Weiquan movement

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Weiquan Movement is a decentralized group of lawyers, legal experts and intellectuals in China who work to protect and defend civil rights through legal process and legal activism. The movement, which began in the early 2000s, organized demonstrations, sought reforms through the judicial system and the media, defended victims of human rights abuses, and filed letters of appeal despite opposition from the Chinese Communist Party authorities . The subjects represented by Weiquan's attorneys include property and housing rights, protection for AIDS victims, environmental damage , freedom of religion , freedom of expression and freedom of the press, as well as the defense of the rights of other lawyers who are confronted with a ban on the profession or imprisonment.

Individuals involved in the Weiquan movement occasionally encounter harsh reprisals from Chinese authorities, including professional bans, detention, harassment and, in extreme cases, torture. The authorities responded to the movement with an educational campaign on the “socialist rule of law”, which was intended to reaffirm the Communist Party's primacy in political considerations in legal professions and, with the Three Supreme, to consolidate the Communist Party's supremacy in legal proceedings.

background

Since the legal reforms of the late 1970s and 1980s, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has adopted the language of the rule of law and created a modern judicial system. In the process, she passed thousands of new laws and regulations and began training more legal professionals. The concept of the "rule of law" was enshrined in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China , and the CCP began campaigning to promote the idea that citizens would be protected through and under the law. At the same time, however, there is a fundamental contradiction in the implementation of the rule of law, in which the CCP insists that its authority replace the law. The constitution enshrines the rule of law, but at the same time underlines the principle of “leading the Communist Party”. So the judiciary is not independent and is therefore subject to the politicization and control of the Communist Party. This resulted in a system that is often referred to as "rule by the law" rather than "rule by the law".

Judges' decisions are subject to the CCP's arbitrary judgment. This leads to the repression of citizens who use the legal system to remedy abuses. Once the cause has the potential to undermine the authority of the Communist Party, the CCP acts outside of its own legal system. Accused who face criminal charges, such as activism or religious beliefs, often have few resources to pursue an effective defense.

The Weiquan movement actually emerged in the early 2000s in response to these inherent contradictions and the arbitrary exercise of legal authority in China. However, its roots can be traced back to the consumer protection movement that began in the 1990s. The movement is informal and can be understood to include lawyers and legal activists who advocate civil rights and defend the interests of citizens against corporations, government offices and organs of the Communist Party, respectively. Fu Hualing and Richard Cullen noted that Weiquan lawyers “tend to be on the side of the weaker party: immigrant workers versus employers in labor disputes; Farmers in tax matters; Individuals contesting pollution, land permits, and village committee elections; Journalists facing government censorship; prosecuted defendants; and ordinary citizens who are discriminated against by government measures and actions ”.

The Weiquan movement was made possible by a combination of several factors: on the one hand there was a market for their services, on the other hand there was an increasing awareness of the law. This was also promoted by the “Lawyers Act” of 1996, which changed the definition of lawyers from “state legal workers” to “legal professionals” who have a legal certificate and can thus provide legal services. The law effectively separated lawyers from the state and gave lawyers greater (though still limited) autonomy within their profession.

Weiquan's lawyers tend to be particularly critical of the lack of independence of the judiciary in China. Rather than questioning certain laws, they formulate their work as being in line with Chinese law, and describe their activities as a means of defending and upholding the constitution against abuse. As such, Weiquan's lawyers have been described as a form of Legitimate Resistance .

Weiquan lawyers

Main article: Weiquan Lawyers

The term Weiquan Lawyers (Chinese: 维权 律师) or “Lawyers for the Protection of Rights” refers to a small but influential movement of lawyers, scholars and activists who help Chinese citizens assert their constitutional civil rights also enforce the public interest through litigation and legal activism. With the number of lawyers increasing in China, the number of Weiquan lawyers is very low. Weiquan attorneys face significant personal, financial, and professional risks.

Well-known Weiquan lawyers include He Weifang , Xu Zhiyong , Teng Biao , Guo Feixiong , Chen Guangcheng , Gao Zhisheng , Zheng Enchong and Li Heping . Many barefoot lawyers are farmers who self-taught legal knowledge in order to file civil complaints, litigate and educate fellow citizens about their rights. Some Weiquan lawyers are pragmatic, others are more radical.

