End Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism
Considering that the trafficking in human organs violates human dignity and the right to life and constitutes a serious threat to public health;
Considering the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with Regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (1997, ETS No. 164) and the Additional Protocol to the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine concerning Transplantation of Organs and Tissues of Human Origin (2002, ETS No. 186);
Considering the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime (2000) and the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (2005, CETS No. 197) specifically recognising human trafficking for organ removal as a practice to be criminalised and punished;
Considering that the Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs (2014) is to prevent and combat trafficking in human organs, and that the implementation of the provisions of the Convention concerning substantive criminal law should be carried out taking into account its purpose and the principle of proportionality;
Considering that European Parliament Writing Declaration (0048/2016) and the US House Resolution 343 (H.Res.343) unanimously passed in June 2016 express concerns over China’s organ procurement from non-consenting prisoners of conscience for organ transplants;
Considering that the Statement of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences Summit on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism signed in February 2017 to achieve self-sufficiency in organ donation at a national level and to establish a legal framework that provides an explicit basis for the prevention and prosecution of transplant-related crimes;
International Care of Organ Transplantation (ICOT) hereby launches the Petition and declares the following:
(1) We encourage all states to efficiently combat the global threat posed by the trafficking in human organs through
(i) Ratification of the Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Organs (2014), and
(ii) Introduction of new offences in their national legislation to supplement and implement the existing international legal instruments in trafficking organs;
(2) We demand that China immediately cease the practice of using prisoners as organ donors and call on the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), World Health Organization (WHO), World Medical Association (WMA) and The Transplantation Society(TTS) to conduct credible, transparent, and independent investigations into trafficking in human beings for the purpose of the removal of organs;
(3) We call on medical community to help raise awareness of unethical organ transplant practices in the field of trafficking human organs.
I, the undersigned, hereby endorse the above declaration and agree with the position as stated with my signature:
