Posts Tagged ‘China’
March 15, 2014
Today, 14 March, Amnesty International brought out a statement severely criticizing China‘s treatment of human rights defenders in need of medical care. Cao Shunli, 52, died from organ failure on Friday at a hospital in Beijing, after five months in detention. Repeated requests by Cao’s family for her to receive medical treatment for serious health problems were denied.[ https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/02/25/serious-concern-for-health-of-detained-human-rights-defender-cao-shunli/]
“Cao Shunli’s death exposes just how callous and calculating the Chinese authorities are prepared to be to silence critics. The authorities today have blood on their hands.” said Anu Kultalahti, China Researcher at Amnesty International. “Cao Shunli was a courageous woman who paid the ultimate price for the fight for human rights in China. She should have never been detained in the first place; but to then deny her the medical treatment she desperately needed is a most barbaric act.”
Cao had led attempts to allow activists to contribute to China’s national human rights report, ahead of a UPR review at the UN Human Rights Council in 2013 and was arrested in September as she attempted to travel to Geneva to attend a human rights training course. Her detention was seen by many as a reprisal for her wanting to contribute to a public discussion on violations in China – the charges against her concerned “picking quarrels and making trouble” . The full Council is expected to hear the result of the UPR session on Wednesday 19 March. It will be interesting to see how the States and in particular China is going to react to this tragic event.
Many other NGOs and media have come out with statements about the death of Cao Shunli including Front Line (“Chinese Government Responsible for the Death of Cao Shunli“) and the International Service for Human Rights (http://www.ishr.ch/news/un-human-rights-council-must-demand-accountability-death-cao-shunli).
Posted in AI, Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Council, Human Rights Defenders, ISHR | 2 Comments »
Tags: AI, Amnesty International, Cao Shunli, China, Front Line (NGO), Geneva, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, human rights lawyer, ill treatment, illegal detention, International Service for Human Rights, lawyer, medical care. Cao Shunli, Reprisal, reprisals, UN, UN Human Rights Council, UPR, woman human rights defender
March 6, 2014
Last year was the worst for human rights since 2008, says the 2013 annual report from Chinese Human Rights Defenders [CHRD]. The signature “Chinese Dream” of the new leadership has instead become a “nightmare,” it says. “The Chinese government’s assault on activists last year indicates just how far authorities under the rule of President Xi Jinping are willing to go to suppress an increasingly active and emboldened civil society,” said Renee Xia, the international director of CHRD. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: 2008 Summer Olympics, annual report 2013, China, Chinese government, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, CHRD, Civil society, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, human rights lawyers, New Citizens’ Movement, President Xi Jinping, Renee Xia, repression, universality, Xu Zhiyong
February 28, 2014
Regular readers of this blog know that I like the idea of holding celebrities accountable (most recently: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/02/10/star-power-and-human-rights-a-difficult-but-doable-mix/). The reason is that there is a mutually reinforcing (and for many profitable) interaction between the stars and the media (which in turn feed on the interest of the public). Celebrities’ views on all kind of issues – including human rights – can hardly be called private. Their social media are virtual industries and influence millions globally. So it seems a good idea to have an annual look at which celebrities have advanced and which have harmed the cause of human rights around the world. Halvorssen and Leigh Hancock ( of the Human Rights Foundation) have done exactly that in the Atlantic on 27 February 2004 and linked it to the upcoming Oscars night on Sunday.
