During the final weeks of December 2018, the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) released a new report which confirms that doctors were involved in organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners. The report came to light a matter of weeks after a people's tribunal, under the name of the Independent Tribunal Into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners Of Conscience in China (the China Tribunal) opened its doors. The China Tribunal ran for three days with the aim of exploring the issues surrounding organ harvesting in China. During the hearings, the panel heard the evidence of approximately 30 witnesses and experts on the topic. The China Tribunal anticipates conducting further hearings in early 2019 to provide a forum for discussion on the growing evidence of atrocities. Up to three hundred supporters of the practice of Falun Dafa march through the city center of Vienna, Austria on October 1, 2018, to protest against importing of human organs from China to Austria. The China Tribunal has already released an interim decision on the evidence available to date. The members of the China Tribunal unanimously agreed that in China, forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience has been practiced for a substantial period of time involving a very substantial number of victims.” Such vagueness of the interim judgment is to be expected when you consider the nature of the crimes that are reported to have been committed. The business of organ harvesting is not leaving many witnesses to tell their stories. The China Tribunal identified several human rights violations, including breaches of the right to life in Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right to be recognized before the law (Article 6), the right for equality before the law (Article 7), the right not to be subject to arbitrary arrest (Article 9), the right to fair trial (Article 10), the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty (Article 11), and the right to be free from torture (Article 5). The China Tribunal has not yet answered the question of whether crimes under international law have been committed. Violation of some of the international crimes that are alleged to have been committed could only be established by a properly empowered international tribunal, although the China Tribunal should have the capacity to at least identify their concerns. The China Tribunal also collected evidence from witnesses and experts that may help with any further action taken to address the issues that surround organ harvesting and any crimes committed by those that take part in the practice. A final judgment is expected in early 2019. In its interim judgment, the China Tribunal said that “Dangerous concepts of sovereignty that might now allow other countries to do within their borders to their own citizens what they pay no regard to humanity being a single family protected by essential and codified rights. These concepts have to be confronted and by confronting them with clear and certain decisions, such as ours concerning forced organ harvesting, real benefits may follow.” This is a call for international action to investigate the atrocities and prosecute the perpetrators. However, currently, there is no international court with jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute the atrocities perpetrated within the territory of China. China is not a signatory to the Rome Statute and so the International Criminal Court (the only permanent international criminal court in existence) does not have territorial jurisdiction over the atrocities perpetrated in China. The UN Security Council could establish an ad-hoc criminal tribunal to look into the atrocities. However, any such step by the UN Security Council would be blocked by Chinese veto (China, as one of the permanent five, has a veto right that blocks any proceedings at the UN Security Council). Understandably, the China Tribunal cannot fully investigate the crimes and prosecute the perpetrators. However, what the China Tribunal can do is shed light on the atrocities and trigger actions to be taken by the international community. At this stage, the China Tribunal has not confirmed whether any crimes under international law have been committed. Yet, based on the witness and expert testimonies heard by the China Tribunal, it is clear that organ harvesting has ultimately led to the deaths of patients. The practice has a clear criminal character. Whether manslaughter or murder (or even mass atrocities as genocide or crimes against humanity), may be a matter of evidence that will need to be collected. Yet, it is clear that there is no legality to such a procedure. The question is then - will Chinese doctors who harvest organs get away with murder? Source
