Human Rights in China

Amnesty International warned today that proposed reforms of China’s application of the death penalty may not result in significantly fewer executions.

Chinese government news agency Xinhua reported today that proposed amendments to China’s criminal code may see the death penalty removed from 13 out of 68 crimes that currently carry the punishment. The draft amendments are working their way through numerous readings in China’s legislative chamber.

The ultimate impact of any reforms to China's use of the death penalty cannot be publicly known and evaluated due to classification of execution figures as state secrets.

Amnesty International is calling on the Chinese government to make the draft legislation and the national execution figures public, so that there can be transparent analysis and debate on the death penalty.

Read the News Release

Amnesty International has condemned the closed trial and conviction of three Uighur website managers on state security charges.

Dilshat Perhat, web manager and owner of the Diyarim website was sentenced to five years by an Urumqi court in a closed trial on 21 July; Nureli, web manager of Salkin was sentenced to three years; and Nijat Azat, web manager of Shabnam was sentenced to 10 years, according to Dilmurat Perhat, Dishat’s brother.

The three websites were among the most popular Uighur language news and community forums operating in Xinjiang prior to the 5 July 2009 riots.

Read the News Release

Take Urgent Action

At her appeal on 21 July, Chinese activist Mao Hengfeng said that she has been severely beaten at the Anhui Provincial Women’s Re-education Through Labour (RTL) facility over the past three months.

She remains at high risk of further torture and other ill-treatment.
Mao Hengfeng was assigned to 18 months in RTL for ‘disturbing social order’ in March 2010. She was transferred to the Anhui Provincial Women’s RTL facility on 27 April 2010. Her family hired a lawyer to appeal against the RTL decision. On 21 July, the Anhui Provincial Women’s RTL facility heard the appeal behind closed doors and on behalf of the Huangpu District Court in Shanghai, where the appeal had been filed.

At the hearing, Mao Hengfeng said that she had been repeatedly beaten over the last three months. She also showed them the bruises the repeated beatings had left on her body.  She reported that the Anhui Provincial Women’s RTL facility officers have instructed other inmates many times to beat her.

Take Action: calling for the immediate release of Mao Hengfeng and an investigation into the torture or ill-treatment she has suffered in custody.

Sodmongol, an activist from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China, was detained by Chinese authorities while on his way to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York. His family has not seen him since April. He may be facing prosecution and is at risk of torture, ill-treatment and enforced disappearance.

Please take action

Chinese security forces last night cancelled a documentary screening by an HIV/AIDS education group, which Amnesty International is strongly criticising as part of the ongoing harassment of peaceful public health educators.

China’s internal security police questioned staff of the Beijing HIV/AIDS education NGO Aizhixing Institute of Health Education on 7 July and instructed them to cancel the show planned for 8 July. The film screening did not go ahead and the Aizhixing event-organiser has resigned from coordinating the event.

Aizhixing staff have been so frequently subjected to questioning and harassment that the director Wan Yanhai left China in May 2010 to avoid constant police interrogations and detentions. The organization’s offices have been subjected to an endless series of government checks on their bank accounts, licenses, and fire safety, with the aim of disrupting work and intimidating staff.

Read the Media Release

Amnesty International is calling for the release of three award-winning Tibetan environmental activist brothers, two of whom were recently given lengthy prison sentences within a week of each other.

Karma Samdrup, named ‘philanthropist of the year’ in 2006 by China’s state broadcaster CCTV for his work on river preservation, was sentenced last week to 15 years for ‘inciting the stealing of cultural relics’ from tombsites, a charge that had been dropped in 1998.

He has made detailed allegations of torture in detention to extract a forced confession. When he appeared in court in June, he had lost so much weight in six months that his wife could barely recognise him.

Karma Samdrup’s arrest took place in January after he lobbied for the release of his two detained brothers Rinchen Samdrup and Chime Namgyal. The pair were arrested in August 2009 after their award-winning anti-poaching and reforestation NGO threatened to uncover corrupt officials illegally hunting endangered wildlife.

Read the News Update

Amnesty International is urging the Chinese government to launch an independent investigation into last year’s riots in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, after new testimony obtained by the organisation has cast further doubt on the official version of events.

A report released today, entitled “Justice, justice”: The July 2009 Protests in Xinjiang, China includes newly gathered testimonies from Uighurs who fled China after the unrest, which centred on Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi.

Interviewees described unnecessary or excessive use of force, mass arrests, enforced disappearances, and torture and ill-treatment in detention that occurred on 5 July 2009 and during the ensuing government crackdown.

Ahead of the 5 July anniversary, security in Xinjiang has been tightened, with reports of restrictions on freedom of movement and expression, and on Uighur community organisations.

Read the News Release

Read the Report

Ottawa – The Canadian Coalition on Human Rights in China is holding a press conference on 22 June 2010 in advance of Chinese President Hu Jintao beginning his official visit to Canada. President Hu will take part in the G20 Summit during his visit to Canada.

Coalition members are calling on Prime Minister Harper to raise a range of serious human rights concerns with President Hu while he is in Canada, including the case of Huseyin Celil, a Canadian citizen of Uyghur descent who is serving a life prison term in China.

It is also essential that Prime Minister Harper underscore how important it is that China – as a key member of the G20 – must now become a global leader when it comes to human rights.

Amnesty International has condemned today’s court decision to uphold a five year sentence imposed on a Chinese activist who tried to publicize the number of children who died during the Sichuan earthquake and the corruption that led to their deaths.

The Chengdu City Intermediate People's Court in Sichuan upheld Tan Zuoren’s sentence of five years imprisonment for “inciting subversion of state power” in a session lasting just 10 minutes.

“The entire trial and appeal process has been grossly unfair and politically motivated,” said Catherine Baber, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Asia-Pacific. “China must free Tan Zuoren, and stop silencing social activists and anti-corruption campaigners with vague political charges and trials that do not even follow China’s own legal procedures.”

Read the News Release

Twenty-one years since the military crackdown on pro-democracy protests in and around Tiananmen Square on 3-4 June 1989, the Chinese authorities still refuse to hold an open and independent inquiry. Instead, they continue to prosecute citizens who criticize the crackdown or commemorate its victims, accusing them of “inciting subversion” and imposing lengthy imprisonment after unfair trials.

In 1989, millions across China gathered peacefully to pursue fundamental freedoms promised in the Chinese Constitution. Their demands remain highly relevant today. As the 21st anniversary of the Tiananmen Crackdown approaches, Amnesty International once again urges the Chinese authorities to uphold the Constitution by guaranteeing freedom of expression.

Liu Xiaobo, a former participant in the 1989 pro-democracy student movement was sentenced to 11 years’ imprisonment on 25 December 2009, for initiating and signing Charter 08, a manifesto calling for political accountability and human rights protection. Articles he wrote about 4 June 1989 were cited in his verdict as evidence of “inciting subversion”.

Freedom of expression and association are fundamental rights enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which China signed in 1998 but has not yet ratified. Amnesty International urges the Chinese government to stop suppressing citizens who exercise these fundamental rights.

Read the Public Statement