On February 24th the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse hosted a virtual conference to discuss the CCP’s forced organ harvesting and to designate the CCP as a criminal organization.
About the Speakers
Keynote Speaker
Sir Geoffrey Nice QC has been a barrister since 1971, and served as a part- time judge in England between 1984 and 2018. Between 1998 and 2006, he led the prosecution of Slobodan Milošević, former President of Serbia, at the UN’s International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. Since 2007, he has advised and represented (at the International Criminal Court and elsewhere) states, applicants and victims concerning several internal and international armed conflicts. Sir Geoffrey was Gresham Professor of Law from 2012-2016. He chaired the China Tribunal, a people’s tribunal into forced organ harvesting.
Guest Speakers
Ethan Gutmann is a China Studies Research Fellow at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in Washington DC and co-founder of The International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China. His writing on China is widely published, including three books: Losing the New China, The Slaughter, and Bloody Harvest/The Slaughter: an Update. In 2017, Gutmann was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
David Matas, an international human rights lawyer, author, and researcher based in Winnipeg and currently acts as Senior Honorary Counsel for B’nai Brith Canada. He has served the government of Canada in numerous positions including as a member of the Canadian delegation to the United Nations Conference on an International Criminal Court; the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research; and the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe Conferences on Antisemitism and Intolerance.
Wendy Rogers, M.D., Ph.D., is Professor of Clinical Ethics at Macquarie University, Sydney. She has a longstanding interest in transplant ethics and has contributed to Australian national ethical guidelines on organ and tissue donation. She is Chair of the International Advisory Committee of ETAC. Her team’s 2019 research into unethical transplant research in China triggered over 20 retractions and led to her being named in Nature’s 10 People Who Mattered in Science in 2019 and Medscape’s 2019 Physicians of the Year.
Xiaoxu “Sean” Lin, Ph.D. serves as the communication director for Falun Dafa Association in Washington DC. He served the US Army as a medical service corps officer and was the lab director for viral diseases branch at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Dr. Lin was survivor of 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre and was detained in China in 2000 for his activism to end the persecution of Falun Gong.
Kristina Olney is the Director of Government Relations for the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) and leads VOC’s engagement with U.S. federal and state policymakers, embassies, and advocacy initiatives with human rights allies and captive nations constituencies. Kristina regularly advises executive branch officials, Members of Congress and their staff, state lawmakers, and global human rights bodies and liaises with diplomatic officials and advocacy allies.
