34 ICSA TODAY
in the state, where officials have been empowered by some
of the strictest laws in the country. Oregon has successfully
prosecuted three similar cases since 2011.
There have been 20 documented faith-healing fatalities of
minors since 2008 in 10 different states outside of Oregon and
Idaho, including Texas, Colorado, and Pennsylvania, according
to Children’s Healthcare Is a Legal Duty (CHILD), a national
advocacy group. Currently, 32 states provide a religious
defense to felony or misdemeanor crimes specifically against
children. Most of these laws are remnants of a 1970s federal
decision granted at the urging of the Christian Science Church
to withhold funding for child-abuse programs in states that
did not enact some form of religious immunity for parents who
favored spiritual healing over medical care. The government
later rescinded the regulation, but most states left the laws in
place.
At this time, 38 states also provide religious exemptions in their
child-abuse and neglect civil codes that discourage reporting
and can prevent Child Protective Services from investigating
and monitoring cases of religion-based medical neglect. Of the
six states that provide a religious exemption to manslaughter,
negligent homicide, or capital murder, Idaho is the only one
where children are known to have died at the hands of faith-
healing parents in the past 20 years. Six states have now
struck all religious protections for crimes against children,
but Oregon’s reforms are the most extensive. And to date, the
state has now won every faith-healing child death case it has
prosecuted.
Rita Swan, cofounder of CHILD, and other child advocates
argue that Idaho’s laws and those like them directly contradict
the Supreme Court’s 1944 decision in Prince v. Massachusetts,
which ruled that parental authority cannot jeopardize a child’s
welfare, even in cases of religious expression. Yet the result of
the profound chilling effect Idaho’s religious exemption laws
have had on the authorities who might enforce them is that
those claims have never been put to the test.
Few with power or political will in Idaho have been compelled
to stop the growing body count. Earlier in 2014, a proposal was
introduced in Idaho’s state legislature to amend its religious-
shield laws, but it never got to the floor. There is currently no
sponsor for a new bill, and the chance of one gaining traction in
the 2015 legislature is slim.
Advocates are praying that they will find a way to make the
issue resonate with lawmakers and the public in Idaho. “If we
can change the laws there, we might be able to give some of
these kids a chance at growing up,” says Martin. “The torture of
these children has got to stop.” (Vocativ, 11/17/14)
Falun Gong loses court case over permanent protest
structure at Chinese consulate
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has sided with the City
of Vancouver in its dispute with Falun Gong protesters, ruling
that amended city bylaws prohibiting permanent structures
are constitutional and place a “reasonable” limit on the group’s
right to freedom of expression. The bylaw requires groups who
want to erect structures for political protests on city streets to
first obtain a permit. “The amended bylaws provide guidelines
for obtaining a permit to use a structure that conveys political
expression,” Justice Bowden wrote in the ruling.
At issue is a protest vigil first erected in 2001 near the Chinese
Consulate-General in the 3300-block Granville Street. It
included a large sign on the sidewalk supported by scaffolding
and a meditation hut on the boulevard. The protest was
maintained 24-7 until the City of Vancouver requested and
received a court injunction to remove the structures. The
protesters challenged that decision and the Court of Appeal
agreed the city’s bylaws were unconstitutional, but suspended
the effect of its decision for 6 months to allow for a revision in
the bylaws. In the end result, the deciding judge stated that “I
find the amended bylaws to be constitutional and the petition
is dismissed.”
Grace Pastine, litigation director for the BC Civil Liberties
Association, which was an intervener in the case, said the bylaw
does pose an unreasonable limit on freedom of expression, and
that the organization is disappointed by the ruling. She said,
“…if the city can safely allow sidewalk cafés and sandwich
boards on our public streets, surely, it seems, we can make
room for the type of political expression that lies at the very
heart of a democratic society.” (The Province, 12/4/14)
Falun Gong trial lawyer describes mistreatment from China
courts
Authorities in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, China
have put on trial four members of the banned Falun Gong
spiritual movement amid tight security that also has targeted
the members’ defense lawyers.
The trial at a court in Heilongjiang’s Jiansanjiang city has
charged the defendants with “using an evil cult to undermine
law enforcement,” according to a defense attorney. But
according to defense attorney Wang Yu, the first day was
delayed with tight security measures, procedural issues, and
repeated security checks.
Wang said some “very serious problems” still remain. “The
indictment wasn’t legally drawn up. The indictment the
prosecutor read out in court wasn’t the same as the indictment
that the defendants and the defense attorneys had been given,
and the evidence that it referred to was different from the
evidence that we had access to.”
At the same time, Wang and the other prominent defense
lawyers on the case were keeping close together and checking
up on each other’s safety during the trial in light of the serious
mistreatment of four defense attorneys related to the case
in March 2014. Those attorneys were detained for more than
two weeks in Jiansanjiang by the authorities before being
released after they had traveled there to investigate claims
that the Falun Gong practitioners were being held illegally
in a “black jail,” or extrajudicial detention center. Two of them
detailed extreme physical abuse while in detention and a third
described torture while in custody.
Wang Yu said that so far in the current trial the authorities
hadn’t made any attempt to detain her, although she was being
watched and followed. “There are plainclothes police officers
watching my hotel, and they were following me all the way
after I left court today,” she said. “Last night, nobody searched
my room, but that doesn’t mean they won’t over the next few
days,” she said. All four defendants pleaded “not guilty” to the
charges at the trial, which is set to continue, Wang said. (Radio
Free Asia, 12/17/14)
32
in the state, where officials have been empowered by some
of the strictest laws in the country. Oregon has successfully
prosecuted three similar cases since 2011.
