Major trends of human rights violations in Mainland China and Hong Kong

Ahead of Human Rights Day, there have been major trends in human rights violations in Mainland China and Hong Kong.

This past autumn, Yang Tongyan (a.k.a. Yang Tianshui), a freelance writer and democracy veteran, died of brain cancer two months after he was released on medical parole under surveillance. Similarly, four months ago, Liu Xiaobo, the first Nobel Peace Prize winner, died in state custody since Nazi Germany. Ten thousands of prisoner of conscience have now been held by the Chinese authority. In past years, dozens of prisoner of conscience died in prison or passed away immediately after they were released.

Beijing authorities have forced removal of hundreds of thousands migrant workers from Beijing since 18 November. More migrant workers in the other big cities in China have also been evicted out of the urban areas.

Lee Ming-che, Taiwanese national and NGO worker, supporting democracy and human rights activities in mainland China, was kidnapped from Macau to mainland China by Chinese security officials in March and was sentenced to five years in prison last month, which he is the first non-Chinese national to be imprisoned in a long period of time for freedom of expression.

In Hong Kong, over one hundred activists were convicted for “unlawful assembly”, in August, at least sixteen activist were sentenced to six to thirteen months for their peaceful assembly. Both Chinese authority and Hong Kong authority have violated the Bill of Rights of Hong Kong as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ratified by Hong Kong and signed by P. R. China.

The international community should show solidarity with prodemocracy activists and human rights activists, continue to press the Chinese government to disclose medical records of detained human rights defenders on a regular basis as well as free all detained human rights defenders immediately and unconditionally.

• Urge China to immediately sign and ratify International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families.
• Call on UN to abolish the veto powers of the permanent members of the UN Security Council.
• Call on UN to pass resolution on the right to self-determination in Hong Kong.
• Call on UN to restore the member of Republic of China or allow Taiwan to become a member of the United Nations.