What Happpen to Human Rights?

In the United States (US), after the Civil War, the African Americans were faced with many hardships. Some of these hardships faced by African Americans were segregation, racism, and being denied the right to vote. Although these hardships gradually were found to be morally wrong, there are still places in the world where racism and human rights are denied.

One place, in particular, where we see human rights being denied is China. In China there are many minorities that are being denied their human rights such as Muslims, Christians, and Falungong practitioners. In this blog I am going to be focusing on how Falungong practitioners are being treated. Falungong is a new religion that very similar to Buddhism. Falungong has become very popular in China, where about 70 million people practice Falungong. For this reason China felt threatened that Falungong practitioners were going to over throw their government (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong#1999_and_after_in_mainland_China).

The Chinese government couldn't have been more wrong when it came to their fear of the Falungongs over throwing the government. Before the government denied the Falungongs their human rights, the Falungongs had no problems with the Chinese government and would abide by the rules. A reason the Falungongs would most likely abide by the rules and try not to overthrow the government is the Falungong religion doesn't approve of violence and is very peaceful.

After July 20, 1999, the Chinese said that practicing Falungong was illegal. The Chinese government began to arrest many Falungong practitioners. Although Falungong was illegal, Falungong practitioners didn't find anything wrong with the practice and continued to practice the religion. To object to the government, Falungong practitioners began to protest, but still remained non-violent. These protests were much like the civil rights movement in the United States (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong#1999_and_after_in_mainland_China).

Although these protests have been going on for about nine years, the Chinese government has not changed and still says practicing Falungong is illegal. Some of the human rights denied from the Falungong practitioners are being thrown in jail without a trail, being sent to work camps, being kidnapped, and being beaten. The practice I find to be the most revolting is removing organs to sell. For instance, in China there are places that remove prisoners' bodily organs and then sell them to make a profit.

A question I ask is how can the Chinese government get away with this? One reason is the U.S. isn't trying to stop these practices. If anything, the U.S. is encouraging China to not change. The U.S. government is partially responsible because the U.S. buys a lot of products made in China. If the U.S. didn't buy as many products from China, then China wouldn't have a reason to produce so many products. This would reduce the need for work camps and less people would have to work against their will. This wouldn't solve the problem, but it would help.

I believe treating people in China this way is a huge problem and the U.S. government needs to help the Chinese citizens, and other places the world, where this is happening. Although we didn't have help to eliminate racism in the U.S., that doesn't mean the U.S. can't help others get their human rights. Just think how much less suffering African Americans would have gone through if the Civil Rights Movement had a strong country supporting the movement.