E/CN.4/2005/61/Add.1
Page 19
68.
Moreover, reports indicated that the Party-appointed committees, also called
the mosque's "democratic management committee", must conduct regular sessions for
religious professionals and lay persons disseminating legal regulations and Party
policies. Such committees allegedly oversee activities in places of worship and are
also known to exist in Tibetan Buddhist temples.
69.
Finally, it was alleged that national-religious committees, which form part of
the administration of every city, also maintain control over the lives of believers.
Communities may only function once they have registered with the national-religious
committee, and their leaders have to be drawn from people whose candidacy has been
approved by the authorities. The leaders of all religious communities reportedly have
to attend meetings of the national-religious committees during which officials explain
to them what policy they should pursue with believers.
70.
The Special Rapporteur also brought to the Government’s attention
information she had received according to which, following what was believed to be
the largest survey to date on the extent to which the Chinese Government's Golden
Shield Internet firewall denies access to religious web sites, certain religious web sites
appear to be consistently blocked, although Chinese Internet users do have access to a
range of web sites based outside the country that cover religious themes in Chinese or
other languages. The tests that led to this conclusion were reportedly carried out from
mid-May to mid-July 2004 and monitored Internet access in a variety of locations in
China. The web sites to which access is reportedly automatically barred included
those relating to the persecution of Christians and other religious faiths, the Dalai
Lama, the Falun Gong religious movement, the Muslim Uigurs of Xinjiang and a
number of Catholic sites, including the web site of the Hong Kong diocese and the
Divine Word Missionaries in Taiwan. However, the web sites in European languages
covering religious freedom issues, including those covering repression within China,
were not blocked.
71.
It was further reported that, in an alleged attempt to help remove
"unacceptable" content from the web, the authorities launched a web site in June 2004
encouraging users to report "illegal" sites, including those on religious cult activity.
Reports indicated that while "reporters" were assured of the confidentiality of the
information they provided, they were warned that they would bear personal
responsibility for reporting erroneous information.
Observations
72.
The Special Rapporteur is grateful for the replies provided by the Government
on 31 December 2004 related to the communications of 15 and 19 October 2004. The
content of these replies, which are still being translated, will be reflected in next
year’s report.
73.
The Special Rapporteur still awaits a reply to her communication of 3
November 2004. In this regard, she would like to refer to the most recent concluding
observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination of 9
August 2001 (A/56/18, paras. 231-255) in which some members of the Committee
remained “concerned with regard to the actual enjoyment of the right to freedom of