For the past five years, DAFOH has been circulating a petition to the UN urging the High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate and help end forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China. More than 2.5 million people have signed the petition, making it one of the largest civil petitions in world history .

The UN has taken some initial steps towards addressing forced organ harvesting in China. In 2012, representatives from the NGO International Educational Development spoke about forced organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners at the UN Human Rights Council meeting. In 2014, at the UN’s headquarters in Geneva, Canada’s human rights adviser to the UN, Anne-Tamara Lorre, set a precedent during the Interactive Dialogue on Freedom of Religion when she acknowledged reports of unethical organ harvesting in China. Her comments prompted responses from specific countries and staunch denials by Chinese regime authorities who categorically rejected her comments.
Multiple sources of evidence for extensive forced organ harvesting, including eyewitness accounts and reports of implausible transplant numbers, made it clear to DAFOH that the Chinese state is involved in a massive program of killing on demand for organs. After repeated failures by the Chinese government to verify reform of the nation’s nefarious transplantation practices, DAFOH initiated the petition to the UN High Commissioner in 2012, recognizing that only international action would prompt real change in China.
The success of the petition is the result of strong support by volunteers around the globe who agree that China must not be granted immunity from human rights abuses.
DAFOH’s 2017 petition forms can be found at https://dafoh.org/petition-to-the-united-nations/.
Paper petition forms may be scanned and emailed to [email protected] and [email protected].