(Gary Hershorn/Reuters)
The list of celebrities deserving recognition for their accomplishments in the field of human rights or those who should be ashamed for supporting human-rights violators, is long and contains many video links. Like the real Oscars, the list is slanted in terms of geopolitical interest and I think that if all major international human rights organisations would get together to agree on a list if would be more balanced, but that is probably wishful thinking. Still, the Human Rights Foundation deserves credit for this creative initiative. and here is the summary:
The Nominees for Outstanding Work in the Field of Human Rights Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in awards, films, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Foundation | 5 Comments »
Tags: Africa, Angola, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bahrain, Bassem Youssef, Ben Kingsley, Bono, celebrities, China, Colin Firth, Cui Jian, democratic republic of the congo, Dennis Rodman, Egypt, Emma Thompson, Equatorial Guinea, Fat Joe, Gabriela Montero, George Clooney, Gustavo Dudamel, Halvorssen, hollywood, human rights, Human Rights Foundation, human trafficking, Jennifer Lopez, Jon Stewart, Julio Iglesias, Kanye West, Kazakhstan, Khalid Abdalla, Kim Kardashian, Leigh Hancock, LGBT rights, Libya, Madonna, major star power, Mariah Carey, Muammar Gaddafi, North Korea, oscar night, Oscars, Russia, Susan Sarandon, the Atlantic, The Square, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Venezuela
February 27, 2014
(People hold candles at Light the Dark – a vigil in response to tragic turn of events on Manus Island that left one person dead and 77 injured. Source: News Corp Australia)
On 26 February the Australian Herald Sun contained an article by Rita Panahi under the provocative title: “Human rights lectures are little more than a joke“. In it she hits hard at some countries that criticize Australia’s interception and detention policy of refugees. “Being lectured to by China and Iran about human rights abuses is a bit like taking advice on etiquette from Miley Cyrus. It’s not just the pot calling the sparkly stainless steel kettle black, but then accusing it of racial profiling.” Quite rightly she points to the irony that Iran feels “emboldened to attack, despite the fact the young man killed was supposedly fleeing that country.”[The riots in Manus Island detention centre escalated into a riot on Monday and 23-year-old Iranian Reza Berati was killed’]
Even China, with its record of silencing dissidents, felt entitled to question Australia’s record. China’s Foreign Affairs Vice-Minister, Li Baodong, criticised our asylum policy and expressed concern for “the protection of refugees and asylum seekers and the right of the children of refugees”. He said: “We have also asked about whether these refugees will be illegally repatriated to other countries.”
In looking at the China’s own human rights record the author then states: “Of course, China’s human rights abuses are not restricted to terrorising pregnant women. According to Amnesty International, “harassment, surveillance, house arrest and imprisonment of human rights defenders are on the rise and censorship of the internet and other media has grown. Repression of minority groups, including Tibetans, Uighurs and Mongolians, and of Falun Gong practitioners and Christians who practise their religion outside state-sanctioned churches, continues”. China and Iran indeed also execute more people than any other country.
However, to conclude now that these nations have “no right to question any country, let alone one with values of freedom and fairness, such as Australia” is a bit much. If only ‘sparkly’ clean countries are allowed to address human rights issues, it is going to be extremely silent. Would it not be preferable to have a substantive discussion of human rights issues? One that would include – in the case of Rita Pahani – at least a mention of the statement by Amnesty International – so eagerly quoted on above on China – on Australia’s refugee policy. It should not have escaped the author as the Amnesty statement came just two days before her own writing.
To help in her research: “On Monday 24 February, Amnesty International in a report took a swipe at Australia for the way the country has responded to the global refugee crisis. Amnesty said Canberra should have accepted more refugees fleeing the bloody crisis in Syria. The group said the country had the capability to take in seven thousand five hundred Syrian refugees. The rights group also called on Canberra not to send and detain vulnerable refugees on Islands in Papua New Guinea and the Republic of Nauru.” http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/02/24/352094/aussies-under-fire-over-refugee-stance/
Human rights lectures are little more than a joke | Herald Sun.
Posted in AI, Amnesty international, human rights | Leave a Comment »
Tags: AI, Amnesty International, Australia, Canberra, China, detention, double standards, Herald Sun, human rights, human rights abuses, Iran, Manus, News Corp Australia, refugee law, refugees, Reza Berati, Rita Pahani
February 26, 2014
On the heels of my post yesterday on Cao Shunli‘s health (https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/02/25/serious-concern-for-health-of-detained-human-rights-defender-cao-shunli/), exiled, blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng laments that China is cracking down harder than ever on human rights defenders, but says (somewhat unrealistically I should add) that the leadership should brace for a Ukraine-style uprising. “It is possible for the Chinese to have a similar revolution to the one in Ukraine. It could happen any time,” Chen told Nina Larson of AFP on 25 February in Geneva. “There are many, so very man arrests“, mentioning just as an example the arrest late last month of the parents of human rights activist Xue Mingkai, who had spent four years in prison for joining a banned party. While in custody, the father, Xue Fushun, plunged to his death from a window several stories up, in what police said was a suicide.
Frontline Defenders informed us a bit earlier that on 29 January 2014, the verdicts were released in the trials of human rights defenders, Mr Yuan Dong and Ms Hou Xin, both of whom are affiliated with the New Citizens’ Movement and had been facing charges of “gathering a crowd to disrupt public order”. Yuan Dong was sentenced to 18 months in prison, whilst Hou Xin was found guilty but did not receive a sentence. Yuan Dong and Hou Xin were originally detained, along with Zhang Baocheng and Ma Xinli, on charges of “illegal assembly” on 31 March 2013 [http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/22993] after banners with slogans such as “require officials to publicly disclose public assets” were allegedly unfurled during a rally in Xidan Cultural Plaza in Beijing’s Xicheng district. Hou Xin had only been photographically documenting the rally.
