Civil Society
The Wuhou District People's Court in Chengdu, Sichuan province, postponed the trial of rights activist Huang Qi after initially notifying Huang's wife and his lawyer on February 2, 2009, that the trial would be held the next day, according to February 2 articles in the Washington Post (WP) and Associated Press (AP, via WTOP.com). Huang's wife, Zeng Li, said the court called her twice on February 2, first informing her of the trial date on the next day, and later telling her the date had been postponed and that she would receive three days' notice before the trial. No new date has been announced. Huang, founder of the rights advocacy Web site, 64tianwang.com, has been detained since June 2008 on charges of illegally possessing state secrets.
On February 9, the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva will review China's human rights record under a new mechanism known as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). The UPR was created on March 15, 2006 by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 60/251 (A/Res/60/251), which established the 47-member Human Rights Council (Council), replacing the Commission on Human Rights. The UPR mechanism "involves a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN Member States once every four years." (UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights (OHCHR), Basic Facts About The UPR).
On the eve of December 10, 2008, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, over 300 Chinese citizens signed and posted online a document titled "Charter 08," calling for political reform and greater protection of human rights in China. Signers included leading intellectuals, lawyers, writers, farmers, and workers. Over the past week, many hundreds more people in China have signed, with some reports placing the number of signers in the thousands. Chinese abroad have signed the Charter as well.
More than 300 Chinese citizens--including scholars, writers, lawyers, and activists--issued Charter 08 (English / Chinese), an open statement calling for greater rights and political reform in China on the eve of December 10. The date coincides with the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Human Rights Day. The prominent intellectual Liu Xiaobo has been detained under suspicion of "inciting subversion" in connection with Charter 08, according to a December 10 Independent Chinese Pen Center article (in Chinese). Several other activists also have been detained in advance of Human Rights Day.
According to a September 22 Takungpao article and an October 16 New York Times (NYT) article, Chinese lawyers in Beijing and the provinces of Hebei and Henan reported that officials have pressured them not to take cases related to milk powder tainted with the toxic chemical melamine, the widespread sale of which was revealed to the public in September 2008. The major dairy producer Sanlu has been at the center of the scandal, which has led to the deaths of at least four infants and sickened at least 53,000 children, according to the NYT article. While many lawyers have agreed to handle such cases, Chinese courts have been reluctant to accept them.
Although the Chinese government has developed an anti-AIDS policy framework, civil society engagement remains a major challenge in the fight against the epidemic, according to an October 8 article written by the Executive Director of the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) published in the state-run China Daily. As of October 2007, an estimated 700,000 new HIV infections reportedly had occurred in China since 2006, representing an 8-percent increase, according to Chinese and UN official statistics cited in the scientific journal Nature's new study (subscription required) released on October 2, 2008. Among those newly infected, the study reported that men who have sex with men and women in general had the highest rate of growth.
The NGO Sichuan Union Relief Office (Relief Office) announced on May 31 that it would discontinue its earthquake relief work after 17 days of operation because it was unable to register with the government as an NGO, according to a June 2 Radio Free Asia report. The Relief Office was coordinating the work of over 100 NGOs in Southwestern China in the aftermath of the May 12 Sichuan earthquake.
According to a May 26 Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) article and a May 28 Associated Press (AP) article, Beijing activists reported they were harassed, subjected to surveillance, and warned not to meet with the U.S. officials present in Beijing for the U.S.-China bilateral human rights dialogue.
Chinese authorities have made significant progress in their efforts to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS since 2003, but at the same time continue to harass HIV/AIDS advocates. Authorities reportedly ordered the closure of the "AIDS Museum" Web site, www.aidsmuseum.cn, according its founder, Chang Kun, in a May 7 Radio Free Asia interview. Chang, an HIV/AIDS activist, said he received a phone call on May 6 from the site's Internet Service Provider (ISP) saying that the local public security bureau's Internet surveillance division reportedly ordered the site closed because it contained information about "firearms and ammunition."
More than 14,000 Chinese citizens signed an open letter released to the public on January 1, 2008, urging the Chinese government to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) before the 2008 Olympics "without reservations," according to a January 1 Radio Free Asia (RFA) article (in Chinese). The letter (posted on the China Human Rights Forum Web site) also called on China to undertake a number of domestic reforms to bring the country in line with the ICCPR, including the revocation of regulations restricting religious freedom and abolishment of the requirement that social organizations must first register with the government to be considered legal.