Research Reports | Chinese Human Rights Defenders

“We strip you naked to crush your spirit!” –Gender-based State Violence & Reprisals against Women Human Rights Defenders in China

July 31, 2023 Comments Off

(Chinese Human Rights Defenders— July 31, 2023) Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese Communist Party has claimed to champion women’s equality. Chairman Mao Zedong famously proclaimed that “women hold up half the sky,” and the first PRC Constitution––adopted in 1954–– provided that “Women in (read more…)

WILL THE HUI BE SILENTLY ERASED?——A groundbreaking report on the Chinese government’s campaign to eliminate Hui Muslim identity and the crisis of survival for the Hui and Islam in China

March 22, 2023 Comments Off

(Chinese Human Rights Defenders— March 22, 2023) The Hui are the second largest minority group in China, with a population of 11.4 million.1 Although this is greater than the population of Portugal, the Hui are an unfamiliar group to most outside of China. Yet over centuries, they have persisted in maintaining distinct (read more…)

“Persisting in Resisting” ——Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China (2022)

March 15, 2023 Comments Off

(Chinese Human Rights Defenders— March 15, 2023) This year marks the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the U.N. Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, which recognizes the key role of human rights defenders (HRDs) in the realization of human rights and provides that each State has a responsibility and duty “to (read more…)

Structural Problems Underpinning Systemic Violations of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in China

February 13, 2023 Comments Off

This report addresses the questions how the Chinese government has been doing in protecting economic, social, and cultural rights in the past few years. The report examines the structural defects that underpin the problems in protection of these rights. And the report sheds light on the systematic failures that many (read more…)

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.