IRF Summit 2024: Falun Dafa Information Center Recap

On January 30 and 31, 2024, the Falun Dafa Information Center team participated in the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit in DC, hosted at the Washington Hilton and the United States Institute of Peace. The inaugural convening of this summit was established for the first time in July 2021. This year’s conference marked the fourth IRF Summit. 

The summit hosted conversations and interactive sessions on topics such as corporate responsibility to promote religious inclusion, prevention tools and reporting mechanisms for genocide, and the stories of survivors of religious persecution like the Holocaust.

At the event, practitioners engaged in conversations about religious freedom and shared their experiences in raising awareness with fellow summit attendees.

The IRF Summit is chaired by Sam Brownback, the former Ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom and Katrina Lantos Swett, the President of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice. Both chairs have supported ending the persecution of Falun Gong in China, in particular on the issue of forced organ harvesting.

Solidarity Across the Summit

Multiple speeches addressed the atrocities facing Falun Gong, including by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong (CFHK) activist Frances Hui, and Canadian rights lawyer Sarah Teich.

“Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong practitioners are placed in forced labor camps, and they have their organs harvested by the Chinese Communist Party. At this moment, the U.S. has an opportunity and an obligation to prevent genocide and punish those who commit it.” — Speaker of the House Mike Johnson

Several UN special rapporteurs visited the booth to learn about the persecution of Falun Gong within China and the transnational repression of practitioners outside China. One special rapporteur had experience teaching English in China and recognized the name ‘Falun Gong’ immediately. Her students practiced Falun Gong in the early 1990’s, before the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of the spiritual practice began.

Professors, college students, researchers, journalists, government officials, China watchers, religious leaders, and other summit attendees also stopped at the Falun Dafa Information Center booth to learn more about the practice and current persecution trends faced by adherents.

One summit attendee from India was shocked to learn that detention and repression of Falun Gong was happening on such a large scale in 2024. When he left the booth, he expressed his gratitude for the Center’s researchers, “Thank you for enlightening me.”

In numerous conversations, human rights observers and lawyers raised the issue of transnational repression and interference by the CCP, which prevents many from gaining a clear understanding of Falun Gong and the persecution of its practitioners. However, they expressed optimism, believing that as people become more aware of the nature of the lies spread by the CCP, confusion around this rights issue will dissipate.