Jeffrey Imm, from Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.), said nations and individuals should uphold the principles of equality and liberty. (Lisa Fan/Epoch Times)

WASHINGTON — International Human Rights Day, December 10, received scant world attention this year, apart from a handful of people and cities around the globe. In the nation’s capital, a few people spoke at a forum at the National Press Club, using this occasion to call attention to what they said were particularly egregious violations of human rights.

Sixty-one years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted and proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations, following the horrors and human tragedies associated with World War II and the Holocaust.

“Universal human rights” has become an accepted concept that encompasses all nations, religions and elasticities. Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, said last year that the UDHR acknowledged the “inherent dignity and equality of all human beings.”

On Dec 10, we not only remember to support universal human rights, “but also we remember those who have denied them, including totalitarian and supremacist nations and ideologies of the world…,” said Jeffrey Imm, representing “Responsible for Equality and Liberty (R.E.A.L.),” which sponsored the event held at the National Press Club.

R.E.A.L., consisting of all volunteers from the U.S. Canada, UK, and Europe, is a new organization that started this year. R.E.A.L. also sponsored a public meeting acknowledging human rights day in Nuremberg, Germany as well as private meetings in Chicago and Los Angeles. [edit: note I stated New York, not Chicago].

Many Islamic countries in violation of universal human rights

Individuals and nations violate universal human rights when they don’t make “equality and liberty” their number one priority, according to Imm. This is a high standard to meet in today’s world. This forum focused on two major violators of universal human rights: the governments of Moslem majority countries enforcing religious or Sharia law, and totalitarian communist China.

Two countries mentioned most frequently in this event, Pakistan and China, were declared by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), as Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) — a list of 13 nations that are the worst offenders of religious freedom. Egypt, also mentioned often, is on the Commission’s “Watch List.”

The use of blasphemy laws against Christians in Pakistan beginning in the 1980s has damaged the harmony among religious communities, according to Nazir Bhatti, President of Pakistan Christian Congress. Bhatti cited more than 7000 cases of these laws that occurred from 1984 to 2009. “Thirty-two [persons] accused of blasphemy were murdered in jails, police lockups or in streets by hands of radical Islamic elements,” said Bhatti.

Pakistan was declared an Islamic Republic in 1973, and their constitution and legislation proclaimed Pakistan to be home to Muslims only, according to Bhatti. The USCIRF states that Pakistan’s blasphemy laws “commonly involve false accusations and result in the lengthy detention of and violence against Ahmadis, Christians, Hindus, and Muslims on account of their religious beliefs.”

In the 1980s, amendments were added to the blasphemy laws that imposed capital punishment, said Bhatti. Apparently, the law may influence public opinion. Imm cited a Pew Global Research poll conducted in Pakistan last Aug, which found that 78 percent believe in the death penalty for those who made the choice to leave Islam.

“The blasphemy law was used by the Muslim majority in Pakistan to settle personal disputes and business rivalries against Christians…after 1986, said Bhatti. Christian villages “were attacked by Muslim mobs and hundreds of homes set on fire.” He cited 10 towns where the churches were attacked and worshippers gunned down. The Holy Bibles were desecrated, pastors were gunned down and moreover children and women were burnt alive,” said Bhatti. He would like to see the rppeal of the blasphemy laws and the Sharia law on the 20 million Pakistani Christians.

No less incensed by the imposition of Sharia law was Ashraf Ramelah, President of Voice of the Copts, and an Egyptian. He spoke on behalf of Christians of Egypt (known as Copts). “We demand an end to kidnapping minor Christian girls, forcing them to convert to Islam. Those girls are often raped and tortured using inhuman techniques by Muslim extremists.”

Ramelah said: “Any crime committed against a Coptic woman[in Egypt] is treated without morality, conscience and legal deterrence….In examining what happened only in [Egyptian President Hosni] Mubarak’s era, it’s effortless to point out no single kidnapper was brought to justice, in spite of the gravity of the crime and its frequency.”

Ramelah charged that the reason that nothing is done and why there is no official count of the number of girls harmed is due to the complicity on the part of Egyptian law enforcement and the kidnappers.

Imm expressed his strong disapproval of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) — an organization of 57 nations with mostly Moslem majorities — when in 1990, it created the Cairo Declaration of Human Rights in Islam (CDHRI). Imm said the CDHRI is an attack on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Bhatti said the adoption of the CDHRI was expressing “no confidence in UDHR” and the supremacy of Sharia law.

“[The OIC] made a conscious decision to deny our unqualified universal human rights, other than those rights allowed by interpretations of Islamic Sharia law,” said Imm.

