Examine the Evidence
Few allegations involving China are as grave as the claim that prisoners of conscience, particularly Falun Dafa practitioners, have been killed so their organs could be used for transplantation. This page sets out what has actually been put on record, and by whom.
The European Parliament's 2022 resolution records that UN human-rights experts received what they described as credible information that detainees from ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities in China, including Falun Gong practitioners, had been subjected without consent to blood tests, ultrasounds, X-rays and other examinations capable of assessing organ compatibility. UN experts had previously raised organ-harvesting concerns with Beijing in 2006 and 2007 and found China's responses lacking sufficient information about organ sources. (European Parliament resolution, May 2022)
The UN experts did not issue a criminal conviction against China. They said credible information warranted concern and requested independent monitoring and transparency.
The 2006 investigation by David Matas and David Kilgour first examined the allegations systematically; their report is archived in the Falun Dafa Information Center library. (Matas–Kilgour report, 2006)
In 2019, an independent people's tribunal chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who previously prosecuted Slobodan Milošević, concluded, as recorded in the European Parliament's resolution, that forced organ harvesting had occurred for years on a significant scale and that Falun Gong practitioners had probably been the principal source of organs. (Documenting the tribunal's findings)
The China Tribunal was an independent tribunal, not a UN or treaty court; its conclusions carry a different legal status from a criminal judgment. Its evidence has nonetheless been cited by legislatures and policymakers.
In May 2022, the European Parliament adopted a resolution expressing serious concern about reports of persistent, systematic, inhumane and state-sanctioned organ harvesting from prisoners in China, specifically addressing Falun Gong practitioners and other minorities. It called on Chinese authorities to respond to the allegations, allow independent monitoring and ensure transparency. (European Parliament)
The Chinese government denies that such abuses occur. That denial is part of the record, and any account of this subject should state it. What critics note is that denial has not been accompanied by the independent monitoring and organ-source transparency that UN experts and the European Parliament have requested.
Forced Organ Harvesting in China: What Has Actually Been Established, and What Remains Contested?