Research Reports | Chinese Human Rights Defenders

Zero Tolerance for Human Rights Defenders in the Year of “Zero COVID”: Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China (2021)

March 7, 2022 Comments Off

Throughout 2021, the Chinese state continued to tighten control over nearly all facets of society, often under the pretense of controlling the spread of COVID-19 and protecting national security. As in consecutive years past, government authorities took harsh reprisal measures against human rights defenders in China, Hong Kong, the Xinjiang (read more…)

CHRD releases “Defending Human Rights in the Time of COVID-19”: Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China (2020)

March 29, 2021 Comments Off

During the year 2020, while the world was battling the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese authorities used the exceptional period to further tighten its grip over mainland society while abandoning its pledge to respect a high-degree of autonomy in Hong Kong, says CHRD in its 2020 annual report on the (read more…)

“A Healthy Society Should Not Have Just One Voice” – China Must End Crackdown on Online Speech in Response to COVID-19

April 1, 2020 Comments Off

(Chinese Human Rights Defenders—April 1, 2020) The Chinese government must release detained citizen journalists and outspoken critics, and end the new crackdown on free expression online since the start of COVID-19 outbreak. Under the guise of fighting the novel coronavirus, authorities in China have escalated suppression online by blocking independent (read more…)

Defending Human Rights in the Era of Dystopia: The Situation of Defenders in China (2019)

February 12, 2020 Comments Off

In 2019, human rights defenders in China and its peripheral regions braved cruel punishment in challenging the Chinese government’s human rights abuses and draconian laws. They refused to back down from the rising totalitarian rule of President Xi Jinping.

CHRD releases “Defending Rights in a ‘No Rights Zone'”: Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China (2018)

February 21, 2019 Comments Off

Chinese human rights defenders made remarkable strides in promoting and protecting human rights under hostile conditions in drastically shrunken civic space, says CHRD in its 2018 annual report.

China: Massive Numbers of Uyghurs & Other Ethnic Minorities Forced into Re-education Programs

August 3, 2018 Comments Off

The number of Xinjiang residents, especially ethnic Uyghurs, who are either detained in re-education camps or forced to attend day/evening “education sessions” for “de-radicalization” and indoctrination purposes in Xinjiang, may have possibly reached as high as a combined total of two to three million by June 2018.

Criminal Arrests in Xinjiang Account for 21% of China’s Total in 2017

July 25, 2018 Comments Off

The number of ethnic minorities who have been put under criminal prosecution in Xinjiang has skyrocketed in recent years, according to the Chinese government’s official data, under the pretext of “counter-terrorism,” “anti-separatism,” and “de-extremism” efforts.

CHRD releases “Repression & Resilience: Annual Report on Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China (2017)”

February 26, 2018 Comments Off

Chinese human rights defenders demonstrated remarkable resilience in promoting and protecting human rights in the face of government repression, says CHRD in its annual report. Repression & Resilience documents the situation of human rights defenders in China in 2017.

CHRD Releases “They Target My Human Rights Work as a Crime”: Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China (2016)

February 16, 2017 Comments Off

Promoting and protecting human rights remained a high-risk activity in 2016, says CHRD in its annual report released today on the situation of human rights defenders in China, They Target My Human Rights Work as a Crime. The Chinese government intensified crackdowns on human rights defenders (HRDs) and criminalized rights (read more…)

“Too Risky to Call Ourselves Defenders”: CHRD Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China (2015)

February 15, 2016 Comments Off

In 2015, Chinese authorities’ persecution of human rights defenders followed a trajectory of increasing severity that has become a hallmark of President Xi Jinping’s leadership, says CHRD in its annual report, “Too Risky to Call Ourselves Defenders”: 2015 Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China. Government (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…)

CHRD Releases “We can Beat You to Death With Impunity,” a report about secret detention & abuse of women in China’s black jails

October 21, 2014 Comments Off

CHRD has released a new report, “We can Beat You to Death With Impunity:” Secret Detention & Abuse of Women in China’s “Black Jails”. The report examines widespread detention in extralegal facilities known as “black jails,” and particularly abuses against women locked up in the facilities, where roughly 80% of (read more…)