Greater London Assembly Supports Falun Gong

On 20 December 2000, the Greater London Assembly passed a motion (without opposition) supporting the human rights of Falun Gong practitioners. The motion called on the People's Republic of China to abide by Article 18 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights and allow its people to manifest their belief in Falun Gong.

The motion said:

"This Assembly strongly supports Article 18 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that everyone has the right to manifest these in public or in private, in teaching, practice, and worship.

This Assembly notes that London is a city renowned for its cultural and religious diversity and encourages the values outlined in Article 18, and that Falun Gong is a Chinese spiritual movement centred around the practice of meditation.

This Assembly calls on the Chair to write to the Chinese Ambassador to condemn the Chinese Government for its policy of suppressing the Falun Gong movement, by means of harassment, arbitrary detentions, unfair trials, torture and murder."

The motion was put forward by councillor Brian Coleman, to whom our practitioners have been supplying information over a period of months.