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Chinese Communist Party waged an unprecedented campaign to eradicate Falun Gong

Canadian Beauty Queen to Address U.N. Rights Council Today on China's Persecution of Falun Gong


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By —— Bio and Archives June 19, 2017

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GENEVA-- Chinese-Canadian human rights activist, actress and beauty queen Anastasia Lin will testify before the United Nations Human Rights Council this afternoon in Geneva. To request an interview, send email to: asia@unwatch.org. Lin was famously barred from China when she went to represent Canada at the 2015 Miss World competition. Her struggle was profiled in the New York Times and reported worldwide. Today, Lin’s testimony will address the situation of human rights in China, whose government was recently reelected to the 47-nation body. Lin was invited to speak by the independent non-governmental human rights group UN Watch

Chinese Communist Party waged an unprecedented campaign to eradicate Falun Gong

For the first time at the United Nations, Lin will raise the plight of Ms. Sun Qian, a Canadian citizen who was arrested in Beijing, on Feb. 19, 2017, solely because of her belief in Falun Gong, a peaceful meditation discipline which has been brutally persecuted by the Chinese Communist Party. Ms. Sun has faced torture and mistreatment in custody. Lin has launched a campaign for Sun’s immediate release, as well the release of all prisoners of conscience in China. In 1999, after tens of millions of people in China took up the practice of Falun Gong, the Chinese Communist Party waged an unprecedented campaign to eradicate it. Hundreds of thousands have been jailed. Falun Gong practitioners are routinely tortured to renounce their beliefs. Thousands have died. This year, the NGO Freedom House reported credible evidence suggesting that, beginning in the early 2000s, Falun Gong detainees were “killed for their organs on a large scale.”

Background: Anastasia Lin

Anastasia Lin is an award-winning actress, beauty pageant titleholder, and human rights advocate. In 2015, Lin won the Miss World Canada title, and was to represent Canada at the Miss World pageant in China. However, she was refused a visa and declared a persona non grata by Chinese authorities for her outspoken views on the country’s human rights violations and persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. The news of her rejection—and subsequent attempt to enter China—caused global media attention for weeks, leading to a front page article in The New York Times and op-eds in major newspapers. Since then, she has been invited to speak at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, the Oxford Union, and the Geneva Human Rights Summit at the UN, and the Oslo Freedom Forum. She has also testified in the US Congress, the UK Parliament, and the Taiwanese Legislative Assembly. Lin has appeared in over 20 films and television productions. She often works at the confluence of activism and acting, playing roles that carry messages of freedom, human rights, and ethics. Her films have received the Gabriel Award for Best Feature Film, the Mexico International Film Festival’s Golden Palm Award, and the California’s Indie Fest Award of Merit. Lin also won the Best Leading Actress in a TV Movie at the Leo Awards in 2016. As a model, she’s made appearances on runways around the world, including the New York Fashion Week show at the prestigious Waldorf-Astoria. Lin has been listed as one of the “Top 25 under 25” by MTV, a “Top 60 under 30” by Flare, and called “The Badass Beauty Queen” by Marie Claire. Her articles have appeared in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, The Globe and Mail, and other major newspapers.



UN Watch -- Bio and Archives | Comments

UN Watch is a Geneva-based human rights organization founded in 1993 to monitor UN compliance with the principles of its Charter. It is accredited as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in Special Consultative Status to the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and as an Associate NGO to the UN Department of Public Information (DPI).


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