There have been 20 documented faith-healing fatalities of
minors since 2008 in 10 different states outside of Oregon and
Idaho, including Texas, Colorado, and Pennsylvania, according
to Children’s Healthcare Is a Legal Duty (CHILD), a national
advocacy group. Currently, 32 states provide a religious
defense to felony or misdemeanor crimes specifically against
children. Most of these laws are remnants of a 1970s federal
decision granted at the urging of the Christian Science Church
to withhold funding for child-abuse programs in states that
did not enact some form of religious immunity for parents who
favored spiritual healing over medical care. The government
later rescinded the regulation, but most states left the laws in
place.
At this time, 38 states also provide religious exemptions in their
child-abuse and neglect civil codes that discourage reporting
and can prevent Child Protective Services from investigating
and monitoring cases of religion-based medical neglect. Of the
six states that provide a religious exemption to manslaughter,
negligent homicide, or capital murder, Idaho is the only one
where children are known to have died at the hands of faith-
healing parents in the past 20 years. Six states have now
struck all religious protections for crimes against children,
but Oregon’s reforms are the most extensive. And to date, the
state has now won every faith-healing child death case it has
prosecuted.
Rita Swan, cofounder of CHILD, and other child advocates
argue that Idaho’s laws and those like them directly contradict
the Supreme Court’s 1944 decision in Prince v. Massachusetts,
which ruled that parental authority cannot jeopardize a child’s
welfare, even in cases of religious expression. Yet the result of
the profound chilling effect Idaho’s religious exemption laws
have had on the authorities who might enforce them is that
those claims have never been put to the test.
Few with power or political will in Idaho have been compelled
to stop the growing body count. Earlier in 2014, a proposal was
introduced in Idaho’s state legislature to amend its religious-
shield laws, but it never got to the floor. There is currently no
sponsor for a new bill, and the chance of one gaining traction in
the 2015 legislature is slim.
Advocates are praying that they will find a way to make the
issue resonate with lawmakers and the public in Idaho. “If we
can change the laws there, we might be able to give some of
these kids a chance at growing up,” says Martin. “The torture of
these children has got to stop.” (Vocativ, 11/17/14)
Falun Gong loses court case over permanent protest
structure at Chinese consulate
A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has sided with the City
of Vancouver in its dispute with Falun Gong protesters, ruling
that amended city bylaws prohibiting permanent structures
are constitutional and place a “reasonable” limit on the group’s
right to freedom of expression. The bylaw requires groups who
want to erect structures for political protests on city streets to
first obtain a permit. “The amended bylaws provide guidelines
for obtaining a permit to use a structure that conveys political
expression,” Justice Bowden wrote in the ruling.
At issue is a protest vigil first erected in 2001 near the Chinese
Consulate-General in the 3300-block Granville Street. It
included a large sign on the sidewalk supported by scaffolding
and a meditation hut on the boulevard. The protest was
maintained 24-7 until the City of Vancouver requested and
received a court injunction to remove the structures. The
protesters challenged that decision and the Court of Appeal
agreed the city’s bylaws were unconstitutional, but suspended
the effect of its decision for 6 months to allow for a revision in
the bylaws. In the end result, the deciding judge stated that “I
find the amended bylaws to be constitutional and the petition
is dismissed.”
Grace Pastine, litigation director for the BC Civil Liberties
Association, which was an intervener in the case, said the bylaw
does pose an unreasonable limit on freedom of expression, and
that the organization is disappointed by the ruling. She said,
“…if the city can safely allow sidewalk cafés and sandwich
boards on our public streets, surely, it seems, we can make
room for the type of political expression that lies at the very
heart of a democratic society.” (The Province, 12/4/14)
Falun Gong trial lawyer describes mistreatment from China
courts
Authorities in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, China
have put on trial four members of the banned Falun Gong
spiritual movement amid tight security that also has targeted
the members’ defense lawyers.
The trial at a court in Heilongjiang’s Jiansanjiang city has
charged the defendants with “using an evil cult to undermine
law enforcement,” according to a defense attorney. But
according to defense attorney Wang Yu, the first day was
delayed with tight security measures, procedural issues, and
repeated security checks.
Wang said some “very serious problems” still remain. “The
indictment wasn’t legally drawn up. The indictment the
prosecutor read out in court wasn’t the same as the indictment
that the defendants and the defense attorneys had been given,
and the evidence that it referred to was different from the
evidence that we had access to.”
At the same time, Wang and the other prominent defense
lawyers on the case were keeping close together and checking
up on each other’s safety during the trial in light of the serious
mistreatment of four defense attorneys related to the case
in March 2014. Those attorneys were detained for more than
two weeks in Jiansanjiang by the authorities before being
released after they had traveled there to investigate claims
that the Falun Gong practitioners were being held illegally
in a “black jail,” or extrajudicial detention center. Two of them
detailed extreme physical abuse while in detention and a third
described torture while in custody.
Wang Yu said that so far in the current trial the authorities
hadn’t made any attempt to detain her, although she was being
watched and followed. “There are plainclothes police officers
watching my hotel, and they were following me all the way
after I left court today,” she said. “Last night, nobody searched
my room, but that doesn’t mean they won’t over the next few
days,” she said. All four defendants pleaded “not guilty” to the
charges at the trial, which is set to continue, Wang said. (Radio
Free Asia, 12/17/14)
32