Main areas

Free expression

Although freedom of expression is enshrined in Article 35 of the People's Republic of China Constitution, Chinese authorities enforce restrictions on political and religious expression. Such restrictions are sometimes in line with Article 105 of the Criminal Code, which contains vague and broad provisions against "inciting subversion of state power". Weiquan's attorneys, along with international human rights organizations, argued that the anti-subversion provisions were incompatible with both China's own constitution and international human rights standards, especially given the lack of transparency and unclear guidelines for the application of the law.

Several Weiquan attorneys have been involved in litigation and other forms of defense of freedom of expression for individuals charged with subversion. Well-known cases include: Liu Xiaobo , a prominent Beijing intellectual who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in December 2009 for inciting subversion . Tan Zuoren, an activist from Chengdu , who was also sentenced to five years in prison for inciting subversion , including publishing writings on the Tian'anmen massacre in 1989, assisting families of victims of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and radio station Sound of Hope, who is associated with Falun Gong, gave interviews. Tan's lawyers were denied entry to the courtroom. The intellectual Guo Quan , who was sentenced to ten years in prison in October 2009 for posting “reactionary” articles on the Internet.

Weiquan's lawyers also opposed the application of state secrecy laws, which are sometimes used to track people who divulge information on politically sensitive subjects. For example, in November 2009, lawyers helped defend Huang Qi , a Sichuan activist who campaigned online for the parents of the Sichuan earthquake victims. Huang was sentenced to three years in prison for holding state secrets .

Legal independence

The Chinese constitution anchors the rule of law, but at the same time underlines the principle of “leading the Communist Party”. This is why the legal profession is under the authority of the Communist Party, and therefore the Ministry of Justice is responsible for issuing and renewing lawyers' licenses, not the bar associations. Weiquan's lawyers argued that this structure precluded the emergence of a real rule of law and in some cases advocated reforms to improve the independence of the judiciary and the protection of the legal professions.

In late August 2008, several dozen Beijing lawyers signed a petition calling for the Beijing Bar Association to be elected by members of the organization rather than appointed by the Ministry of Justice. In the petition letter it was stated that the selection process for the directors of the association is not in accordance with the official guidelines and the Chinese constitution and should therefore be replaced by a democratic electoral process. The Beijing Bar Association responded to the campaign by claiming that anyone was unlawful “using text messaging, the Internet or other media to privately promote and spread the concept of direct voting, to express controversial opinions and thereby rumors within Beijing residents To spread the bar association, as well as confuse and poison people's minds and convince them of circumstances that do not exist in relation to the so-called 'direct elections for the Beijing Bar Association' ”. The following year, the Beijing Justice Bureau refused to renew the licenses of 53 Beijing Weiquan attorneys, all of whom had signed the petition to the bar association for elections.

Land rights

The practice of land seizure and eviction is widespread in China as local governments give way to private property developers.

According to Chinese property law, there is no privately acquired land. “Urban land” is owned by the state that grants land rights for a specified number of years. Rural or “collective land ownership” is leased by the state for 30 years and is theoretically reserved for agricultural purposes, housing and services for farmers.

Evictions are prohibited under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights , which China has ratified. Under the Chinese Constitution and other property rights, expropriation of urban land is only permitted if it is in support of the “public interest” and if the displaced receive compensation, resettlement and living conditions. However, the “public interest” is undefined and abuses are widespread in the expropriation process, with many citizens complaining that they are receiving little or no compensation.

Forced evictions with little or no compensation are common in both urban and rural China, with legal protections for rural residents even less in place. Shared rural areas can be "redistributed" at the discretion of the authorities, and in many regions local governments are colluding with private developers to reclassify rural areas as urban areas which can then be sold. From the mid-1990s to mid-2000, an estimated 40 million Chinese farmers were affected by land expropriations. Citizens who oppose or protest against the evictions face harassment, beatings and even prison sentences, and land-related complaints occasionally escalate into large-scale protests or riots.

