about different offices, how they work, their emphases, their formulas, and how to select cases that best fit them. We must also pay attention to the quality and presentation of our cases, and make them credible. With our collective effort, within a short time, we overcame the early hurdles, and no longer need to worry about formulas or criteria.

As with all other Fa rectification projects, persistence is critical. Although only a small portion of our cases had been taken up by the UN mechanisms, which at times made us wonder if our effort was worthwhile, we dared not to let down our effort. It was our consensus that even if this could help one practitioner in China, it would be worthwhile.

Because of the courage and persistence of practitioners in China, we are able to continuously provide detailed and credible information to the UN, and have established very good relationships with various human rights offices. Their intervention, in turn, directly results in pressure on the Chinese government, and this is apparent from the responses that the Chinese government gave to the special rapporteurs. For this reason, the evil has continuously tried to undermine our efforts. The most obvious sign is that whichever office has intervened on a significant number of our cases, the assistants to the special rapporteur will then be replaced. At the early stage of our project, this indeed caused significant difficulty to the continuity of our effort, because we had to start over with a new assistant who was not familiar with our situation. Only with persistent effort can we deny this arrangement. As Fa rectification progresses, the evil becomes weaker and weaker and cannot control people. Many new assistants picked up our cases right away, and more and more of our cases have been used. This year when we visited Geneva again, a new assistant that we never met before said to a practitioner, "You are the most persistent person I have ever met."

Looking back, our efforts have not been in vain. We already know of a few cases in which practitioners were released after the intervention by the special rapporteurs. At the same time, our cases have also helped some UN human rights officers to know the truth and reject the Chinese government's lies. One assistant stood up to Chinese government pressure and insisted on reporting Falun Gong cases. Several other assistants have been removed from their positions, but have positioned themselves well for the future. A lawyer who helped us to start the UN project made several strong statements in the UN against the evil, including characterizing the persecution as state terrorism, and exposing the staged self-immolation incident.

The process also helped me to understand the evil nature of the persecution. When working on some cases of so-called "transformation," I had the opportunity to interview several victims and understand what they went through. I realized to make beings to commit sins against Dafa is the old forces' only method for destroying lives. Physical destruction can only destroy lives in this dimension, not their true lives. Why does the evil force people to transform people or to deceive them into hating Dafa? It is to destroy lives from their origins, their yuan shen (Master Soul). Nothing is more evil than this.

Part Two: Clarifying the Truth to the UN Human Rights Commissioners

The annual meeting of the UN Human Rights Commission is an important human rights event. It is also a good opportunity for us to clarify the truth, as every UN member country has representatives present. In the past, we had been focusing on democratic countries that we thought would support human rights, and largely stayed away from governments that have close relationships with the Chinese government. This year, however, we have made important breakthroughs, which I would like to share from my own perspective.

There is one special rapporteur from a former communist country. She had repeatedly refused to take up Falun Gong cases. Because of this, I once raised a question to her in a public meeting. Ever since then, we did not see eye to eye with one another. This year, I learned that she would be leaving her mandate. I had an internal struggle. Part of me did not want to let go of my pride and talk to her, and part of me wanted to talk to her to remove her misunderstanding towards Dafa. On her last day there, I finally gathered enough courage and approached her. She was guarded at the beginning and said she had only five minutes to talk, but after I talked to her for a few minutes, she told me that she had twenty minutes. After listening to me for a while, she suddenly asked, "Why do you encourage people to commit suicide?" I was startled, and asked why she would think so. She told me that the Chinese ambassador to the UN told her so. It became clear to me why she avoided our cases, at the same time I felt fortunate to have the opportunity to clarify the truth to her. At that point, another practitioner joined, and in less than ten minutes, we were able to change her attitude towards Dafa. This was probably the most important moment for me inside the UN. I suddenly understood the statement, "How many lives can a Dafa disciple save?" I further thought about how many more lives can a well-cultivated Dafa disciple save. However, I have cultivated so poorly; even at home I have often shouted at my wife, and have been dragged down by some low attachments for a long period of time. How far away I am from being a good practitioner! This incident was a breakthrough for my personal cultivation as well as for truth clarification. Since then, I am able to talk to representatives from human rights-violating countries such as Cuba, Ethiopia, and Toga..

One day after that incident, I needed to borrow something from my neighbor in the hotel I was staying in. When I returned what I borrowed from him, I thought that I should leave my benevolence with him, so I gave him a chocolate bar as a gift. He was very happy and started a conversation with me. To my surprise, he was a former ambassador from a country to China, and was that country's current representative to the UN. As the conversation quickly led to the subject of Falun Gong, he also asked about suicide, which he heard about from the Chinese ambassador. The next night, I visit him again and showed him the "False Fire" VCD. Five minutes into the show, he was visibly angry, and began to speak with his associate loudly. I could not understand their language, but I could see they were upset. The ambassador finally said to me, "This is lies and hatred. They deceived me, made me think badly about Falun Gong." I could see that nobody likes to be lied to. A few months later, I read from the news that this ambassador was assassinated, and despite the tragedy of his death I was glad that he was able to know some of the facts before he passed away.

I shared those two incidents with other practitioners in the UN, and we organized two showings of "False Fire" and passed out many VCDs. The effect was very good.

In our truth clarification efforts in the UN, practitioners paid attention to clarifying the truth about the evil nature of the persecution, and to help both representatives and NGO members to understand how the persecution affects them. In our speeches, we not only talked about the persecution practitioners have suffered, but also pointed out that the police, the torturers, those who were deceived into harboring hatred towards practitioners are secondary victims. We further pointed out that our conscience and common values, the international society as well as humanity as a whole had become the third victims of the evil's coercion. Many noticed the benevolence of practitioners and how they spoke from the perspective of others' well being. Some NGO members pointed out that the conscience we talked about should be the ethical standard of the UN.

Thanks to Master's mercy and to fellow practitioners' efforts, I have had the opportunity to participate in this Dafa project. The above events occurred quite a while ago. Just a few days before I came to this Fahui, I read Master's most recent poem (From: "On Reading Weathering the Storm" July 19, 2004). The last sentence, "Cease not your steps on the path of return" really shook me up. I realized that lately not only have I ceased my steps, but I have actually fallen down. So many things that I should have done but did not, so many opportunities missed, are all because I have slackened off. As for the UN project, there are at least four areas that can be improved up: 1) coordinate better with practitioners from different countries to bring the truth to more countries; 2) coordinate better with other projects to maximize cooperation and cohesiveness; 3) provide more information to the UN, in addition to cases, and systematically clarify the truth; 4) bring reports from UN to the media to maximize the exposure of evil. We welcome suggestions in all these areas, and hope more practitioners can join us or give us support.