Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China ...

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<strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China (2009)April 26, 2010the seizure of the village land for Beihai City Land Reserve. When the villagers learnedabout the contract on October 30, hundreds of them gathered to prevent the demolitionfrom being carried out. Between 200 and 300 police officers and local officials went tothe scene, and in the ensuing conflict ten villagers were seized and two elderly residentshad to be hospitalized. Police also put village leaders under surveillance, and village chiefXu, who had been leading the villagers’ struggle to resist the seizure, fled the village andwent into hiding. 92Through soliciting input on pending legislation and allowing tightly-controlled villageelections, the Chinese government might be able to assert and even produce statistics tosupport its claim that it “guarantees the people’s right of democratic supervision.” 93However, when this assertion is juxtaposed with the abuses documented at the grassrootslevel, such as those included here, an entirely different picture becomes clear.D. The right to a benefit from an effective remedy when a right is violated1. In the exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including thepromotion and protection of human rights as referred to in the [Declaration onHuman Rights Defenders], everyone has the right, individually and in associationwith others, to benefit from an effective remedy and to be protected in the event ofthe violation of those rights.2. To this end, everyone whose rights or freedoms are allegedly violated has theright, either in person or through legally authorized representation, to complainto and have that complaint promptly reviewed in a public hearing before anindependent, impartial and competent judicial or other authority established bylaw and to obtain from such an authority a decision, in accordance with law,providing redress, including any compensation due, where there has been aviolation of that person’s rights or freedoms, as well as enforcement of theeventual decision and award, all without undue delay.3. To the same end, everyone has the right, individually and in association withothers, inter alia:(a) To complain about the policies and actions of individual officials andgovernmental bodies with regard to violations of human rights and fundamentalfreedoms, by petition or other appropriate means, to competent domestic judicial,administrative or legislative authorities or any other competent authorityprovided for by the legal system of the State, which should render their decisionon the complaint without undue delay;(b) To attend public hearings, proceedings and trials so as to form an opinion ontheir compliance with national law and applicable international obligations andcommitments;(c) To offer and provide professionally qualified legal assistance or other relevantadvice and assistance in defending human rights and fundamental freedoms.”- Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, Article 924
<strong>Annual</strong> <strong>Report</strong> on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China (2009)April 26, 2010As rights violations continued apace in 2009, CHRD documented a number of troublingtrends related to citizens’ efforts to seek redress for these violations. Perhaps mostnotably, this year saw an unprecedented number of lawyers threatened with professionalconsequences for handling these cases, as well as rare, but serious, cases of lawyers whowere attacked, imprisoned, or forcibly disappeared in retaliation for their work. As theseactions came in tandem with officials’ continued violation of detainees’ right to legalcounsel, the ability of lawyers to effectively provide a defense for human rights defendersand other citizens detained for exercising their rights took a tangible step backwards inthe past year.Furthermore, citizens who turned to the petitioning system in hopes of obtaining justicein 2009 found themselves faced with ever harsher treatment. Police, government officials,and interceptors continued to harass, kidnap, and detain petitioners in Beijing and acrossthe country in 2009, and as this past year saw a higher-than-average number of“sensitive” dates, the nationwide roundups of petitioners which have become commonbefore these events took place with greater frequency.Finally, other less direct, though no less serious, violations of the right to benefit from aneffective remedy in cases of rights abuses continued in the past year. For example, thegovernment used a variety of methods to prevent the public from attending open trials incases against human rights defenders. The overall result of government actions in 2009was to contribute to a decline in citizens’ trust in the legal system, a trend which couldhave serious implications for the way in which human rights defenders and others seek torespond to rights abuses in the future.1. The right to offer and provide professionally qualified legal assistanceLawyers who take on cases deemed “sensitive” by the Chinese government, and thosewho provide criminal defense to political prisoners, human rights defenders, ethnicminorities and other “sensitive” groups, faced increased persecution in 2009. Asignificant number of these human rights lawyers suffered varying degrees of harassment,intimidation, and suppression. Some were beaten, detained or incarcerated. Others werefired from their law firms or stripped of their licenses to practice law. Prominent humanrights attorney Gao Zhisheng ( ) disappeared on February 4 and resurfaced onlyrecently, in April 2010, following allegations of torture and cruel treatment by securitypolice (see Gao’s case on p.39).晟智高In May, authorities threatened to revoke the lawyers’ licenses of a group of about 20human rights lawyers. This action was widely believed to be in response to their work on“sensitive” human rights cases. Officials from local Bureaus of Justice and variouslawyers associations pressured law firms at which these lawyers worked to “coordinate”with the authorities by either terminating their contracts or “failing” them in the annualevaluation of their performances. Without having their licenses renewed by the Bureau ofJustice, these lawyers could still provide legal advice, but could no longer offer the rangeof services provided by registered lawyers, such as representing their clients in court. By25
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