European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) Hosts Conference:
“Organ Harvesting in China: Europe Must Act Now.”
President Malosse: “Organ harvesting in China is a scandalous practice.”
A landmark conference condemning forced organ harvesting in China was held by the influential European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) on March 19th, 2014 in Brussels, with Committee President Henri Malosse calling China’s brutal, involuntary forced organ harvesting from prisoners “scandalous.”
The conference, entitled “Organ Harvesting in China: Europe Must Act Now,” was well attended and fully supported by the EESC. President Malosse called on leaders of the European Union to take up the issue with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his visit to Brussels in March.
“Using body parts from prisoners of conscience, executed persons and minority groups, to be sold in China or outside the country, is a disgrace to humanity and should end immediately,” President Malosse said.
Speakers included members of the European Parliament, representatives from NGOs, and lawyers and doctors working to end the practice while calling for global respect for fundamental human rights in China. The speakers affirmed that trafficking in human organs violates universal medical ethics and international human rights standards adopted by the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the World Medical Association, the Transplantation Society and other international organizations.
The central theme of the conference was the need for an immediate end to forced organ harvesting, as well as cooperation from China in providing accurate information about organ sources and transplant operations to the international community. The speakers called on China to introduce new legislation to this effect, as well as adopt established international medical standards governing organ procurement and transplantation.
The speakers and participants supported the European Parliament Resolution on organ harvesting in China, passed on December 12, 2013, which recognizes the evidence that minority groups, especially the traditional spiritual group Falun Gong, have been particularly targeted by the practice of forced organ procurement in China.
The conference, and Malosse’s strongly articulated position, are important acknowledgments of the extensive research that has been done to uncover these ongoing abuses of basic human rights. The work of this influential committee makes all the more potent the EU Parliament’s expressed determination to see an end to forced organ harvesting.
The EESC conference official press release.
Post conference press release from EESC.