Several Weiquan lawyers campaigned for the rights of individual citizens whose land and homes were taken away without adequate compensation, including lawyer Zheng Enchong from Shanghai . Beijing attorney Ni Yulan was herself evicted and openly represented such victims before she was sentenced to two years in prison.

In 2007, 54-year-old farmer Yang Chunlin from Heilongjiang Province published numerous articles on human and land rights and helped organize a petition entitled "We want human rights, not the Olympics." The petition is said to have collected over ten thousand signatures. Yang was then tried and sentenced to five years in prison, where he was allegedly tortured. Li Fangping was assigned to defend him, but was not given access to his client.

Defense of ethnic minorities

Several Weiquan lawyers, including Teng Biao , Jiang Tianyong , and Li Fangping, offered legal assistance to Tibetans following the March 2008 Tibetan riot . The protests resulted in the detention of at least 670 Tibetans, at least four of whom were executed. Chinese authorities alleged that the riot and violence in Tibet was controlled by the Dalai Lama and carried out by his supporters in order to stir up unrest and disrupt the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The Open Constitutional Initiative, run by several Weiquan lawyers and intellectuals, released a document in May 2009 that challenged the official report, suggesting that the protests were more likely a response to economic injustices, Han Chinese and migration religious feelings. The Open Constitutional Initiative recommended that the Chinese authorities better respect and protect the rights and interests of the Tibetan people, including freedom of religion, and promote the reduction of economic inequality and corruption in the authorities.

Tibetan filmmaker Dhondup Wangcheng was sentenced to six years in prison for making a documentary on human rights in Tibet in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. Two lawyers, Chang Boyang and Li Dunyong, who tried to represent him, faced threats and harassment because of their client's defense.

In July 2010, a group of Chinese activists, including Teng Biao, signed a letter to the Chinese leadership protesting the 15-year prison sentence to which Uyghur journalist Halaite Niyaze had been sentenced. Niyaze, who had been charged with "endangering national security", was denied legal assistance at his trial. Niyaze was charged with accusing the Chinese government, in an interview with a Hong Kong news agency, of not doing enough to prevent the July 2009 riots in Urumqi .

Falun Gong

Main article: Persecution of Falun Gong

Falun Gong practitioners demonstrated outside the Zhongnanhai government site in April 1999 to get official recognition. The practice was illegally banned three months later.

Falun Gong, a spiritual qigong discipline that, according to the Chinese government, had up to 100 million practitioners prior to its persecution, was banned in July 1999 by the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, which launched a campaign to publicize the discipline and its followers (also known as Falun Dafa ). In an attempt to dissuade Falun Gong practitioners, they are subjected to state-sanctioned, systematic acts of violence that sometimes lead to death. Some sources suggest that hundreds of thousands to millions are detained in re-education-through-labor ( laogai ) camps for practicing Falun Gong and / or resisting the persecution.

In November 1999, the People's Republic of China Supreme People's Court offered a judicial interpretation of Article 300 of the Criminal Code, which called Falun Gong to be considered a "xie jiao" or cult. Many practitioners were subsequently sentenced to long prison terms, often citing Article 300, in a typically very brief process and without the presence of a lawyer. In 2009 alone, the Falun Dafa Information Center reported that several hundred Falun Gong practitioners had been sentenced to prison terms of up to 18 years. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, found that the use of the law to persecute Falun Gong practitioners violated China's own constitution as well as international standards. Several Weiquan lawyers argued similarly while defending Falun Gong practitioners who have faced criminal or administrative penalties for their beliefs. Lawyers who have defended Falun Gong include Guo Guoting, Zhang Kai, Li Chunfu, Wang Yonghang, Tang Jitian, and Liu Wie.

In addition to litigating, Weiquan lawyers like Gao Zhisheng campaigned for the human rights of Falun Gong practitioners publicly and in the media. In 2004 and 2005, Gao wrote a series of letters to China's top leaders detailing the torture and sexual abuse against Falun Gong practitioners and calling for an end to the persecution of the group. In response, Gao lost his lawyer license, was placed under house arrest, detained, and even tortured.

