A/HRC/7/10/Add.1
page 13
His family members make frequent visits and have expressed their satisfaction with the work of
the prison staff. There is no question here of Mr. Hongwei being subjected to ill-treatment or of
his family being refused permission to visit him.
Observations
37.
The Special Rapporteur is grateful for the Government’s response and she would like to
refer to her previous observations (see above para. 26).
Urgent appeal sent on 22 December 2006 jointly with the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the
Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
38.
The Special Procedures mandate holders brought to the attention of the Government
information they had received concerning Mr. Cao Dong, a Falun Gong practitioner. According
to the information received, on 21 May 2006, Mr. Dong met with the Vice-President of the
European Parliament, Mr. Edward McMillan-Scott, in Beijing. Following this meeting, he was
arrested and transferred to the Gansu Province State Security Bureau Detention Centre. On 29
September 2006, Mr. Dong was charged with “producing Falun Gong material”. His current
whereabouts are unclear and his family has not been allowed to visit him since the arrest. Gansu
local authorities informed Mr. Dong’s family that he will be on trial soon. Mr. Dong has
previously been placed in administrative custody for being a Falun Gong practitioner.
Observations
39.
The Special Rapporteur regrets that she has not received a reply from the Government
concerning the above mentioned allegation. She would like to refer to her predecessor’s
conclusions and recommendations after his country visit (E/CN.4/1995/91, page 133): “The
Special Rapporteur considers that there must be no interference with religious activity falling
within the scope of the 1981 Declaration. At all events, there must not be any surveillance of a
kind to infringe the right to freedom of belief and to manifest one’s belief. With regard to sects,
the Special Rapporteur particularly wishes to point out that the 1981 Declaration protects not
only religion, but also theist beliefs and that article 1, paragraph 3, of that Declaration states that
freedom to manifest one’s religion or belief may be subject only to such limitations as are
prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health or morals or the
fundamental rights and freedoms of others.”
Communication sent on 25 January 2007 jointly with the Special Rapporteur on the
question of torture.
40.
The Special Rapporteurs sent a letter to the Government of the People’s Republic of
China as a follow-up to a communication sent on 11 August 2006 (see A/HRC/4/21/Add.1, paras.
107-111). To this communication China had sent a response on 28 November 2006 (see
A/HRC/4/21/Add.1, paras. 112-118), in which however the following issue was not addressed. It
was reported that there were many more organ transplants than identifiable sources of organs,
even taking into account figures for identifiable sources. Moreover, the reportedly short waiting
times that had been advertised for perfectly-matched organs would have suggested the existence
of a computerised matching system for transplants and a large bank of live prospective donors. It
was alleged that the discrepancy between available organs and numbers from identifiable sources
was explained by organs harvested from Falun Gong practitioners, and that the rise in transplants