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We have received flags from our users that the facts in this petition may be contested. You should consider researching this issue before signing.
Santion the CCP for its coverup and responsibility for the global pandemic COVID-19
Santion the CCP for its coverup and responsibility for the global pandemic COVID-19
The Issue
The government of China is in breach of international law and human rights (nothing new, as it continues to get away with carrying out a systematic persecution against the Uyghurs) and is consequently single-handedly responsible for the COVID-19 global health crisis. It must be held accountable and brought to justice at the ICJ for the health crisis it caused, which now affects every single person all over the world, who have never even been to China, as a result of China's negligence, severe censorship of the truth regarding the virus, and breach of international protocol. No matter how rich or powerful a state is, it shouldn't be immune to the international justice system.
China is the world's biggest exporter of human capital and has the largest tourist population, and therefore has a duty to take necessary measures to prevent the spread of deadly viruses to other nations (ie. divulge full information to WHO and UN, and offer full transparency). China’s suppression of crucial information about COVID-19 is a violation of its international obligations under the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR), a treaty established under the auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Under Article 6 of the treaty, China — a member state — has the duty to inform WHO about the viral outbreak within 24 hours of determining its nature. Article 7 also requires China, after notification, to continue to provide “timely, accurate and sufficiently detailed and available public health information” about it.
The global economy is now expected to see a recession worse than 2008, and millions of people across the world are going to (if not already) lose their jobs, loved ones, and livelihoods. Humanity will be irreparably damaged by this virus.
There is mounting evidence, from whistleblowing doctors to official studies, that the Chinese government withheld from the world for weeks key information about the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan—until it was too late.
According to the findings from research on the "first 41" publicly confirmed cases of Wuhan, spread of the virus in Wuhan was likely happening months sooner, as early as October, according to Daniel Lucey, an infectious diseases physician and adjunct professor of infectious diseases at Georgetown University Medical Centre. (link to clinical report: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30183-5/fulltext
As early as Jan. 2, the Chinese government already knew that a new coronavirus was responsible for a treatment-resistant illness among a rising number of patients, and that it may be transmitted by humans (There was direct evidence of human-to-human spread as early as January 2). It is therefore logically deducible that this virus (an Oxford study validates this) was spreading in full form in China as early as October. Yet the Chinese Communist Party chose to conceal the true extent of the virus from the world, through inhumane means of murdering civilians, ministers, doctors – anyone deemed a 'whistleblower' – and censoring the already state-controlled press and media. China only 'informed' the World Health Organization of the virus' true nature on Jan 21. On Jan 14, WHO announced Chinese authorities have seen "no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus", which is blatantly untrue and deceptive, therefore indicating collusion between WHO and China, and corruption of the WHO's integrity under leadership by Tedros Adhanom. On Jan 20, the China National Health Commission confirmed that the virus was human-to-human transmissible.
This cover-up and withholding of information (which still continues, as the CCP does not allow for non state-censored information to be released) cost many countries time they needed to understand the threat and prevent the deadly contagion from spilling over into their own borders, such as Italy, which is currently suffering from the worst death toll in Europe.
“If China did intentionally withhold information, that would not only be bad for public health but also illegal under international law. It would be a violation of the International Health Regulations, a legally binding treaty that covers how 195 countries respond to outbreaks like this one.” – Steven Hoffman, director of Global Strategy Lab and a global health professor at York University.
Evidence of reported cases in November: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/13/world/asia/plague-china-pneumonic.html
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/three-cases-plague-diagnosed-china-180973578/
China’s response to the outbreak included a government cover-up in Wuhan (at least 2 months long), the centre of the outbreak, that led to the rapid spread of the coronavirus. Local authorities publicly announced that no new cases had been detected between 3-16 January in the lead up to a major Communist party meeting, likely to suppress “bad news”. Despite early evidence of human-to-human transmission when medical staff became infected, this information was not relayed to the public for weeks. Hardly a “commitment to transparency”.
In the Corfu Channel case (1949), the International Court of Justice (ICJ) held that no state may “knowingly allow its territory to be used for acts contrary to the rights of other states.” China is duty-bound to ensure that individuals within its territory do not cause harm to the rights of other states. Moreover, where the harmful acts were committed by persons exercising public authority, the acts are attributable to the state.
