Chinese Human Rights Defenders- Promoting human rights and empowering grassroots activism in China
Comments Off on Chinese Human Rights Defenders- Promoting human rights and empowering grassroots activism in ChinaOriginally published in Community of Democracies (blog) on April 22, 2013
Do the names Zhou Decai, Cao Haibo, Chen Wei, Chen Xi or Cui Fufang ring a bell to you? They are all prisoners of conscience in China. The Chinese Human Right Defenders (CHRD) are doing all they can to make the stories of prisoners of consciousness heard.
On its website, CHRD defines itself as “a network of Chinese and international activists promoting human rights and empowering rights defenders in China. A non-governmental organization, CHRD provides logistical support and capacity-building services to human rights advocates, monitors human rights developments, and assists victims of human rights abuses. CHRD advocates the peaceful realization of human rights protection through democratization and rule of law reform.”
There are many activities of the network: just to name numerous reports have been published, the last one of them being the “2012 annual report on the situation of human rights in China”; It also submits constant reports and appeals to the UN on the situation of human rights in China, urging it to act for its improvement; their website and Twitter account provide constant updates on human rights violations in China, as well as pictures and videos, with stories which do not usually reach the mainstream media.
Renee Xia, the International Director of CHRD, is going to represent the network at the Ministerial Conference in Ulaanbaatar. We find Ms. Xia’s presence in the conference extremely important, and are eager to hear from her about the struggle for human rights under a hostile environment. We have a strong feeling that her insights will be no less than inspiring.