U.S.-based advocacy group Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) is calling on the United Nations to take action against China’s state-sanctioned practice of killing prisoners of conscience to supply organs for its lucrative transplant market.
The 76th session of the U.N. General Assembly began on Sept. 17 in New York City, as world leaders and foreign ministers gather to discuss issues such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.
DAFOH stated that China’s horrific practice should be on the agenda of the world body. It also called on participants of the U.N. summit to “treat this issue like any other crimes against humanity.”
“After more than two decades of forced organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners and other prisoners of conscience, DAFOH believes the UN has fallen short in taking the lead in stopping these crimes against humanity,” according to the press release.
China is one of the top destinations for those in need of vital organs as its transplant industry boasts an extraordinarily short waiting time. To explain such a phenomenon, the communist regime has claimed that there are many voluntary donors in China while locals have a low demand for transplant organs. Beijing has also said it relies on its national organ donation system to procure organs.
The report concluded that most of the organs came from Falun Gong adherents, while the remaining originated from other prisoners of conscience—House Christians, Uyghur Muslims, and Tibetans.
“Given the scope of China’s organ harvesting crimes with an unknown number of victims and the nature of the crime itself, a commercialized murder for transplants, condemning this inhumane practice remains an unfulfilled task for the largest organization in the world,” Trey added.
The United Nations, the Office of Spokesperson for the U.N. Secretary-General, and the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
They called on China to “promptly respond to the allegations of ‘organ harvesting’ and to allow independent monitoring by international human rights mechanisms.”