Thursday, February 12, 2009
China: Human Rights Lawyer in Arbitrary Detention, by Anne Humphreys
(New York) – The Chinese government should immediately disclose the whereabouts of Gao Zhisheng, a leading human rights lawyer who disappeared two weeks ago, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and Human Rights in China said today in a joint statement. The three organizations stressed that Gao was at immediate risk of severe torture and ill-treatment by the Chinese security services and called for his immediate release.
“We are intensely fearful for Gao Zhisheng’s safety at this time, given the security authorities’ long history of abusing him and his family,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “He has given detailed accounts of how he was tortured in police custody in the past and he may well be suffering more of the same right now.”
Lawyer Gao, who had been under constant police surveillance, along with his family, since receiving a suspended sentence for “inciting subversion” in 2006, was last heard from on January 19, 2009. According to reliable sources, he was subsequently detained by security forces and is being held at an unknown location.
“On February 9, the Chinese government will undergo a comprehensive review of its human rights record at the UN Human Rights Council,” said Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China. “Coming close on the heels of the scathing review by the Committee Against Torture in November 2008, arbitrarily detaining and torturing a leading rights advocate is no way to show human rights progress.”
In September 2007, Gao was detained for several weeks shortly after sending an open letter to the US Congress denouncing the human rights situation in China and describing his and his family’s treatment at the hands of the security forces.
Gao detailed his illegal detention in 2007 as well as severe and sustained torture at the hands of security agents – including violent beatings, repeated electric shocks to his genitals, and having lit cigarettes held close to his eyes over a prolonged period, which left him partially blind for days afterwards. After he was released, acquaintances described him as seeming to be “a broken man,” both physically and spiritually.
“China should immediately release Gao Zhisheng,” said Roseann Rife, Asia-Pacific deputy director at Amnesty International. “China should demonstrate that its takes its international obligations seriously, in this case specifically the obligations under the convention against torture, which the Chinese government voluntarily took on in 1988.”
In November 2008, the United Nations Committee Against Torture (CAT) reported in its “Concluding Observations” on China that it remains “deeply concerned about the continued allegations, corroborated by numerous Chinese legal sources, of routine and widespread use of torture and ill-treatment of suspects in police custody.”
Amnesty International, Human Rights in China and Human Rights Watch strongly urged concerned governments and intergovernmental bodies to call on the Chinese government to take all necessary steps to ensure Gao Zhisheng's safety and well being while in police custody and to release him at the earliest possible date.
Voted in 2001 as “one of China’s top ten lawyers” by a publication run by the PRC Ministry of Justice, Gao is a self-trained legal professional with a history of representing the victims of some of the most egregious and politically controversial cases of human rights abuses by the police and other government agencies. In October 2005, he wrote a series of three letters to President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao calling on them to halt the continuing torture and ill-treatment of detained Falun Gong practitioners and the ongoing persecution of underground Christians and democracy activists.
After his 2007 detention, Gao expressed fears that he would be tortured again if he was rearrested.
In June 2007, Gao received the Courageous Advocacy Award of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). His memoirs, A China More Just, were published in English the same year.
Link
Labels: Anne Humphreys, China, Human rights, Human Rights Watch
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Well-known dissident blogger arrested for “inciting subversion”, by Francis Chartrand
Reporters Without Borders condemns today’s arrest of blogger Guo Quan at his home in Nanjing, the capital of the central province of Jiangsu, for posting blog entries deemed to be “too radical.” He is currently being held in a Nanjing police station on a charge of “inciting subversion of state authority.” The police took his computer when they arrested him.
“What the authorities regard as ‘too radical’ is open letters to the government calling for democratic change,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Guo’s arrest is further evidence, if any were needed, that the Chinese dictatorship systematically punishes those who express views different from the Party’s. We unfortunately fear that Guo could be jailed for a long time, like the 49 other cyber-dissidents currently held in China.”
Previously arrested on 18 May, Guo reported after being held for 10 days : “The authorities... tried to extract information from me. As I refused to name the dissidents I know, they kept me in custody for longer.” He said the Communist Party wanted to dismantle the network he created to help victims of the 12 May earthquake in the western province of Sichuan.
The Chinese New People’s Party, the pro-democracy party he founded at the end of last year, was meeting on a daily basis one week after the earthquake to collect blood and encourage acceptance of foreign humanitarian aid.