Besides the recent sentencing to four years imprisonment of one of the founders of the New Citizens’ Movement, Mr Xu Zhiyong, many more human rights defenders affiliated with the movement remain in detention (https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/01/24/xu-zhiyongs-closing-statement-to-the-court-a-remarkable-document/)
On the other hand, on 25 February 2014 it was confirmed that Ilham Tohti (feared disappeared) has now been formally arrested on charges of “splitting the country” and is being held in a detention centre in Xinjiang province. (https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2014/02/12/has-uyghur-professor-ilham-tohti-disappeared-in-china/
For the full interview with Chen: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jLVlcgDJvTALGKEGE8kNJd3E43cA?docId=baf85933-271a-42b9-8e34-8210a195cbee
By the way China’s extraordinary sensitivity to ‘interference’ of any level into what it considers its domestic affairs is well-known. I touched upon this ‘hot’ topic’ in my own 2011 article “The international human rights movement: not perfect, but a lot better than many governments think” in the book ‘NGOs in China and Europe’ (exceptionally also published in Chinese!): Yuwen Li (ed), Ashgate, 2011, pp 287-304 (ISBN: 978-1-4094-1959-4).
Posted in books, Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Foundation | Leave a Comment »
Tags: arbitrary arrest, Ashgate, Chen Guangcheng, China, freedom of expression, Front Line (NGO), Hou Xin, Human Rights Defenders, Ilham Tohti, illegal detention, interference in internal affairs, NGOs in China and Europe, repression, Thoolen, Ukraine, Uyghur, Xu Zhiyong, Xue Mingkai, Yuan Dong, Yuwen Li
February 25, 2014
(human rights defenders in the photo were not allowed to see Cao – Sound of Hope)
Critically ill human rights defender Cao Shunli, who was prevented from attending a United Nations human rights review of China last fall, was taken to intensive care on 16 February 2014 after being denied medical treatment for months while in detention. “Cao Shunli is unconscious and on a ventilator,” her lawyer Wang Yu explained to Radio Free Asia. “She can’t talk and her condition is extremely serious… We think her life is in danger, but the hospital won’t give us any details; they just mumble something when we ask them,” he continued. A nurse blocked the entrance to the intensive care unit and told rights defender Wang Ling that Cao was “deeply unconscious” and would not recognize him, according to Human Rights in China (HRIC). Though Cao was initially taken to Beijing’s Qinghe Emergency Center, she was then transferred to an Army hospital, though her family requested that she be taken to an acute care hospital. Police at the hospital prevented activists from entering the hospital, and about 20 of them were taken to police substations for questioning, Wang Ling told HRIC.
[Cao and fellow rights defender Chen Jianfang were detained on 13 September, 2013 at Beijing’s International airport as they were leaving to fly to Geneva to take part in activities associated with the United Nations Human Rights Council UPR review of China’s human rights record. On the eve of the review, 21 October, she was formally arrested and charged with “creating a disturbance,” and has been detained since then. See earlier posts:
https://thoolen.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/un-alarmed-by-reprisals-against-chinese-activists/ and https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/cao-shunli/
Also: http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/CaoShunli
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Council, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: Cao, Cao Shunli, Chen Jianfang, China, human rights defender Cao Shunli, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights in China (HRIC), ill treatment, medical, reprisals, retaliation, UN, United Nations, UPR, Wang Ling, Wang Yu, woman human rights defender
February 12, 2014
The family of Uyghur professor Ilham Tohti has had no news of his whereabouts since he was arrested at his home in Beijing on January 15, 2014. Tohti is a leading academic and one of the most prominent commentators on basic rights issues affecting the Uyghur people. The Uyghurs are a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority—in a country that is 91.6% Han Chinese—that live primarily in the Xinjiang region of China and have been repressed by the government. The Chinese authorities raided Tohti’s home on January 15, arresting him and confiscating his computer. The public security bureau in the capital of Xinjiang released a statement accusing Tohti of inciting separatism, but refused to inform his family where he is being held.