To contain a virus, swift action based on accurate information is required. Accordingly, the world instituted the International Health Regulations, which require states to provide prompt, accurate and full accounts of emerging infections. The CCP’s response to COVID-19 was in breach of international law. International Health Regulations (2005) bound China to report timely, accurate and detailed public health information, after its gross coverup of SARS in 2003. (https://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Coronavirus-Compensation.pdf
China is responsible for its public officials who censored doctors about the virus—a repeat of its immediate response to the SARS epidemic in 2003, in which, in the words of the Smithsonian magazine, “Chinese apparatchiks initially tried to cover up the epidemic, creating a worldwide scandal.”
As it is, the COVID-19 pandemic has already spread to more than 157 countries and regions around the world, with at least 217,247 confirmed cases and 8,784 deaths (written 24th March), causing unprecedented disruptions in the economic, political, and social life of billions of people. The Chinese government CONTINUES to lie to world about the extent of the disease, fabricating grossly played-down figures and statistics which are simply unfeasible and incongruous with its colossal population.
Whenever a state commits internationally unlawful conduct, it must pay reparations to the injured parties for the damage they suffered. Thus, China must be made to pay reparations over its failure to promptly notify WHO about the outbreak. The Chinese government must clean up the global crisis it is single-handedly responsible for, and must be held accountable for its authoritarian, internationally-illegal actions which resulted in this crisis. The ICJ must uphold and implement its standards, no matter how rich or powerful the offending state is. The Chinese government is not above international law, and its actions have affected and destroyed the lives of citizens of every country in the world. It must be brought to justice.
Beyond the human cost of this pandemic, governments globally have responded to the virus by taking robust economic measures, with entire nations going into various forms of lockdown. The measures taken by the G7 – the group of the world’s major advanced economies – amount to £3.2 trillion (US$4 trillion).
In order to preserve the rules-based international system and to protect taxpayers from punitive liabilities, the world should seek to take legal action against the PRC for the breaches of international law and their consequences.
We need a Magnitsky-style Act to sanction the CCP and freeze the assets of its biggest players. These are corporations and billionaires who use the suppression of democracy, freedom of speech and human rights, as well as Uyghur Muslim slave labour, for their wealth and success. Enough is enough.
1,237
The Issue
The government of China is in breach of international law and human rights (nothing new, as it continues to get away with carrying out a systematic persecution against the Uyghurs) and is consequently single-handedly responsible for the COVID-19 global health crisis. It must be held accountable and brought to justice at the ICJ for the health crisis it caused, which now affects every single person all over the world, who have never even been to China, as a result of China's negligence, severe censorship of the truth regarding the virus, and breach of international protocol. No matter how rich or powerful a state is, it shouldn't be immune to the international justice system.
China is the world's biggest exporter of human capital and has the largest tourist population, and therefore has a duty to take necessary measures to prevent the spread of deadly viruses to other nations (ie. divulge full information to WHO and UN, and offer full transparency). China’s suppression of crucial information about COVID-19 is a violation of its international obligations under the 2005 International Health Regulations (IHR), a treaty established under the auspices of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Under Article 6 of the treaty, China — a member state — has the duty to inform WHO about the viral outbreak within 24 hours of determining its nature. Article 7 also requires China, after notification, to continue to provide “timely, accurate and sufficiently detailed and available public health information” about it.
The global economy is now expected to see a recession worse than 2008, and millions of people across the world are going to (if not already) lose their jobs, loved ones, and livelihoods. Humanity will be irreparably damaged by this virus.
There is mounting evidence, from whistleblowing doctors to official studies, that the Chinese government withheld from the world for weeks key information about the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan—until it was too late.
According to the findings from research on the "first 41" publicly confirmed cases of Wuhan, spread of the virus in Wuhan was likely happening months sooner, as early as October, according to Daniel Lucey, an infectious diseases physician and adjunct professor of infectious diseases at Georgetown University Medical Centre. (link to clinical report: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30183-5/fulltext
As early as Jan. 2, the Chinese government already knew that a new coronavirus was responsible for a treatment-resistant illness among a rising number of patients, and that it may be transmitted by humans (There was direct evidence of human-to-human spread as early as January 2). It is therefore logically deducible that this virus (an Oxford study validates this) was spreading in full form in China as early as October. Yet the Chinese Communist Party chose to conceal the true extent of the virus from the world, through inhumane means of murdering civilians, ministers, doctors – anyone deemed a 'whistleblower' – and censoring the already state-controlled press and media. China only 'informed' the World Health Organization of the virus' true nature on Jan 21. On Jan 14, WHO announced Chinese authorities have seen "no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus", which is blatantly untrue and deceptive, therefore indicating collusion between WHO and China, and corruption of the WHO's integrity under leadership by Tedros Adhanom. On Jan 20, the China National Health Commission confirmed that the virus was human-to-human transmissible.
