7/22/2013

Women’s Rights in China’s Photo Exhibit of Missing Children in China

Time: Saturday, July 27, 2013 from 11am - 5pm

Address: Union Square Park, South Plaza, New York City



Background: Since the early 1980’s through 2009, there were 200,000 documented cases of children who have gone missing in China due to trafficking. China’s government’s (CCP) One-Child Policy has caused a serious gender imbalance which has led to the trafficking of girls. Many families in China resort to buying girls and young women for their sons to marry, which has led to the recent widespread kidnapping of girls for the black market of human trafficking.

Women’s Rights in China (WRIC) volunteers have collected these photographs of children from various provinces in China. Many of the WRIC volunteers who helped with this project are themselves parents of missing children. They organized into support and rescue groups that cover much of China. Their independent and civil society initiatives do not receive any assistance from China’s government. Instead, these volunteer activists risk frequent arrests and harassment for their anti-trafficking campaigns and petitioning China’s government.

“China’s government could have done so much more before 2009 to combat the plague of child trafficking,” said Jing Zhang, Director of Women’s Rights in China, “The problem is still very serious. More resources are needed to effectively combat child trafficking. The attitude of local authorities in China who were contacted by our volunteers has often been either indifferent or hostile.”

This WRIC photo exhibit will also highlight the corruption of China’s government’s welfare system, and call for increased vigilance among American couples who are looking to adopt orphans from China.

Since 2005, high-profile reports have been published to highlight this deceptive and criminal adoption practice. Districts in Hunan like Hengnan , Hengyang, Hengshan, Hengdong, Changning, Qidong, have all had uncovered cases in which China’s Birth Planning Commission officials have kidnapped newborns from their homes as “fines” for “illegal above-quota births” and then profited by selling these babies through China’s government-run orphanages for adoption by American and European couples. In 2005 alone, these government welfare organizations in Hengyang City trafficked 78 babies later placed for adoption abroad.

Jing Zhang said, “This is a widespread practice that has only recently come into the attention of the western media. An investigative reporter, verifying this awareness in Shaoyang, Hunan, wrote a book titled “Orphan of Shao.” The book is a compilation of records that had been sent to Shaoyang City. These records hold documented accounts of an orphanage that was responsible for the dozens of children being adopted in Western countries. There were at least 15 families that we have found who adopted trafficked orphans from Shao. WRIC has been authorized to publish a copy of that book to increase the awareness to the American public. If a child was taken out of China in this manner, her birth parents would have no way to recover her or ever find closure. We at WRIC will continue to do our best to assist concerned parents both in the United States of America and in China who contact us through our website.”

Women’s Rights in China will exhibit of hundreds of photographs of missing Chinese children at New York City’s Union Square Park from 11 am to 5 pm on July 27, 2013.



For further information about this event, please contact:

wrchina2007@gmal.com, wrichina@yahoo.com

Visit our website:

wrchina.org, crchina.org

Address: 136-31 41st Ave Flushing NY 11355

2 comments:

  1. Will the photos also be available on your blog after the exhibit?

    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Our English website is still building, We suggest you look at the WRIC's Chinese Website with more than 2,000 photos and Info.of missing children:

    http://crchina.org/?content=lost_case

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete