Posts Tagged ‘China’
June 22, 2016
On 21 June 2016 it was announced that Louise Arbour, a Canadian lawyer and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, was named the winner of the second Tang Prize in rule of law. The Tang Prize is awarded to Arbour “for her enduring contributions to international criminal justice and the protection of human rights, to promoting peace, justice and security at home and abroad, and to working within the law to expand the frontiers of freedom for all,” Arbour, 69, was also the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and for Rwanda (ICTR) between 1996 and 1999. In 1998, Arbour became the first prosecutor to get a conviction of genocide in an international tribunal, when the ICTR convicted Jean-Paul Akayesu, a mayor in Rwanda, of genocide. Tribunal defined rape as a means of perpetrating genocide — the first time that rape was considered an act of genocide by an international tribunal. The following year, as the chief prosecutor for the ICTY, Arbour again made history by indicting Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who became the first sitting head of state to be tried for war crimes by an international tribunal.
A Tang Prize award ceremony will be held Sept. 25 in Taipei. The laureate will receive a cash prize of US$1.23 million and a research grant of up to NT$10 million to be used within five years.
The biennial Tang Prize was established in 2012 by Taiwanese entrepreneur Samuel Yin to complement the Nobel Prize and to honor top researchers and leaders in four fields: sustainable development, biopharmaceutical science, sinology and rule of law.
This year the Tang Prize in the category sinology also has a human rights component as the laureate is William Theodore de Bary, Professor Emeritus of Columbia University. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: China, Columbia University, Confucianism, Louise Arbour, rule of law, Samuel Yin, sinology, Taiwan, Tang Prize, William Theodore de Bary
June 7, 2016
Radio Free Asia reported on 6 June 2016 that detained (on suspicion of “subversion of state power”) lawyer
Wang Yu was awarded the prestigious
Ludovic Trarieux Prize in Athens on Saturday. [for more info on award see:
http://www.brandsaviors.com/thedigest/award/ludovic-trarieux-international-human-rights-prize]. The jury said it wanted to “
hail the courage” of a woman who “
decided that she could no longer keep her mouth shut,” founder Bernard Favreau said. “
She chose to expose herself to dangers in order to defend the rights of women, children and persecuted minorities,” he told Agence France-Presse.
Wang’s attorney Wen Donghai welcomed the award. “They used a serious of objective criteria, for example, the fact that Wang Yu often gave legal assistance to clients from vulnerable groups,” Wen said. “This has nothing to do with any government, nor with diplomacy.” But he said the award is unlikely to help Wang’s case with the Chinese authorities. “I don’t hold out much hope of that, because our government has a very biased attitude to such prizes, and they see human rights groups as trying to interfere in China’s internal affairs,” Wen said. “In reality, rights groups aren’t targeting China, but trying to help victims and vulnerable people around the world.” Wang has unfortunately figured regularly in this blog: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/wang-yu/
[The award comes as the families of dozens of rights lawyers detained on similar charges hit out at the government for denying the detainees access to their lawyers, and amid concerns that some detainees may have been tortured or sexually abused in police detention centers.]
On 5 June 2016, in a
joint letter Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, China Aid, Freedom House, Human Rights in China, Initiatives for China, International Campaign for Tibet, Reporters without Borders, Uyghur Human Rights Project, and World Uygur Congress – urged the US to:
- Meet with representatives of civil society in China during or immediately after the meeting;
- Press Chinese counterparts to repeal or bring into line with international law new national security laws, including the Counterterrorism and the Foreign Non-Governmental Management laws;
- Publicly call for the release of specific individuals detained for peacefully exercising their rights; and
- Publicly discuss US concerns about growing restrictions on the rights to freedom of expression and religion, among others.
In Hong Kong, protesters marched to Beijing’s Liaison Office in the former British colony on Monday, demanding an inquiry into the 2012 “suicide” death of Chinese labor rights activist Li Wangyang in police custody four years ago. Rights activist Ou Biaofeng said Li’s friends and relatives are under house arrest or close police surveillance on the anniversary of his death. “They are all under surveillance by the state security police, and are cooperating”
For the Lucovic-Trarieux prize 2015: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2015/06/14/saudi-arabian-human-rights-lawyer-waleed-abu-al-khair-wins-ludovic-trarieux-prize/
Source: Detained Chinese Lawyer Wins Award Amid Calls For Pressure on Human Rights
https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/06/05/us-show-breadth-rights-commitment-china-dialogue
Posted in awards, HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 4 Comments »
Tags: Agence France-Presse, China, digest of human rights awards, Foreign Policy of the USA, human rights awards, Human Rights Defenders, human rights lawyer, illegal detention, Li Wangyang, Ludovic Trarieux Prize, NGOs, Ou Biaofeng, Radio Free Asia, Wang Yu, Wen Donghai, woman human rights defender
May 13, 2016
Uyghur human rights defender and democracy activist Dolksun Isa is disappointed with India’s cancellation of his visa after issuing it. In an interview to Tehelka Correspondent Riyaz Wani on 12 May 2016, Isa says he is a strictly non-violent campaigner for Uyghur rights and China‘s attempt to label him a terrorist is to delegitimize the human rights work that he does to support the Uyghur community. Very much in one with the work of MEA 2016 nominee Ilham Tohti [https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2016/04/27/breaking-news-final-nominees-2016-martin-ennals-award-tohti-zone-9-bloggers-razan-zaitouneh-annoucement/] Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: China, Dolksun Isa, freedom of expression, Human rights defender, Ilham Tohti, India, MEA nominees 2016, minority rights, non-violence, stigmatization, Tehelka, Uyghur, visa denial
April 27, 2016
Just now the Martin Ennals Foundation announced that the three Final Nominees of the 2016 Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders are: 
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in awards, films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, MEA | 6 Comments »
Tags: "Zone 9” bloggers, announcement, China, detention, Ethiopia, final nominees 2016, Human Rights Defenders, Ilham Tohti, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, MEA 2016, Razan Zaitouneh, Syria, Uyghur, Violations Documentation Center (VDC), Zeitouneh
April 27, 2016
While waiting for the breaking news of who will be the Final Nominees of the 2016 Martin Ennals Award (in 2 hours) I received the sad news that the first winner of the MEA in 1994, Chinese human rights defender Harry Wu has died at the age of 79.
Harry Wu at the official award dinner in March 1994
His short bio and a film on his work can be viewed at: http://www.martinennalsaward.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=87&Itemid=120&lang=en
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, MEA | Leave a Comment »
Tags: China, death, Harry Wu, Human rights defender, in memoriam, lao gai, Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, MEA, MEA 1994, video
April 8, 2016
reports that on 8 April 2016 that human rights defender He Xiaobo (not to be confused with Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo) was released on bail after over four months in custody in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. The workers’ rights campaigner had been detained on 3 December 2015 along with a number of colleagues and on 8 January he was formally charged with ’embezzlement’. Two other human rights defenders detained at that time, Zeng Feiyang and Meng Han remain in detention and are facing charges of “gathering a crowd to disrupt social order”. He Xiaobo runs Nanfeiyan Social Work Service Centre, an NGO campaigning for compensation on behalf of workers who have been injured during the course of their work. The centre’s registration was rescinded in 2015. https://www.frontlinedefenders.org/en/case/case-history-he-xiaobo.