This cover-up and withholding of information (which still continues, as the CCP does not allow for non state-censored information to be released) cost many countries time they needed to understand the threat and prevent the deadly contagion from spilling over into their own borders, such as Italy, which is currently suffering from the worst death toll in Europe.
“If China did intentionally withhold information, that would not only be bad for public health but also illegal under international law. It would be a violation of the International Health Regulations, a legally binding treaty that covers how 195 countries respond to outbreaks like this one.” – Steven Hoffman, director of Global Strategy Lab and a global health professor at York University.
Evidence of reported cases in November: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/13/world/asia/plague-china-pneumonic.html
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/three-cases-plague-diagnosed-china-180973578/
China’s response to the outbreak included a government cover-up in Wuhan (at least 2 months long), the centre of the outbreak, that led to the rapid spread of the coronavirus. Local authorities publicly announced that no new cases had been detected between 3-16 January in the lead up to a major Communist party meeting, likely to suppress “bad news”. Despite early evidence of human-to-human transmission when medical staff became infected, this information was not relayed to the public for weeks. Hardly a “commitment to transparency”.
In the Corfu Channel case (1949), the International Court of Justice (ICJ) held that no state may “knowingly allow its territory to be used for acts contrary to the rights of other states.” China is duty-bound to ensure that individuals within its territory do not cause harm to the rights of other states. Moreover, where the harmful acts were committed by persons exercising public authority, the acts are attributable to the state.
To contain a virus, swift action based on accurate information is required. Accordingly, the world instituted the International Health Regulations, which require states to provide prompt, accurate and full accounts of emerging infections. The CCP’s response to COVID-19 was in breach of international law. International Health Regulations (2005) bound China to report timely, accurate and detailed public health information, after its gross coverup of SARS in 2003. (https://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Coronavirus-Compensation.pdf
China is responsible for its public officials who censored doctors about the virus—a repeat of its immediate response to the SARS epidemic in 2003, in which, in the words of the Smithsonian magazine, “Chinese apparatchiks initially tried to cover up the epidemic, creating a worldwide scandal.”
As it is, the COVID-19 pandemic has already spread to more than 157 countries and regions around the world, with at least 217,247 confirmed cases and 8,784 deaths (written 24th March), causing unprecedented disruptions in the economic, political, and social life of billions of people. The Chinese government CONTINUES to lie to world about the extent of the disease, fabricating grossly played-down figures and statistics which are simply unfeasible and incongruous with its colossal population.
Whenever a state commits internationally unlawful conduct, it must pay reparations to the injured parties for the damage they suffered. Thus, China must be made to pay reparations over its failure to promptly notify WHO about the outbreak. The Chinese government must clean up the global crisis it is single-handedly responsible for, and must be held accountable for its authoritarian, internationally-illegal actions which resulted in this crisis. The ICJ must uphold and implement its standards, no matter how rich or powerful the offending state is. The Chinese government is not above international law, and its actions have affected and destroyed the lives of citizens of every country in the world. It must be brought to justice.
Beyond the human cost of this pandemic, governments globally have responded to the virus by taking robust economic measures, with entire nations going into various forms of lockdown. The measures taken by the G7 – the group of the world’s major advanced economies – amount to £3.2 trillion (US$4 trillion).
In order to preserve the rules-based international system and to protect taxpayers from punitive liabilities, the world should seek to take legal action against the PRC for the breaches of international law and their consequences.
We need a Magnitsky-style Act to sanction the CCP and freeze the assets of its biggest players. These are corporations and billionaires who use the suppression of democracy, freedom of speech and human rights, as well as Uyghur Muslim slave labour, for their wealth and success. Enough is enough.
1,237
The Decision Makers
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Petition created on 24 March 2020