Related Research Articles
Li Boguang was a Chinese legal scholar and human rights activist. In his capacity as the director of the Quimin Research Institute in Beijing, Li supported farmers in seeking compensation for confiscated farmland. He was arrested in 2004 following his involvement in the Tangshan protest, which led to international attention being paid to his plight by human rights groups.
The Tangshan protest occurred in 2004 after more than 11,000 farmers in Hebei Province, China signed a petition calling for the removal of Communist Party officials who were allegedly involved in corruption. The protest led to a crackdown on rights activists and further repression of the farmers.
The Weiquan movement is a non-centralized group of lawyers, legal experts, and intellectuals in China who seek to protect and defend the civil rights of the citizenry through litigation and legal activism. The movement, which began in the early 2000s, has organized demonstrations, sought reform via the legal system and media, defended victims of human rights abuses, and written appeal letters, despite opposition from Communist Party authorities. Among the issues adopted by Weiquan lawyers are property and housing rights, protection for AIDS victims, environmental damage, religious freedom, freedom of speech and the press, and defending the rights of other lawyers facing disbarment or imprisonment.
Ni Yulan is a civil rights lawyer in the People's Republic of China. She holds a law degree from China University of Political Science and Law, and officially became a lawyer law in 1986. Ni has established herself in the field of human rights lawyering by defending persecuted groups such as Falun Gong practitioners and victims of forced eviction.
The 2011 crackdown on dissidents in China refers to the arrest of dozens of mainland Chinese rights lawyers, activists and grassroots agitators in a response to the 2011 Chinese pro-democracy protests. Since the protests, at least 54 Chinese activists have been arrested or detained by authorities in the biggest crackdown on dissent since the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Since the start of the protests in mid-February 2011, human rights groups have claimed that more than 54 people have been arrested by authorities, some of whom have been charged with crimes. Among those arrested are bloggers who criticise the government such as Ai Weiwei, lawyers who pursue cases against the government, and human rights activists.
Chen Wei is a Chinese dissident and human rights activist. In December 2011, he was sentenced to nine years in prison for inciting subversion.
Eman al-Nafjan is a Saudi Arabian blogger and women's rights activist. She was detained by Saudi authorities in May 2018 along with Loujain al-Hathloul and five other women's rights activists in what Human Rights Watch interpreted as an attempt to frighten her and the other activists, during the 2018–2019 Saudi crackdown on feminists.
Li Heping is a civil rights lawyer in the People's Republic of China and a partner of the Beijing Global Law Firm who was abducted on 10 July 2015. He is a prominent figure in China's Weiquan movement, having defended underground Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, dissident writers, and victims of forced evictions, among others.
Jiang Tianyong is a human rights lawyer in the People's Republic of China. Based in Beijing, he is a prominent figure in the Weiquan movement, and has defended Tibetans, petitioners, Falun Gong adherents, HIV/AIDS victims, and other vulnerable groups. Jiang's human rights advocacy has drawn the ire of Chinese authorities; his applications for renewal of his legal license have been denied, and he has been detained on multiple occasions.
Lê Quốc Quân is a Vietnamese human rights lawyer, democracy activist and prominent Catholic blogger. He was arrested by the Vietnamese government on charges of tax evasion on 27 December 2012, convicted on 2 October 2013, and sentenced to 30 months in prison. The arrest was condemned by international human rights organizations and the US government.
Dissidents have been detained as political prisoners in Saudi Arabia during the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. Protests and sit-ins calling for political prisoners to be released took place during the 2011–2012 Saudi Arabian protests in many cities throughout Saudi Arabia, with security forces firing live bullets in the air on 19 August 2012 at a protest at al-Ha'ir Prison. As of 2012, recent estimates of the number of political prisoners in Mabahith prisons range from a denial of any political prisoners at all by the Ministry of Interior, to 30,000 by the UK-based Islamic Human Rights Commission and the BBC.
Liu Ping is a female grassroot civil rights activist in China. As a retired factory employee of Xinyu Iron and Steel Group, she attracted widespread attention for independently running for a local delegate to the National People's Congress in 2011. In 2013, Liu Ping was arrested for publicly demanding Chinese officials to disclose their wealth and was the first being tried among the arrested activists in the New Citizens' Movement in China. She was sentences to 6-1/2 years in prison in June 2014.
The Chinese New Citizens' Movement is a collection of numerous civil rights activists in mainland China since 2010. It is promoted by the loosely organized civil rights group "Citizens" with the New Citizens' Spirit: "Free, Righteous, Loving". It is a major component of the civil society movement in mainland China since the beginning of the 21st century. The New Citizen's Movement has close ties to the weiquan movement, but it has clearer and higher-level charter and pursuits. It is a political movement, which hopes to facilitate a peaceful transition of the country towards constitutionalism. It is also a social movement, hoping to facilitate a transition from a "servants' society" to a civil society.
Wang Yu is a Chinese human rights lawyer. She was arrested by Chinese authorities in 2015 when China initiated the 709 Crackdown against human rights attorneys. She was charged with inciting subversion of state power which is a serious offense in China carrying a life sentence.
Picking quarrels and provoking trouble is a crime under the law of the People's Republic of China. It comes under article 293 of the 1997 revision of the People's Republic of China's Penal Code, and carries a maximum sentence of five years. The crime is defined as undermining public order by creating a disturbance in a public place.
Zhang Kai is a human rights lawyer known for defending churches in China that were being forced to remove their crosses and crucifixes. He is also known for representing or campaigning on behalf of the disadvantaged, such as Feng Jianmei, a woman forced by government authorities to have an abortion in 2012.
Li Tingting, aka Li Maizi, is a Chinese campaigner and activist for gender equality, sexual harassment awareness, and sexuality. She was detained by police on the eve of International Women's Day, along with four other activists, for protesting sexual harassment on public transport. These four other activists are part of the Feminist Five which includes Wu Rongrong, Wang Man, Wei Tingting, Zheng Churan, and Li. They each are activists for different rights. Some of them fight for LGBTQ+ rights, gender equality, sexual harassment awareness, and feminism and women's rights.
Xiang Li (向莉) is an activist for human rights causes in China.
Wang Quanzhang is a Chinese human rights lawyer from Wulian County, Shandong. He was arrested in August 2015 as part of the "709 crackdown" on human rights lawyers instigated by General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Xi Jinping, and after being held incommunicado for three years, he was put on trial for subversion of state power in December 2018.
The 709 Crackdown was a nationwide crackdown on Chinese lawyers and human rights activists instigated during the summer of 2015. It is known as the "709 crackdown" as it started on 9 July 2015.
References
- 1 2 3 "Mystery surrounding detained China legal aide deepens, lawyer silenced". Asia Times . 15 July 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
- ↑ "China must respect lawyers' human rights | Letters | World news". The Guardian . Retrieved 26 January 2017.
- ↑ Tom Phillips. "'Freed' Chinese human rights activist Zhao Wei still missing, says husband | World news". The Guardian . Retrieved 19 July 2016.
- 1 2 "Young Chinese legal activist 'regrets' civil rights activism". South China Morning Post . 11 July 2016. Retrieved 19 July 2016.
- 1 2 Tom Phillips. "China to release human rights worker Zhao Wei on bail after a year of detention | World news". The Guardian . Retrieved 19 July 2016.
- ↑ Jacobs, Andrew; Buckley, Chris (22 July 2015). "China Targeting Rights Lawyers in a Crackdown". Nytimes.com. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
- ↑ "China: Detained Lawyers, Activists Denied Basic Rights". Human Rights Watch. Retrieved 19 July 2016.