On 21 March 2013 Tohti had been put already under house arrest: https://thoolen.wordpress.com/tag/ilham-tohti/
via:
http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/node/24684
China: HRF Condemns the Arrest and Disappearance of Uyghur Professor Ilham Tohti | News | The Human Rights Foundation.
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Human Rights Foundation | 1 Comment »
Tags: arrest, China, Forced disappearance, freedom of expression, Front Line (NGO), Human rights defender, Human Rights Foundation, Ilham Tohti, illegal detention, minorities, minority rights, Uyghur
January 24, 2014
This is the full text of Xu Zhiyong’s closing statement to the Court on January 22, 2014, at the end of his trial in China. According to his lawyer, he had only been able to read “about 10 minutes of it before the presiding judge stopped him, saying it was irrelevant to the case.” For historical reason the full text of his long statement (translated by a group of volunteers) “For Freedom, Justice and Love” follows below: Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 3 Comments »
Tags: anti corruption, Beijing, China, Civil society, constitutional democracy, dissidents, freedom of expression, illegal detention, independence of the judiciary, statement, Xu Zhiyong
January 16, 2014
Index on Censorship is basing a series of articles on its larger report by Mike Harris, Time to Step Up: The EU and freedom of expression.
On 14 January 2014 came the one the ‘southern neighbourhood’ arguing that the credibility of the EU’s swing in focus from economic development towards human rights (after the outbreak of the Arab spring) is low.
The EU’s communication “A partnership for democracy and shared prosperity with the southern Mediterranean“ (published on 8 May 2011) addresses the EU’s commitment to financially support transition to democracy and civil society and heralds the creation of the Civil Society Facility for the neighbourhood (covering both the southern and eastern neighbourhoods), while the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) deployed a number of operations in the region to protect and promote freedom of expression, often without the consent of the host country. Still, the article argues, european countries are often still seen as former allies of repressive regimes.
http://www.indexoncensorship.org/2014/01/eu-freedom-expression-southern-neighbourhood/
The one of 15 January, entitled ‘The EU and free expression: Human rights dialogues’, looks at the situation that the EU runs 30 human rights dialogues across the globe, with the key dialogues taking place in China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia and Belarus. It also has a dialogues with the African Union. The article is more detailed on China
The article concludes: “With criticism of the effectiveness and openness of the dialogues, the EU should look again at how the dialogues fit into the overall strategy of the Union and its member states in the promotion of human rights with third countries and assess whether the dialogues can be improved.“
The EU and free expression: Human rights dialogues – Index on Censorship | Index on Censorship.
Posted in EU, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, Index on Censorship | 1 Comment »
Tags: Arab spring, Asia, Catherine Ashton, censorship, Central Asia, China, Civil society, Democracy, diplomacy, diplomatic action, Egypt, EIDHR, EU, free expression, freedom of expression, funding, human rights, human rights dialogue, Index on Censorship, Mediterranean, Mike Harris, north africa, Tunisia
December 15, 2013
On 15 December the Latin American Herald reported that the founder of a Chinese civil rights group known as the New Citizens’ Movement has been formally charged with disturbing public order and could face trial this month. The charges against Xu Zhiyong, whose group promotes upholding the Chinese constitution and reigning in the power of Communist Party leaders, were filed at the recommendation of the Beijing police, according to the China Human Rights Defenders organization.Dissidents who attempt to mount protests in China are frequently charged with disrupting public order. Xu’s attorney, Zhang Qingfang, said it was suspicious how quickly the prosecutor’s office filed the charges after receiving the police’s recommendation, adding that authorities may want the trial held over the Christmas holidays so there is less international media attention. Beijing police said Xu, who was arrested in August, “used tactics to organize and carry out a series of criminal activities, including distributing prohibited pamphlets in public places and organizing disturbances outside government installations.” The charges against Xu come shortly after another activist from that same movement, high-profile businessman Wang Gongquan, pleaded guilty to “disrupting public order” a few months after his arrest. The former close associate of Xu’s said he would cut ties with the founder of the New Citizens’ Movement, the South China Morning Post reported earlier this month, citing two sources familiar with the case.
via Latin American Herald Tribune – Chinese Prosecutors Charge Activist with Disturbing Public Order.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: anti corruption, Beijing, Beijing police, China, China Human Rights Defenders, Chinese constitution, Communist Party, Communist Party of China, freedom of expression, freedom to demonstrate, human rights, Human rights defender, Latin American Herald Tribune, New Citizens’ Movement, Public-order crime, South China Morning Post, Wang Gongquan, Xu Zhiyong
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 