A/HRC/4/21/Add.1 page 31 Beijing. On 19 June 2006, he was assigned to two and a half years re-education through labour in connection with his activities as a member of the Falun Gong spiritual movement by Beijing’s Re-education through Labour Committee, which has the power to impose periods of arbitrary detention without charge or trial. He was accused of “resisting the implementation of national laws” and “disturbing social order” on the basis of evidence including a verbal confession he made to the police and 80 copies of Falun Gong literature discovered in his home. He is due to be released on 18 November 2008. 121. Despite repeated requests to the authorities, his family has not been told where he is being detained although unconfirmed reports have been received that he may have been transferred to Tuanhe Re-education through Labour facility in Beijing on 21 August 2006. There are concerns that he is at risk of torture or other ill-treatment. Bu Dongwei had previously served a term of ten months re-education through labour from August 2000 to May 2001 in Tuanhe for ‘using a heretical organization to disrupt the implementation of the law’ after he petitioned the authorities asking them to review their ban on Falun Gong. During this period, he was reportedly beaten and made to sit all day in a small chair. He was also subjected to sleep deprivation aimed at forcing him to renounce his belief in Falun Gong. Response from the Government dated 28 November 2006 122. At the time this report was finalized, this reply was still in the process of being translated. Denmark Communication sent on 24 November 2005 with the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance 123. The Special Rapporteurs were informed that cartoons representing the prophet Muhammad in a defamatory and derogatory manner were published in the newspaper JyllandsPosten in the course of September 2005. It was reported that the series of cartoons were published after a writer complained that nobody dared illustrate his book about Muhammad. Following the publication, two cartoons illustrators allegedly received death threats. 124. The Special Rapporteurs, while believing that limitations to the freedom of expression have to be applied in a restrictive manner, expressed their concern regarding actions that seem to reveal intolerance and absence of respect for the religion of others, particularly in the aftermath of 11 September 2001. Such actions may also constitute threats to the religious harmony of a society, and the source of incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence on the basis of religion which are prohibited by article 20 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. 125. The Special Rapporteurs requested the Government to provide them with information as to whether the facts alleged in the summary of the case were accurate, whether a complaint had been lodged by or on behalf of the persons affected by the consequences of these publications and whether any judicial or administrative decision had been taken so far. The Special Rapporteurs also requested information about the existing policy measures to promote religious tolerance and the ones to closely monitor that kind of developments.

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