September 25, 2017 Comments Off on Human rights issues ignored during BRICS summit in China

By Frances Eve, Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) and Cathal Gilbert, World Alliance for Citizen Participation, CIVICUS Originally published by IFEX on September 7, 2017 From 3-5 September, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa met at the ninth BRICS summit. The venue was Xiamen (read more…)

September 11, 2017 Comments Off on China Is Risking the Lives of Political Prisoners by Denying Them Medical Care

Dozens of political detainees and prisoners have reported being deprived of adequate medical treatment. Deliberately depriving prisoners of medical care is a life-threatening form of torture, and appears to be commonly used against political prisoners on China.

China’s central government has made the construction of more affordable urban housing an official goal, but in China and elsewhere, creating affordable housing should not come at the expense of human rights.

June 1, 2016 Comments Off on Risky prospects: Engagement of Chinese human rights defenders with the Human Rights Council

For many Chinese human rights defenders and independent non-governmental organizations, difficulties and risks associated with engaging the Human Rights Council, including threat of Chinese government reprisals, outweigh the benefits. But there are meaningful actions the Council can take to improve access and to prevent and respond to reprisals.

March 1, 2015 Comments Off on Guest Post: The Repression of Human Rights Defenders in China

A prominent pro-bono lawyer disappeared into police custody in Beijing last November. The family of Xia Lin, a man known for defending death penalty cases and environmental activists, has received no information about him for more than three months.

As 2014 came to a close, at least seven prominent Chinese human rights lawyers rang in the New Year from a jail cell. Under President Xi Jinping, the year was one of the worst in recent memory for China’s embattled civil society.

January 1, 2015 Comments Off on The Dark Side of the Boom: As China’s Economy Grows, Evictions and Land Grabs Rise With It

The booming construction and development industry in China has brought about a devastating side effect: violent episodes of land appropriation, housing evictions, and demolitions that typically victimize the poorest citizens, especially in urban areas.

The detention of activists by the Chinese government is well known, but there is relatively little discussion about medical treatment in detention facilities. This issue is crucial for understanding what happened to Cao Shunli, a legal rights activist who died in custody in March 2014.