Following a two-month long European passage with its last stop being in the UK, the Global Human Rights Torch Relay (GHRTR) arrived in Australia, Sydney 27th October for a national tour.
The Torch arrived in Melbourne on the 16th November, and as part of the Victorian leg of the relay, will be received in Beechworth on the 2nd of December.
Torch Relay 9am – 10:30am
Main street Shopping Centre
Inspired by the Olympic torch relay, the GHRTR is an international campaign that seeks to put human rights on the Beijing Olympic agenda. The 12-month global relay calls for an end to all human rights violations committed by the Chinese communist regime. It highlights the persecution of Falun Gong, the most severely persecuted group in China today, the plight of Tibetans, Christians, democracy campaigners, outspoken lawyers and reporters, as well as the fueling of oppression and slaughter in Darfur, Burma, Zimbabwe and North Korea.
During the run up to the 2008 Olympics, the GHRTR will visit more than 100 cities on five continents to publicise its founding premise that the Olympics and crimes against humanity cannot co-exist in China.
The GHRTR was initiated by the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) which consists of over three hundred legislators, religious leaders, lawyers, medical doctors and human rights advocates from Europe, Asia, North America and Oceania. Established in 2006 its aim is to go into China to independently investigate the persecution of Falun Gong, especially the reported crimes of organ harvesting. www.cipfg.org
The GHRTR is sponsored and supported globally by Asia-Pacific Human Rights Watch Charitable Trust and All-China Alliance for Protecting Human Rights & Opposing Violence, and in Australia by Free China, Darfur Australia Network (DAN), Democracy for Burma (D4B), Tibetan, Vietnamese and many other communities and organisations as well as the Chinese pro-democracy movement.
Media contact: Philippa Rayment 0417 371 305
Website: www.HumanRightsTorch.org
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