IBA Says Enough Is Enough To PRC Authorities

At some point the PRC is going to have to make some sort of cosmetic change in its attitude to rights based lawyers on the mainland. When both the European Commission and the IBA make fairly forceful statements in the same week we’d suggest that the cogs are beginning to turn.

Yesterday, the International Bar Association?s Human Rights Institute <https://mail.google.com/IBAHRI.aspx> ?(IBAHRI) expressed deepening concern over the intimidation, abuse, and the worsening situation of human rights lawyers in China, as an expanding catalogue of abductions by the Chinese authorities creates a climate of fear. The IBAHRI calls on the Chinese Government to release all illegally detained human rights lawyers, cease all forms of harassment of the same; and to make a public statement on the whereabouts of ?disappeared? lawyers; the reasons for their arrest; and their treatment in detentio

Here’s their press release and it doesn’t make jolly reading.

Between February and April 2011, the following nine lawyers were all subject to harassment, intimidation, arrest and/or detention ? Tang Jitian, Jiang Tianyong, Teng Biao, Liu Shihui, Li Tiantian, Tang Jingling, Wu Zhenqi, Liu Zhengqing, and Liu Xiaoyua

The whereabouts and the state of well-being remain unknown for a number of those seized, including, Gao Zhisheng who disappeared on or about 20 April 2010; Jiang Tianyong, Teng Biao, and Li Tiantian who have not been seen since February 2011. Similarly, Lawyer Liu Shihui disappeared on 22 February 2011 shortly after revealing to the media that he had been hooded and beaten on his way to a demonstration on 20 February 2011, and Liu Zhenqqing has not been heard from since he was detained on 25 March 2011 after attempting to represent a fellow lawyer.

IBAHRI Co-Chair, Sternford Moyo said, ?The growing intimidation and harassment of human rights lawyers and the silence of Chinese authorities on the issue is unacceptable. The detention of human rights lawyers is a direct contravention of the Constitution of the People?s Republic of China, which, under Article 37, prohibits ?Unlawful deprivation or restriction of citizens’ freedom of person by detention or other means.? All lawyers should be allowed to perform their professional duties and represent clients freely without hindrance.?Further, the IBAHRI strongly condemns acts which contravene China?s international obligations as a party to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and calls on the Chinese authorities to carry out an investigation into the conduct of any agents of the State responsible for acts of torture perpetrated against Tang Jitian as alleged in reports while he was held in detention incommunicado. China?s own laws encased in the 1996 Criminal Procedure Law of the People?s Republic of China (Article 43) and the 2005 Law of the People?s Republic of China on Public Security Administration Punishment (Articles 79 and 113) both explicitly prohibit acts of torture.

Tang Jitian is now under house arrest in Jilin Province, as is Wu Zhenqi. With Tang Jingling under ?residential surveillance? at Dashi Training Centre in Panyu, the continued confinement of human rights lawyers by the Chinese authorities effectively prevents them from practicing law. Reports indicate that a number of other human rights lawyers have also been briefly detained, have had their computers confiscated and their offices searched or are under police surveillance. Moreover, many have been warned not to represent fellow lawyers and other detained activists or lobby on their behalf.