United States Congress House Concurrent Resolution 218

Whereas Falun Gong is a peaceful and nonviolent form of personal belief and practice with millions of adherents in China and elsewhere;

Whereas the Government of the People’s Republic of China has forbidden Falun Gong practitioners to practice their beliefs;

Whereas this prohibition violates China’s own Constitution as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

Whereas thousands of ordinary citizens from all over China have been jailed for refusing to give up their practice of Falun Gong and for appealing to the government for protection of their constitutional rights;

Whereas there are many credible reports of torture and other cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment of detained Falun Gong practitioners;

Whereas the People’s Republic of China has enacted new criminal legislation that the government’s official newspaper hailed as a “powerful new weapon to smash evil cultist organizations, especially Falun Gong” ;

Whereas some of the detained Falun Gong members have been charged with political offenses, such as violations of China’s vague “official state secrets” law, and under the new legislation Falun Gong practitioners will be chargeable with such offenses as murder, fraud, and endangering national security;

Whereas other Falun Gong members have been sentenced to labor camps, apparently under administrative procedures allowing such sentences without trial;

Whereas Chinese authorities in recent months have reportedly confiscated, burned, or otherwise destroyed millions of Falun Gong books and tapes;

Whereas thousands of Falun Gong practitioners in China have lost their jobs and students have been expelled from schools for refusing to give up their beliefs; and

Whereas the brutal crackdown by the Chinese Government on Falun Gong is in direct violation of the fundamental human rights to freedom of religious belief and practice, expression, and assembly: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that–

(1) the Government of the People’s Republic of China should stop persecuting Falun Gong practioners; and

(2) the Government of the United States should use every appropriate public and private forum, including but not limited to the United Nations Human Rights Commission, to urge the Government of the People’s Republic of China–

(A) to release from detention all Falun Gong practitioners and put an immediate end to the practices of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment against them and other prisoners of conscience;

(B) to allow Falun Gong practitioners to pursue their personal beliefs in accordance with article 36 of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China; and

(C) to abide by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Transcript of complete floor debate can be found here.