Lobbying

Bob Fu holds up the Chinese torture weapon at the
UN. Moments after this photo was taken he was evicted
from the UN Human Rights Commission.
Photo © Jubilee Campaign USA Jubilee Campaign co-sponsored a session in which ongoing human rights abuses against Christians were addressed. Powerful testimony was given by Liu Xianzhi, a former South China house church leader who was arrested and sentenced to 3 years in a “re-education” camp by Chinese officials in 2001. Liu Xianzhi is one of 8,903 church members who have been arrested for their religious beliefs, including Pastor Gong, who is serving a life sentence based on multiple confessions obtained through torture.

Read more: China Bullies the UN

Top US Politicians have promised to take action for children at risk.

Left to right: Congressman Joseph Pitts, a
Congressional Staff member, Congressman Chris
Smith and Congressman Donald Payne. © JubileeJubilee Campaign helped organise a momentous hearing in Congress, held in the Rayburn House Building, and chaired by Congressman Chris Smith. The hearing lasted 3.5 hours, and heard stirring testimony from leading human rights defenders led by Professor Lord Alton of Liverpool and Fr Shay Cullen.

Congressman Smith opened the hearing saying, “The problems of street children have reached epic proportions because good people will not confront this evil or do enough to deal with it. UNICEF’s estimate in the 1990s of 100 million street children could be far worse now. Civil wars and the HIV/AIDS epidemic continually swell the numbers of street children, particularly in Africa. The typical street child is getting younger and more girls are joining the ranks.”

Congressman Smith, with long-term human rights champions, Congressmen Donald Payne and Joseph Pitts, expressed deep concern at the witnesses’ reports of children being murdered in Brazil and illegally imprisoned in the Philippines.

Lord Alton’s graphic overview of the global situation, with gripping photos and statistics, reported that hundreds of thousands of children live on the streets in countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia and Bangladesh, and estimated that India alone has 11 million street children. Lord Alton focussed on three countries.

Read more: US 'Children at Risk' Report

Home Office Replies

The Home Office has formally responded to Jubilee Campaign’s call for new laws against human trafficking – a modern form of slavery. The message from the Minister of Information, Beverley Hughes, in 2002, was in direct response to thousands of postcards and letters sent by Jubilee’s supporters.

The Home Office told us that the British Government will create a new offence for trafficking [for prostitution] within the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill, and further legislation [in line with the EU] is to be introduced to curb labour ad sexual exploitation.

Lord Alton of Liverpool declared, ‘It is always a positive step to have prompted the Government to respond to specific points of action that we have raised. We are delighted at the numbers of supporters who have taken action – this is proof that ordinary people can make their voices heard. We welcome the Government’s stated intention to introduce new legislation on this issue in the next Queen’s speech. We will be holding them to account for this pledge.’

Currently no comprehensive legislation exists to cover people who are trafficked into the UK, where their abductors hold them captive and control all their funds. An estimated 700,000 people are believed to be trafficked from West Africa and Eastern Europe every year.

This photo says it all. Valeri Barinov and his family arrive in Britain in 1987 after Jubilee led the campaign for his release. British Prime Minister Mrs Margaret Thatcher MP raised Barinov’s case personally when she visited Moscow. This Christian rock singer was held in prison, psychiatric hospital and labour camps for playing Christian rock music. His release was covered by BBC TV News.


Photo Valeri Barinov’s arrival at Heathrow airport.