Sydney | Chinese Human Rights Defenders

China: Mass round-up of human rights lawyers casts shadow over President Xi Jingping’s Washington visit

September 20, 2015 Comments Off

Originally published by International Business Times on August 31, 2015 On July 9, Wang Yu, a celebrated human rights lawyer in Beijing with a history of defending religious minorities and political dissidents in China, sent a text message to her friend. Her electricity had been cut off and her phone line was (read more…)

List of Individual Cases Communicated to the UN

April 26, 2016 Comments Off

CHRD has made submissions to the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of activists who are arbitrarily detained, disappeared, tortured, and/or suffered retaliation for exercising their rights to freedom of assembly, association, and expression among many other human rights.

The US Must Press China for Concrete Human Rights Gains before Xi’s State Visit

September 1, 2015 Comments Off

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the United States on September 24-25 comes at a time when his government is staging a ferocious crackdown against human rights lawyers. China’s overall human rights conditions have deteriorated since Xi took power in 2013. Xi has presided over the detentions and imprisonment (read more…)

Chinese Lawyers, Activists Call For a Rights Dialogue With Teeth

August 19, 2015 Comments Off

Originally published by Radio Free Asia on August 12, 2015 A group of Chinese rights lawyers and activists has called on the United States to put pressure on Beijing at this year’s bilateral human rights dialogue in the wake of a nationwide crackdown on the country’s embattled legal profession and a slew (read more…)

Portraits of Defenders

June 30, 2021 Comments Off

CHRD profiles on several individuals who have been sent to prison or Re-education through Labor in retaliation for their human rights activism or exercising their universal rights. Some of them have already been released.

China to Send Police Officers Into Internet Companies to Curb ‘Lawbreaking’

August 10, 2015 Comments Off

Originally published by Radio Free Asia on August 5, 2015 he ruling Chinese Communist Party looks set to further tighten its grip on the nation’s 650 million netizens with the stationing of specialist police officers in major Internet companies. “We will further deepen and expand our construction of police Internet security stations, setting them up (read more…)

The US is accused of watering down a human rights report for the sake of politics and trade

August 10, 2015 Comments Off

Originally published by Quartz on August 4, 2015 An annual human rights report issued by the United States is being watered down by US diplomats in the State Department, according to a report by Reuters. Recommendations to downgrade China from the second tier to the third—for countries that fail to meet or make any (read more…)

China Copied Disney’s ‘Frozen’ With Beijing Winter Olympics Song, Critics Say

August 10, 2015 Comments Off

Originally published by International Business Times on August 4, 2015 Critics in China accused one of the country’s top songwriters of plagiarism Tuesday because of similarities between one of the Beijing Winter Olympics bid’s theme songs and “Let It Go,” the ubiquitous song from the Disney film “Frozen.” The allegations were (read more…)

To Host the Olympics, It Helps to Be a Bit Oppressive

August 6, 2015 Comments Off

Originally published by The Wall Street Journal on July 31, 2015 Forget snow, mountains and earmuffs: The must-have for a 2022 Winter Olympic bid is a dodgy attitude about human rights. Hurray! That, at least, is how critics see it (without the “hurray”). On Friday the International Olympic Committee will pick (read more…)

Beijing chosen to host 2022 Winter Olympics, angering human rights groups

August 6, 2015 Comments Off

Originally published by Los Angeles Times on July 31, 2015 Beijing will host the 2022 Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee announced Friday, making the Chinese capital the first city to host both a Summer and Winter Games. Members of the IOC, meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, announced the decision after (read more…)

Winter Olympics 2022 Host Candidates China, Kazakhstan’s Human Rights Records Draw Scrutiny, Concern

August 6, 2015 Comments Off

Originally published by International Business Times on July 30, 2015 Regardless of whether the International Olympic Committee selects Beijing or Almaty, Kazakhstan, Friday at the 128th IOC Congress in Malaysia, one thing is certain: A country with a terrible human rights record will host the 2022 Winter Olympics. An event that (read more…)

Beijing must not win 2022 Winter Olympics bid, say human rights activists

August 6, 2015 Comments Off

Originally published by The Guardian on July 29, 2015 Xinhua, China’s official news agency, this week described its bid, which is widely seen as the favourite, as the “safe choice”. “Beijing is one of the world’s top destinations for tourism and business with world-class hotels and services,” it said in an editorial. (read more…)