The report of Special Rapporteur Asma Jahangir on freedom of religion or belief
for the 61st session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights exposed
and condemned the fact that the Chinese communist regime abuses the party-appointed
committees to control traditional religious activities or belief. As a result,
all religious organizations have to be led by the party in order to be legitimized.
Meanwhile,
the United Nations condemned the Chinese Government’s Golden Shield Internet firewall
which denies access to religious web sites. It pointed out that the Chinese government
abuses the firewall to censor internet information and deprive people of their
freedom of expression. The internet censorship not only prevents people in Mainland
China from accessing international discussions on some issues of China, but it
also suppresses those individuals and groups in China who have different opinions
from that of the government. The "Golden Shield Internet Firewall" marks
the reversion of China’s human rights status and the international community should
pay close attention to this.
In China, although there are various religious
beliefs, all of these organizations are administrated and controlled by the Chinese
Communist Party’s dictatorship. It appears that there are Taoist temples, Buddhist
temples and churches, but believers there are all under the party branches’ surveillance.
This has brought attention from the United Nations and international human rights
organizations.
Homepage for Human Rights Documents can be found at:
http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/dpage_e.aspx?m=86
The
2005 report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, by Asma
Jahangir, can be found at: http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G05/129/13/PDF/G0512913.pdf?OpenElement
Excerpt
of the report of the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief
The
report stated, "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."
The report
continued, "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.
According
to the report, 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 [spiritual] 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.
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.
Posting date: 29/May/2005
Original
article date: 26/May/2005
Category: Media Reports
