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China Human Rights and Rule of Law Update
Human Rights Day 2009 - Joint Statement by Chairman Byron Dorgan and Cochairman Sander Levin
December 9, 2009
Last year, on the eve of Human Rights Day, which is observed each year on December 10th, 303 Chinese citizens！including scholars, writers, lawyers, and activists！issued on the Internet Charter 08, a document calling for political reform and greater protection of human rights in China. Liu Xiaobo, a prominent intellectual and dissident who signed Charter 08, was detained the night before the document was released. In June 2009, authorities formally arrested Liu for "inciting subversion." Earlier this month, the police forwarded the case to prosecutors, almost a year after he was taken into custody. Many of the other original signers of Charter 08 (which has since garnered over 10,000 signatures within and outside China) have been subjected to harassment, surveillance, and unlawful house arrest. Chinese authorities have blocked Charter 08, and any reference to it, on the Internet.
Human Rights Day commemorates the anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly's adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948. China voted to adopt the UDHR in 1948, and the current Chinese government has committed itself to protecting the fundamental human rights that are enshrined in the UDHR through international agreements and its own domestic law. In April 2009, the Chinese government reaffirmed this commitment in its first-ever National Human Rights Action Plan.
As detailed in this Commission's 2009 Annual Report, there were many setbacks for rule of law and human rights in China during this past year. In addition to the crackdown on Charter 08 signers, the persecution of human rights lawyers, including Jiang Tianyong and others, reached an unprecedented level; authorities have revoked or suspended the licenses of numerous human rights lawyers and many face ongoing persecution and harassment. Ten months after his disappearance, lawyer Gao Zhisheng remains missing. Petitioners continue to be detained and abused in illegal "black jails." The trials of people！mostly Uyghurs！charged with crimes committed during unrest in Xinjiang in July have been marked by violations of international standards for due process including judges selected for "political reliability" and curbs on defendants' right to independent counsel. The Chinese government continues to suppress civil society initiatives and freedom of expression. For their efforts to advocate peacefully for parents of schoolchildren killed in the May 2008 Sichuan earthquake, authorities put Huang Qi and Tan Zuoren on trial for endangering national security; Huang Qi recently was convicted and sentenced to a prison term of three years for "illegal possession of state secrets." The cases of over 1,200 of the many political and religious prisoners who are being held in China's jails and prisons today are documented in the Commission's publicly accessible Political Prisoner Database.
On Human Rights Day 2009, this Commission calls on the Chinese government to cease the harassment, control, and arbitrary detention of Chinese citizens who engage in peaceful advocacy for their rights under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, other international human rights instruments, and China's own Constitution and laws.
Human Rights Day 2008
| Source: -See Summary (2009-12-09 ) |
Posted on: 2009-12-10 |
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| Link directly to this item with: http://www.cecc.gov/pages/virtualAcad/index.phpd?showsingle=133153 |
Beijing Police Transfer Liu Xiaobo's Case to Prosecutors
December 9, 2009
In early December 2009, Beijing police transferred the case of prominent intellectual Liu Xiaobo to prosecutors, who will now decide whether to take the case to trial. Liu has been charged with inciting subversion for essays he wrote in support of democracy and for his support of Charter 08, a document calling for political reform and greater protection of human rights in China.
Beijing police have concluded their investigation against prominent intellectual and Charter 08 signatory Liu Xiaobo and transferred his case to prosecutors in early December 2009, according to a December 10 Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) article and December 9 articles by the Associated Press (via Washington Post) and New York Times. The New York Times reported that "Mr. Liu¨s lawyer, Shang Baojun, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that the police had sent to the prosecutors a report accusing Mr. Liu of inciting subversion by posting online essays favoring democracy and by helping to draft Charter 08." The Charter was released online on December 9, 2008, and signed by thousands of Chinese citizens. It calls for political reform and greater protection of human rights in China and led to official harassment of numerous signers. Liu was taken into custody on December 8, 2008, a day before the Charter was released, and placed under residential surveillance. Police formally arrested him on the charge of "inciting subversion of state power" on June 23, 2009.
Under Article 138 of the Criminal Procedure Law, prosecutors have up to one-and-a-half months (which includes a half-month extension) to decide whether to initiate a prosecution. In that time, they may also decide to send the case back to police for supplementary investigation, a move that would restart the clock on the time limit for the prosecution's review of the case (Article 140).
Liu's case has been marred by police abuses and violations of procedural law. After Liu's arrest in June, police barred prominent defense lawyer Mo Shaoping from representing Liu, reportedly because Mo was a fellow signatory of Charter 08. In the months after taking Liu into custody, officials kept Liu in residential surveillance under conditions that violated Chinese laws, including denying Liu access to counsel and keeping him at an undisclosed location beyond the legal time limit for residential surveillance.
Liu could face a sentence of as much as 15 years in prison if convicted. Article 105, Paragraph 2, of the Criminal Law provides for the crime of inciting subversion and "ringleaders and the others who commit major crimes" face a sentence of no less than five years. Article 45 caps fixed-term imprisonment at 15 years. According to the December 10 CHRD article, the police report labeled Liu's alleged involvement in Charter 08 as a "major crime."
Chinese officials have frequently relied on the "inciting subversion" charge to punish citizens who publicly criticize the government and express support for human rights and democracy, often in writings appearing on the Internet. (See, e.g., Guo Quan, Tan Zuoren, Yang Chunlin, Hu Jia, Lu Gengsong).
For more information on restrictions on freedom of expression in China, including official abuse of the subversion charge and suppression of Charter 08, see Section II！Freedom of Expression in the CECC 2009 Annual Report.
| Source: -See Summary (2009-12-09 / English / Free) |
Posted on: 2009-12-09 |
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| Link directly to this item with: http://www.cecc.gov/pages/virtualAcad/index.phpd?showsingle=133112 |
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