Refugees of The Church of Almighty God in Japan

Refugees of The Church of Almighty God in Japan

Oral statement of Ms Christine Mirre, of the accredited NGO CAP-LC, at the 40th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Geneva, 13 March 2019.

As of January 2019, 270 members of The Church of Almighty God (CAG), a Chinese Christian new religious movement, have escaped China and applied for asylum in Japan. None of the requests has been granted.

That the CAG is ruthlessly and cruelly persecuted in China is an established fact. The CAG claims that more than 300,000 of its members have been arrested, and scholars regard the figure as credible. There are hundreds of published Chinese court decisions showing that CAG members have been sentenced to heavy jail penalties for the only circumstance of being active in a banned religious organization. NGOs have also reported instances of torture, extra-judicial killings, and organ harvesting.

We acknowledge and respect the problems of Japan in dealing with a high number of asylum requests. However, the members of the CAG seeking asylum in Japan, whose number (270) should not create a national problem, run the serious risk of being arrested and sentenced to heavy jail penalties, or worse, should they be sent back to China. We urge Japan, a country widely respected for its commitment to human rights, to lend its helping hand to the refugees of The Church of Almighty God.

The video is also available on the United Nations’ official Website; Ms. Mirre’s speech starts at 00:12:38