Guo had been under house arrest since February after calling for the creation of a Chinese Netizen Party to combat online censorship. He also announced on 4 February that he intended to sue the US company Google for ensuring - at the Chinese government’s request after he created the Chinese New People’s Party - that searches for his name on its Chinese-language search engine (http://www.google.cn) yielded no results.
Guo has been posting open letters on his blog calling for pro-democracy reforms ever since he was fired from his post as philosophy professor at Nanjing university.
Link
Labels: China, Francis Chartrand, Reporters without borders
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Human rights and the Olympics in Beijing | It is time to raise the tone, by Marie-Êve Marineau
Things did not go as we had announced. At present, we should be able to see the benefits of granting the Games to China in the field of human rights.
Many people are concerned that the Games are held in a country with so little respect human rights and stressed that the decision was inconsistent with the Olympic ideal: to promote a peaceful society sensitive human dignity . When the decision was taken in 2001, the International Olympic Committee and the Chinese government told the world that these concerns were unfounded. They argued that these Games raffermiraient China's commitment to universal values of respect for human rights.
This was only rhetoric. Little progress has been made over the next seven years. And very few efforts have been made to push China to respect its commitments. In fact, the latest report by Amnesty International documenting a litany of broken promises.
Serious violations and continuing human rights being committed in China despite Olympics to come. But even worse, we are witnessing serious violations caused by the Olympics.
The spokesman of the local who tried to file complaints when people have been driven from their homes to make way for Olympic facilities are in prison. The militants, who wanted to speak about the Games and rights associated with them are in prison. The campaigns of "cleansing" pre-Olympic have targeted people from outside Beijing-beggars, street vendors without permits and others. Many of them were sent to be "rehabilitated" in the notorious labour camps of a merciless hardness.
Chinese leaders and IOC have responded with irritation that the debate is moved and we should not mix politics with sport. We are just beginning to hear Jacques Rogge, IOC President, issue some criticism. We have heard little recrimination - whether from the government or representatives of the Canadian sport - indicating a willingness serious, constructive or plans to put forward human rights at this crucial time.
The goal is not to mix politics and sport. It goes far beyond politics. They are defending universal values most precious uniting us: fundamental rights.
The pride of China is at stake. All China looks forward to these Games, whose prestige is expected to affect its inhabitants. But why defend its pride with anger, denial and censorship? Imagine instead what pride China could reap if it showed the world that these Olympics will leave a positive imprint on human rights on its territory.
The state places? Prime Minister Harper has expressed concern about violations of human rights in China and announced that he would not at the Games. In the same breath, however, he asserts that his decision has nothing to do with human rights and that Canada will send "a high-level delegation". This is far from clear.
A few days of the opening ceremonies, all countries and all IOC members must make their voices heard around the world to call for an end to human rights violations in China. The reforms for human rights must be undertaken without delay.
The many Chinese prisoners of conscience, including activists, journalists, bloggers and anyone who criticized the Olympics, must be released. The censorship of the media and the Internet must end. The authorities should abolish the cruel and abusive practice of re-education through labour camps and the death penalty. And that's not all.
The thousands of Canadians who signed petitions delivered today at the Chinese Embassy have made their voices heard against human rights violations in China. They will continue their work pressure for Chinese defenders of human rights so that they can continue their fight.
Now, it is the turn of the Canadian government to add its voice to international pressure calling for respect of human rights in China.
Labels: China, Marie-Êve Marineau
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Surprise in Beijing, by Noémie Cournoyer
This event has been overshadowed by action by a group of four foreigners. Two Britons and two Americans have foiled security in place banners on utility poles before the Olympic stadium. They called in particular the "free Tibet." The demonstrators were arrested by police 12 minutes after the first deployed a banner near the bird nest, "said agency official New China.
Members of the Chinese security tried to remove the banner of pro-Tibet demonstrators.
According to Students for a Free Tibet, the messages were visible for an hour.
The incident recalls several stages of the torch relay in the spring, including London, Paris and San Francisco, where protibétains demonstrators protested against the Chinese repression in Tibet.
Several thousand soldiers and policemen were deployed in the Chinese capital, where the Olympic flame must move for three days before lighting the cauldron at the opening ceremony.
Wednesday, the first torchbearer in the capital since the Tiananmen Square was the Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei. The basketball player Yao Ming followed shortly thereafter.
Labels: China, Noémie Cournoyer, Sports
Monday, May 12, 2008
How to advocate "Made in China"
Labels: China, Jérémie Carvalro, Reporters without borders, Sports
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