Vietnam Democracy Center Among 117 Organizations to Call Attention to the Practice of Forced Organ Harvesting

WASHINGTON, Feb. 10, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Forced organ harvesting is the practice of killing people for their organs. For the victims, who include political prisoners, Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghurs, it is not just the harvesting of their organs, it is also a harvesting of their life. For the rest of us, it robs us of our humanity and forever poisons our capacity of being human.

On 2/24/2021, 117 international organizations will call attention to this horrendous practice with an online conference on forced organ harvesting. The event will be co-hosted by The International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who led the prosecution of Slobodan Milo?evi?, former President of Serbia, at the UN's International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, will deliver the keynote speech on the findings of the China Tribunal.

Members of the media and the public are cordially invited to register at this link https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/7310088076264056077. The date and time for the conference at 4 major time zones are:

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 24, 2021, 04:00 PM - 05:45 PM ET

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 24, 2021, 01:00 PM - 02:45 PM PT

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 24, 2021, 10:00 PM - 11:45 PM CET

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 25, 2021, 08:00 AM - 09:45 AM AEDT

Prof. Wendy Rogers, M.D., Ph.D., one of Nature's 10 People Who Mattered in 2019 and Medscape's 2019 Physicians of the Year, will discuss the ethical responsibility regarding forced organ harvesting. Ethan Gutmann, a China Studies Research Fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and a well-published author, will give recent evidence of forced organ harvesting from Uyghurs. Dr. Sean Lin, Ph.D., communication director for Falun Dafa Association in Washington, D.C., will review the Falun Gong's experience of transplant abuse. Dr David Matas, an international human rights lawyer, author, researcher, and Senior Honorary Counsel for B'nai Brith Canada, will talk about the need for responses to these severe abuses. Kristina Olney, Director of Government Relations for Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, will present legislations in the US Congress to end the practice of forced organ harvesting.

Several parliamentarians from all over the world are also scheduled to give remarks. These include members of the US Senate and the US House of Representatives, the Canadian House of Lords and House of Commons, the European Parliament, and the New Zealand Parliament. The conference organizers also recognize the participation of the UN representatives for Mongolia and South Korea. With the attendance of several organizations representing the communities of victims, the organizers are cautioning that the conference's content may cause re-traumatization for some attendees.

The organizers hope this conference will shed more light on these crimes of unmatched wickedness. Transparency in itself is empowerment. What is needed now is the recognition that it is not just a Falun Gong or Uyghur issue, but humanity's problem. To stop such a terrible catastrophe, it requires nothing short of the whole of humanity to act.

Contact:
David Tran
9725870859
[email protected]

SOURCE Vietnam Democracy Center