It is not a breakthrough in the treatment of human rights defenders in China (https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2015/01/19/the-plight-of-chinas-human-rights-lawyers-worsened/) but even small good news is welcome. On the other hand, also today Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD人权捍卫者@CHRDnet) reports that 6 human rights defenders collectively received 20.5 years in prison for exercising their rights to free speech, assembly and association
Posted in awards, Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: China, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, freedom of association, Front Line (NGO), He Xiaobo, Human Rights Defenders, human rights lawyers, labour activists, Liu Xiaobo, Meng Han, Nanfeiyan Social Work Service Centre, release on bail, Zeng Feiyang
April 8, 2016
Photo U.S. Department of State/Flickr
Human rights lawyer and activist Ni Yulan became one of the 2016 recipients of the International Women of Courage Awards conferred by the U.S. Department of State on 29 March. The wheelchair-bound human rights lawyer Ni Yulan from China was not present; she he told the BBC that her passport was withheld. Yulan Ni won the Dutch Human Rights Tulip in 2011.[https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2013/10/06/chinese-human-rights-defender-ni-yulan-freed/]
She shares the 2016 recognition from the USA with 13 other women: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in awards, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: awards, China, Fatimata M’baye, Foreign Policy of the USA, human rights awards, International Women of Courage Award, John Kerry, Latifa Ibn Ziaten, Ni Yulan, Nisha Ayub, US State Department, women human rights defenders, Zuzana Stevulová
March 30, 2016
German President Joachim Gauck (left) and Chinese President Xi Jinping are shown during the former’s recent visit to China. Photo: Reuters
Stephen Vines published a piece in 
on 29 March 2016 under the title “Why China acquiesced to German leader’s human rights lecture”. I think it is an excellent read that makes the case for continued ‘human rights interference” in China and not just there. I save you the trouble of finding it by copying it below:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: China, EJINSIGHTS, Foreign Policy, Germany, Human Rights Defenders, international protection, intervention, Joachim Gauck, non-interference, Stephen Vines, UK, USA
March 23, 2016
It is usually Norway that leads the negotiations on the resolution on human rights defenders as is the case this year at the 31st session of the UN Human Rights Council. The resolution this year takes account of the severe risks that human rights defenders face when defending economic, social and cultural rights, including as they relate to environmental, land and development issues, corporate responsibility, anti-corruption, transparency and accountability issues. The draft resolution calls on States to take effective and practical steps to address the continuing violations of the rights of defenders.
During the first week of this session of the Human Rights Council, Norwegian State Secretary Tore Hattrem stated that “Threats and attacks against human rights defenders who are exercising their right to freedom of speech to advocate economic, social and cultural rights, severely hamper the realisation of these rights”. Also Ambassador Steffen Kongstad raised this important topic during the interactive dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Michel Forst, stating that “Threats and attacks against human rights defenders may hamper the realization of economic, social and cultural rights, undermining social cohesion, and ultimately stability and development”.
The resolution has been discussed in several open informal consultations in Geneva, taking into account a number of suggestions from different countries. Norway formally tabled the resolution on 16 March full text see website. There are currently around 50 countries from all regional groups that will co-sponsor the resolution. Still, this is far from won as earlier this week a number of countries (including the serial offenders Russia, China, Egypt, Cuba and Pakistan) have put forward 31 adverse amendments to the text. These amendments include proposals which have the purpose or would have the effect of:
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Council, Human Rights Defenders, UN | 4 Comments »
Tags: China, Cuba, draft resolution, Egypt, ESC rights, Geneva, hostile amendments, Human Rights Defenders, NGOs, Norway, Pakistan, Resolution, Russia, Tore Hattrem
March 15, 2016
Yesterday, 14 March 2016 was the second anniversary of the death of Cao Shunli, a Chinese human rights defender who was detained and denied adequate medical treatment in police custody for five months, before dying in a military hospital in Beijing in 2014. This happened shortly after she was shortlisted for the Martin Ennals Award in that year. [see also https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2016/02/12/cao-shunli-a-profile-and-new-award-in-her-name/]. Has the situation improved…? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, THF | 1 Comment »
Tags: Cao Shunli, China, detention, Documentary film, Front Line Defenders, Guo Feixiong, Human Rights Defenders, human rights lawyers, remembrance, reprisals, THF, UPR, video, Wang Yu, woman human rights defender
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 