Recently, the OIC has attempted to pass at the UN a “defamation of religion” resolution, which Leonard A. Leo, chair of USCIRF, called an attempt to “create a global blasphemy law.” Leo said on Oct. 24 that this resolution really “promotes intolerance” and would be used to empowered repressive governments and religious extremists to suppress and punish members of minority religions and sects.

Many of the OIC nations were signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), which is a document that applies UDHR principles to children. These OIC countries are on record expressing “reservations” on those rights, according to Imm.

“We have seen a growing problem of child marriages, arranged marriages, and ‘honor killing’ violence in many of these nations that claim to be advocates of children’s rights. …Somalia is a nation where a 13-year-old girl has been publicly stoned to death as punishment by an Islamic Sharia so-called court for being the victim of gang rape. But an epidemic of violence against children is also found in many other OIC countries,” said Imm.

Falun Gong practitioners share experiences of Chinese Communist torture

A local Falun Dafa practitioner, Lisa Tao, discussed some of the ordeals she and other practitioners suffered when they lived in Communist China. Ms. Tao grew up in China and lived through the Great Cultural Revolution, when her father and four other members of her family were killed.

“I was also frequently beaten and many times I was close to being beaten to death,” said Tao. Tao was “guilty” of being born into a wealthy family which the communist regime targeted for special humiliations and punishments.

Lisa Tao (l) and Jin Pang (r) spoke about torture and deaths by the Chinese Communist Party. (Jenny Jing/Epoch Times)

After immigrating to the United States, Ms. Tao became a practitioner of Falun Gong, which China has persecuted since 1999. Tao has become involved in daily protests at the Chinese Embassy in Washington.

Tao brought with her to the conference evidence in the form of real people who suffered under the current Chinese regime or are relatives of such persons. Tao introduced Ms. Quiying Wang, who was sent to a labor camp for practicing Falun Gong.

“One day in June 2000 at the Tuanhe Deployment Center in Beijing, police ordered her to take off all her clothes and squat in the sun, from 10 a.m. in the morning until 11. p.m. In the days that followed, she was also forced to stand still from 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., 17 hours everyday, for nine days,” said Tao.

Tao introduced Jin Pang, who said that her mother and aunt were sentenced in October 2008 to 10 and 9 years, respectively, for practicing Falun Gong. Ms. Pang described the interrogation when her mother was arrested in August 2008 during the Beijing Olympics. Over10,000 Falun Gong practitioners were arrested before and during the Olympics, according to the  Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group, not because the regime was concerned about practitioners interfering with the Olympics, but so it could use the Olympics as a pretext to intensify its persecution of Falun Gong.

Pang said her mother’s interrogation in the Weifang detention center lasted five days. “Six people took turns to interrogate her. During these 100 plus hours, she was not allowed to close her eyes even for a second, and if she did, they would pour cold or hot water on her. They also forced her to continually sit on an iron chair. She was tortured so badly that she lost control of her bowels,” said Pang. They stopped for a day and then resumed the torture for another three nights.

“The Chinese Communist regime is a devil,” said Tao. “Its destructive nature can never change. As long as it exists, it will not stop killing. This persecution can be stopped only if the [Communist] Party dissolves.”
======================

Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
https://www.realcourage.org

In Washington DC, R.E.A.L. held a press conference at the National Press Club, which included speakers:

* Jeffrey Imm, Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.), on women’s and children’s rights, the dual challenge of religious extremism and freedom, the challenges to human liberty by totalitarian ideologies, and growing challenges to racial equality by supremacists
— Jeffrey Imm Human Rights Day Remarks:  Adobe Acobat format, Microsoft Word format

* Dr. Nazir Bhatti, Pakistan Christian Congress, on Pakistan’s blasphemy law, threats, attacks, and killings of Christian religious minorities in Pakistan
— Dr. Nazir S. Bhatti remarks: “US administration urged to condition Pakistan Aid with Repeal of Blasphemy Law”

* Ashraf Ramelah, The Voice of the Copts, on the suppression of Christian religious minorities in Egypt, including kidnapping and forced conversion of Coptic Christian women and girls
— Ashraf Ramelah Remarks: “Suppression of Christian religious minorities in Egypt”

* Lisa Tao, Falun Dafa (Falun Gong), on human rights atrocities against the Falun Gong over the past 10 years in Communist China (in Chinese with English Interpreter).
— Lisa Tao Human Rights Day Remarks:  Microsoft Word format (English), Microsoft Word format (Chinese)