Civil society organisations, including the Observatory, honour the memory of Cao Shunli, a Chinese human rights
lawyer who died in detention ten years ago, highlighting the urgent need
for justice and accountability.
Today, we pay tribute to Cao Shunli,
and all human rights defenders targeted by the Chinese government for
their commitment to uphold the promise of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.
Cao Shunli
was a brave Chinese woman human rights defender and lawyer. Working
with fellow activists, Cao documented abuses, including the
now-abolished ‘Re-education through Labour’ extrajudicial detention
system, which she was also subjected to as a result of her human rights
work. She campaigned for independent civil society to be meaningfully
consulted and to be able to contribute to the Chinese government’s
national reports to its first and second Universal Periodic Reviews
(UPR). In an attempt to speak with government officials about the UPR,
Cao courageously organised peaceful sit-ins with other concerned
citizens outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs despite great risks.
She also submitted information on extralegal detention and torture in
China to the UN and expressed the hope that ‘if we could get even 100
words’ into a UN report, ‘many of our problems could start to get
addressed.’
On 14 September 2013, Chinese authorities detained Cao at the Beijing
Capital International Airport as she was traveling to Geneva to
participate in a human rights training, one month before China’s second
UPR. Cao was forcibly disappeared for five weeks, until she resurfaced
in criminal detention and was charged with ‘picking quarrels and
provoking trouble’. By October 2013, it was clear that Cao Shunli was
experiencing serious medical issues while in detention. After months of
denial of adequate medical treatment, rejected appeals by her lawyers
for bail on humanitarian grounds, and despite multiple calls from the
international community for her urgent release, Cao died of multiple
organ failure on 14 March 2014 in a hospital under heavy police guard to
keep out her lawyers and friends.
Cao was one of the 2014 finalists
of the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders. To
this day, there has been no accountability for Cao Shunli’s death. The
Chinese government refuses to admit wrongdoing, despite repeated calls
in 2014 and 2019 by UN Special Procedures experts for a full investigation into this ‘deadly reprisal’.
Her case is one of the longest-standing unresolved cases in the UN
Secretary-General’s annual reports on reprisals against civil society
actors for engaging with the United Nations. China is one of the most consistent perpetrators of reprisals
over time, and one of the most egregious perpetrators in terms of the
sheer number of individuals targeted. Cao is not alone: her courage, but
also the abuses she endured, are unfortunately those of other human
rights defenders who paid a high cost for cooperating with the UN. Her
close colleague, Chen Jianfang
was forcibly disappeared under Residential Surveillance at a Designated
Location (RSDL) from 19-20 March 2019 after paying tribute to Cao
Shunli on the 5th anniversary of her death. Chen was sentenced to four
years and six months in jail for ‘inciting subversion of State power’
and left prison on 21 October 2023, after which authorities subjected
her to strict surveillance. UN experts have raised with the Chinese
government acts of reprisals against Chen Jianfang, but also Jiang Tianyong, Li Qiaochu, Dolkun Isa, Li Wenzu and Wang Qiaoling,
among others. The recent instances of intimidation and harassment
against NGO participants in China’s 4th UPR in January 2024 further
highlight the gravity of the situation.
Li Qiaochu, Xu Zhiyong, Ding Jiaxi, Yu Wensheng, Xu Yan, Huang Xueqin, Li Yuhan, Chang Weiping:
many other Chinese human rights defenders are today detained,
disappeared, and at grave risk, for upholding the promise of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
These documented acts do not account for the even greater
self-censorship and refusal to engage with the United Nation as a result
of a generalised climate of fear.
14 March 2024 will mark the 10-year anniversary of Cao Shunli’s
death. Ten years ago, when ISHR and many other human rights groups
sought to observe a moment of silence at the Human Rights Council in her
memory, the Chinese delegation, together with other delegations,
disrupted the session for an hour and half.
Cao Shunli is a paradigmatic
case of reprisals, not only because of her prominence, but also due to
the array of severe human rights violations against her, committed in
total impunity.
These range from Chinese authorities blocking herexit from her own
country, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, lack of due
process, torture or ill-treatment and denial of adequate medical care,
to subsequent death in custody, and the lack of accountability for these
abuses. The lack of any progress in achieving accountability
underscores the urgent need for continued international attention and
pressure on the Chinese government to ensure justice for Cao and all
human rights defenders who face persecution for their work.
Cao Shunli said before her death: ‘Our impact may be large, may be
small, and may be nothing. But we must try. It is our duty to the
dispossessed and it is the right of civil society.’
Today, we pay
tribute to Cao Shunli’s legacy, one that has inspired countless human
rights defenders in China and abroad. We urge UN Member States to call
for a full, independent, impartial investigation into her death. We
reaffirm that no perpetrator of reprisals, no matter how powerful, is
above scrutiny, and that reprisals are fundamentally incompatible with
the values of the United Nations and of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.
|