Recognizing Chinese Women Human Rights Defenders

(Chinese Human Rights Defenders, March 8, 2010) – While women make significant contributions to the promotion of human rights in China, their efforts are often overlooked. Many women human rights defenders (HRDs) are grassroots activists, and because of their lower profile they may not attract the attention of the domestic or international media. Others may be overshadowed by the work of husbands who are prominent human rights activists themselves. And yet, despite difficulties gaining recognition and support for their work, they continue to make great personal sacrifices in their courageous struggle for the cause of advancing human rights.

“On International Women’s Day, we should honor the increasing number of women at the forefront of the Chinese rights-defense movement, who often have to overcome tremendous obstacles in their quest to seek justice and defend human rights,” said Renee Xia, CHRD’s International Coordinator.

Women human rights defenders are active in all facets of the rights-defense movement, and have played critical roles in some of the most important cases in recent memory. Some, such as Liu Jie (刘杰), work with petitioners, helping organize them to better protect their rights and more effectively present their grievances. In 2007, Liu organized and released a public letter signed by 12,150 petitioners calling on leaders at the 17th Chinese Communist Party Congress to implement political and legal reforms.

Others use their platform as artists or educators to speak out against human rights abuses. For example, last October Sun Yat-sen University professor and filmmaker Ai Xiaoming (艾晓明) released “Our Children (我们的娃娃),” a documentary about the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. The documentary, which is available online, focuses on the experiences of parents whose children were killed when their schools collapsed during the earthquake, and provides an unflinching view at the tragedy and its roots.

Still others have been involved with the fight to promote human rights and democracy through political reform. The original group of signatories to Charter 08 included prominent women including Woeser (唯色), a Tibetan author and advocate for freedom of expression, Liu Di (刘荻), a Beijing blogger and activist, and Shen Peilan (沈佩兰), a land rights activist from Shanghai. Women human rights defenders have continued to play an active role in the dissemination of the Charter, as well as efforts to support Liu Xiaobo (刘晓波) and combat the government’s crackdown on the Charter.

Though they take diverse approaches to defending rights, one common attribute shared by all women human rights defenders is a determination to persevere despite overwhelming pressure from the Chinese government. We take this opportunity to profile a selection of these women human rights defenders who have recently been subjected to harassment for their activism, noting their accomplishments as well as the punishments they have suffered. We recognize that many more women face the threat of surveillance, detention in psychiatric facilities and “black jails,” and constant harassment by officials for their work.

Duan Chunfang (段春芳), a 49 year-old human rights activist from Shanghai, was seized by police at a local government office on July 3, 2009. At the time, she was negotiating the payment of a hospital bill incurred after she was beaten and injured by security guards keeping her under residential surveillance on June 22, 2009. Duan was later charged with “obstructing official business” (police claimed she attacked a police officer) and was sentenced to a year and a half in prison on October 23, 2009. Duan’s vision has rapidly deteriorated in the six months she has been detained, and she suffers from constant headaches and back pain, but authorities have not taken her to the hospital for examination or treatment. Duan is a petitioner-turned activist, who, together with her brother, Shanghai petitioner Duan Huimin (段惠民), fought against the forced eviction of their home. Duan Huimin died in January 2007 after being denied medical care following a severe beating in detention by interceptors and police. Duan continued to petition, and in the process, she began organizing fellow petitioners to defend their rights.

Fan Yanqiong (范燕琼), 48, is a locally well-known human rights defender based in Nanping County, Fujian Province. Fan was taken into custody on June 26, 2009, after she posted articles online alleging official misconduct and cover-ups in the case of a young woman’s death in Minqing County, Fujian Province. Fan and two co-defendants were tried on November 11, 2009, but as of the time of writing the court has yet to deliver a verdict. If convicted, Fan could face up to ten years in prison. Fan is currently held at Fuzhou City’s No. 2 Detention Center, where she is seriously ill. Prison officials have denied her a hearing regarding her application for release on bail for medical treatment. For over a decade, Fan has petitioned for redress of her own grievances and dedicated herself to helping other petitioners, exposing official corruption, and documenting rights abuses.

Hou Ying (侯映), a petitioner-turned-activist from Changsha, Hunan, was detained on January 21, 2009, while petitioning in Beijing. Chaoyang PSB officials placed her under administrative detention for five days for submitting a protest application on behalf of herself and 97 other petitioners. Because Hou was serving a suspended sentence from 2007 for “disturbing public order,” following her five days of administrative detention, the Furong District People’s Court in Changsha then sent her to prison on January 27, 2009, to serve the remaining of her original three year sentence.

Hu Yulan (胡玉兰), Sichuan activist and wife of Liu Zhengyou (刘正有), was formally arrested on December 7, 2009, for “fraud.” She is currently being held in the Zigong City Detention Center. As with her husband's case, it is believed that the charge of "fraud" is groundless and is being used as a pretext by police seeking to retaliate against Liu and Hu for their rights-defense activities. In the past few years, the couple has helped local petitioners file complaints, turning their home into a non-governmental “letters and visits office.”

