Alerts & Statements | Chinese Human Rights Defenders

Concerns in Chinese Civil Society Over “Ineffective” US-China Human Rights Dialogue

August 11, 2015 Comments Off

Human rights lawyers and activists call for concrete measures to improve the rapidly deteriorating human rights situation in China in advance of the annual US-China Human Rights Dialogue, which is taking place in Washington, D.C. on August 13-14. The dialogue will be held against the backdrop of a major crackdown (read more…)

China: Drop Draft Criminal Law Amendments & Protect Human Rights

August 4, 2015 Comments Off

CHRD is very concerned about proposed articles legalizing human rights abuses in the current draft 9th Amendments to the Criminal Law, which are open for public consultation until August 5. In suggestions sent to the National People’s Congress, Chinese human rights defenders draw attention to proposed changes that are particularly (read more…)

Abysmal Human Rights Conditions & Systematic Failure to Play by Rules Make China Unfit to Host 2022 Winter Games

July 28, 2015 Comments Off

China’s abysmal and worsening human rights conditions, including systematic suppression of free expression as well as peaceful assembly and association, make Beijing an unfit host for the Winter Games in 2022, CHRD has expressed in a letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The IOC’s handing of the Olympics to (read more…)

China: Release 6 Activists Facing Trial for Trumped-Up Charges

July 22, 2015 Comments Off

CHRD calls on Chinese authorities to immediately release six human rights defenders facing imminent trial and drop all trumped-up charges against them. Four activists—Guangdong-based Tang Jingling (唐荆陵), Wang Qingying (王清营), Yuan Xinting (袁新亭), and Ye Xiaozhen (叶晓峥)—will be tried on Thursday, July 23. Trial proceedings originally set for the same (read more…)

China: Halt Police Operations Targeting Human Rights Lawyers as “National Security” Threat

July 13, 2015 Comments Off

Massive police operations across China starting July 9 are a serious affront to civil liberties. The deteriorating human rights conditions in China under President Xi Jinping have now reached crisis point. The raids, involving abductions, detentions, disappearances, summons, and searches, have affected more than 100 lawyers and activists, with the (read more…)

UN leadership: China must fully #FreetheFive

July 9, 2015 Comments Off

(Geneva) – Ahead of the twentieth anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Plan of Action this September, the UN and its Member States have the opportunity – and the obligation – to demand that China improve its human rights record, said ISHR and CHRD today. This call follows the release of an (read more…)

Police Detain Two Rights Advocates as NGO Crackdown Intensifies

June 15, 2015 Comments Off

On the evening of June 12, Guangdong police, in a coordinated move with state security officers from Beijing and Henan Province, seized two activists and detained them on suspicion of “illegal business activity.” Guo Bin (郭斌), the head of the NGO Zhongyixing, which advocates for the rights of persons with (read more…)

China Must Scrap Draft NGO Law, Respect Freedom of Association

May 28, 2015 Comments Off

The Chinese government must drop the draft Overseas NGO Management Law or remove proposed provisions that, as written, violate the fundamental human right to freedom of association and grant police vast powers to restrict civil society activism. Besides drastically restricting the operations of overseas non-profit organizations in China, the draft (read more…)

China: Release Journalists, Protect Press Freedom

May 1, 2015 Comments Off

On the eve of 2015’s World Press Freedom Day, CHRD calls on the Chinese government to release the dozens of journalists, bloggers, and citizen journalists imprisoned in China, including the recently imprisoned 71-year old journalist Gao Yu (高瑜). On April 17, a Beijing court sentenced Gao to seven years in (read more…)

China Fails to Right A Wrong, Sentences Victim of Domestic Violence To Death a Second Time

April 24, 2015 Comments Off

(The Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders — April 24, 2015) Following a retrial of the death penalty case that was returned by the Supreme People’s Court, the Sichuan Provincial People’s High Court issued its verdict of death with a 2-year delay in execution to Li Yan (李彦), who had (read more…)

“Silencing the Messenger: 2014 Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China”

March 15, 2015 Comments Off

Human rights defenders in China experienced unusually severe reprisal in 2014, says CHRD in its annual report, Silencing the Messenger: 2014 Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China. CHRD asserts that the government’s persecution of human rights defenders in 2014 was as severe as it has (read more…)

Activist Zhou Weilin Named First Recipient of Cao Shunli Memorial Award for Human Rights Defenders

March 14, 2015 Comments Off

Activist Zhou Weilin (周维林) has been named the first recipient of the Cao Shunli Memorial Award for Human Rights Defenders, selected by three Chinese groups sponsoring the award. The award committee, made up of three Mainland-based NGOs—Human Rights Campaign in China, Civil Rights & Livelihood Watch, and Rights Defense Network—announced (read more…)