(Minghui.org) Continuing in the spirit of last week's International Human Rights Day events, a public rally was held on December 15 in Manly, a seaside area of metropolitan Sydney popular with locals and tourists alike. The topic of the rally: End the persecution of Falun Gong in China.
Councilor Jean Hay AM, mayor of Manly, spoke out against China's human rights abuses at the rally, citing China's lack of free media, independent university, independent worker unions, independent law system, and other basic human rights. She condemned the Chinese government for monitoring, threatening, and arresting social activists, writers, reporters, and human rights lawyers.
While calling for an end to the persecution of Falun Gong, Tibetan Buddhists, and other groups, she made the point that human rights and economic development do not conflict with each other, as they must go hand in hand.
Councilor Jean Hay AM, mayor of Manly, gave a speech at the rally.
David Barr, a former member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, said that a lot more needs to be done to improve human rights in China. He asked the public to pay attention to the plight of Falun Gong practitioners. Noting how these peaceful practitioners adhere to upright principles, he said it is truly sad that the Communist Party treats anything that differs from communist dogma as a threat.
Mr. Barr called upon the Australian government and people to exert pressure on the Chinese Communist Party, saying that too little has been done by the international community to improve human rights in China.
David Barr, a former member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, gives a speech.
Mr. John Deller, spokesman of the Falun Dafa Association in Australia, pointed out that although China won a three-year seat on the United Nation's Human Rights Council last month, the Chinese government continues to ignore human rights. The persecution of Falun Gong is the worst genocide, he said. Mr. Deller called on the Australian public to help stop the persecution.
Mr. John Deller, spokesman of Falun Dafa Association, speaks at the rally.
People sign a petition at the rally to help stop the persecution.
Many stop to view the information display at the rally.
Australia's Momentum to End Organ Harvesting
People sign the petition, condemning the organ harvesting
DAFOH initiated a global movement against organ harvesting in China earlier this year. From July to November, nearly 1.5 million people from 50 countries signed the petition . As a part of this effort, the Australian chapter of DAFOH submitted a petition with 27,000 signatures from the Australian public to the United Nation.
Special Broadcasting Service (SBS), one of five main free-to-air networks in Australia, interviewed Ms. Sophia Bryskine, member of DAFOH, during a International Human Rights Day event last week. She identified that one of the priorities of DAFOH is to inform all doctors in Australia about this heinous crime against humanity.
As a separate effort, David Shoebridge, Member of the Parliament for the State of New South Wales (NSW) submitted over 170,000 signatures to NSW Parliament in November to support a bill that he proposed last February: New South Wales Human Tissue Amendment (Trafficking in Human Organs) Bill 2013. Once passed, the bill will become an amendment to criminal law and illegal organ trafficking will be considered manslaughter. If convicted, one can be sentenced to imprisonment for up to 25 years.
DAFOH-Australia has also launched petition calling on Sydney University to retract the title of “honorary professor” issued to Huang Jiefu, the former Chinese Vice Minister of Health. Dr. Albert Lin, spokesman of DAFOH-Australia, said, “It is not acceptable to issue this honor to Huang, who had supervised organ harvesting for ten years as Vice Minister of Health.”
Ms. Ouyang, a doctor from Beijing, learned about organ harvesting in China during an event Falun Gong practitioners held outside the Sydney City Hall last week. She said she was actually not surprised by the news of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners.
She said, “When we learned anatomy in medical school, we used real human corpses. Once, the corpse on the table was even warm. I read a Chinese article, which emphasized that the organ must be harvested from living people, in order to keep a high success rate of transplant surgery. We were trained to be cruel when working with corpses.”
Related article (in Chinese)
Category: Rallies & Protests