Ni Yulan (倪玉兰), 48, a disabled housing rights activist and former lawyer, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for “obstructing official business” by Xicheng District Court in Beijing on December 18, 2008. Ni was detained after she resisted the forced demolition of her home by Beijing authorities. Ni was badly beaten and mistreated while detained at the Xinjiekou Detention Center; police confiscated her crutches and made her crawl when she had to use the bathroom, and kicked her so severely that she fell unconscious for two days. Ni, who worked as a lawyer for 18 years, is known for her work assisting many victims of forced eviction in Beijing. Ni became disabled after she was repeatedly beaten by police for filming the forced demolition of a Beijing home in April 2002.

Wu Huaying (吴华英), another Fujian activist, was arrested together with Fan Yanqiong. Wu, in her 40s, is from Fuqing City, Fujian. Wu became an activist after her brother was arrested and then convicted for being responsible for a bombing attack. Wu, who believes that her brother was wrongly convicted, has since been campaigning for his release. Through her efforts to seek justice for her brother, Wu has become acquainted with many fellow petitioners. For the last four years, she has been active in providing legal aid and other forms of assistance to those, like her, who have suffered injustices at the hands of officials in Fuqing City.

Zhou Li (周莉), an activist based in Beijing, disappeared on August 12, 2009. It was later determined that she had been criminally detained for “disturbing social order” and held in Chongwen District Detention Center in Beijing. Following National Day, Zhou was transferred to the Daxing District Detention Center in Beijing; it is believed she may soon be formally charged with a crime. Zhou started her activism when she fought against the forced demolition of her home in 2005. Since then, she has been involved in a variety of activities defending human rights, including drawing attention to the case of Deng Yujiao (邓玉娇), a young woman who became a cause célèbre after she was charged for killing a government official trying to rape her at her workplace.

Ai Xiaoming (艾晓明), a university professor of women’s studies and gender studies based in Guangzhou, is best known for her documentaries focused on human rights and gender issues. For example, Ai has documented the story of Yao Lifa (姚立法), an activist promoting democratic reforms at the grassroots level, the HIV/AIDS cover-up in the central provinces, as well as the deaths of schoolchildren in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake, which were attributed to substandard buildings. In the past year, Ai has been barred from leaving the country to attend events abroad and the authorities have also refused to renew her expired passport.

Ding Zilin (丁子霖), a former professor at People’s University, is a leader of the Tiananmen Mothers, a group of relatives of those killed during the Massacre. For the past twenty years, the group has systematically and meticulously documented details about the victims as part of their campaign to seek justice and official accountability. Ding has suffered repeated threats, harassment, detention and interrogations for continuing to speak out for justice.

Liu Jie (刘杰), from Beian City in Heilongjiang Province, is a petitioner-turned activist. Since 2003, Liu has annually organized petitioners to submit open letters advocating legal and political reforms. On October 8, 2007, Liu released a public letter signed by 12,150 petitioners calling on leaders at the 17th Party Congress to reform. Three days later, Liu was seized by the Beijing Police and later sent to 18 months of Re-education through Labor (RTL) for “instigating trouble and disturbing social order” in November 2007. During her time in the RTL camp, Liu was repeatedly subjected to brutal torture, forced to work long hours and denied access to treatment to her failing eyesight. Liu continues to be constantly harassed by the police for resuming her work in promoting human rights after her release on November 12, 2007.

Liu Wei (刘巍), a human rights lawyer from Beijing's Shunhe Law Firm, has not had her license to practice law renewed by the judicial authorities following the conclusion of an annual review of her performance on May 31, 2009. Liu is part of a group of about twenty lawyers whose licenses were stripped for taking ‘sensitive’ human rights cases. Most of the others have succeeded in having their licenses returned after negotiations with the authorities. Ms. Liu has defended Falun Gong practitioners, human rights activists and HIV/AIDS carriers whose infection was related to government misconduct. She has also offered to provide legal aid to Tibetans detained in the wake of the March 2008 protests as well as advocated direct elections to the leadership of the Beijing Lawyers' Association in September 2008.

Yuan Weijing (袁伟静), an English teacher, a defender of reproductive rights and wife of imprisoned HRD Chen Guangcheng (陈光诚). Together with Chen, Yuan became the victim of retaliation by local authorities for revealing the use of violence in the local birth control campaign and publicly opposing the illegal imprisonment of her husband in Linyi, Shandong Province. Since September 2005, she has been under intermittent house arrest and harassment.

Zeng Jinyan (曾金燕), from Fujian, is a well-known blogger, human rights activist and advocate for the right of HIV/AIDS carriers and orphans. Zeng, based in Beijing, is married to Hu Jia (胡佳), an activist currently imprisoned for “inciting subversion of state power.” Zeng is outspoken about human rights violations and in particular, about her husband’s imprisonment. Apart from constant harassment and monitoring, Zeng was also prevented by the police from opening a kindergarten in her residential district in Beijing in December 2009.

Renee Xia, International Director (English and Mandarin), +852 8191 6937 or +1 301 547 9286