HIV / AIDS

Some Weiquan lawyers campaigned for the rights of HIV / AIDS victims who contracted the virus as a result of government-sponsored blood donation drives. In the 1990s, government officials in central China, and especially in Henan Province , encouraged rural populations to sell blood plasma in order to increase their incomes. Gross mismanagement of the process resulted in hundreds of thousands of people infected with HIV. According to activists, the victims were not compensated and government officials were not brought to justice. The authorities continue to suppress information about the epidemic, which is particularly sensitive given the involvement of Li Changchun , Communist Party propaganda leader and former party leader in Henan.

Hu Jia is arguably the most famous lawyer for HIV / AIDS victims after serving as the executive director of the Beijing Aizhixing Institute of Health Education and one of the founders of the NGO Loving Source .

Women's rights

Chen Guangcheng, a blind, self-taught Weiquan attorney, was known for defending victims of China's one-child policy . First introduced in 1979, the one-child policy required couples to have only one child, but there were exceptions for some rural citizens, ethnic minorities and couples who were children themselves. Although Chinese law condemns harsh enforcement measures, Chinese authorities and state family planning staff have been charged with performing late-forced abortions, sterilization, detention and torture as coercive measures to enforce these policies. In 2005, Chen Guangcheng filed a class action lawsuit against family planning officials in Linyi , Shandong Province , who were accused of having subjected thousands of women to sterilization or forced abortion.

Underground Christians

China's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but also includes a caveat that only "normal" religious activities are allowed. In practice, however, religious freedom is only granted within the strictly prescribed parameters of the five officially sanctioned “patriotic” religious associations Buddhism , Daoism , Islam , Protestantism and Catholicism . Groups that are outside of the state-administered religions, including underground or Christian house churches , are subject to varying degrees of repression and persecution.

While there are no definitive figures on the number of Christians in hiding in China, some estimates are over 70 million. At least 40 Catholic bishops work regardless of the official sanction; some of them are under surveillance, house arrest, detention or have disappeared. Several leaders and members of underground Protestant churches were also arrested and sentenced to re-education-through-labor and prison terms. Violent assaults and destruction of underground churches were carried out, sometimes resulting in injuries to churchgoers. Chinese officials referred to several of these Protestant churches as "xie jiao" (literally translated as "evil religion") or cult or sect in order to have a pretext for harsher punishment of the members.

Several prominent Weiquan lawyers identify with the Protestant movement that has gone into hiding and attempted to defend church members and leaders who have faced imprisonment. These lawyers include Zhang Kai, Li Heping, and Gao Zhisheng. The US-based organization "ChinaAid" of former house church leader Bob Fu supported legal cases and provided needy clients in China "rule of law education " and legal assistance.

Other initiatives

A number of specific events drew the attention and help of Weiquan activists. During the earthquake in Sichuan Province in March 2008, poorly built school buildings collapsed several schools occupied by students. Several Weiquan lawyers, including Tan Zuoren , defended parents' rights and investigated allegations that corrupt officials were responsible for the poor construction. Parents and lawyers have faced reprisals from Chinese officials for their activities.

During the same year, the Chinese dairy scandal was uncovered, in which large quantities of baby food were contaminated with melamine, causing 300,000 infants to become ill and several deaths to be reported. Several of the victims' parents were arrested for trying to draw media attention to their plight. Dozens of lawyers, especially from Hebei, Henan and Shandong provinces, offered free legal assistance to the victims, but the authorities obstructed their efforts.

Individual human rights cases, such as the Deng Yujiao incident and the death of Qian Yunhui, have also received help from legal defenders such as Wu Gan.

In 2003, a group of legal scholars including Teng Biao and Xu Zhiyong founded the Open Constitutional Initiative (Chinese: 公 盟) to advocate for greater rule of law. The organization was involved in the Sun Zhigang case, which involved the death of the fashion designer, and advocated petitioners, labor rights, freedom of expression, HIV / AIDS victims, Tibetans, land rights and the protection of public health, among other things.

Government response

Restriction of the rule of law

In response to the emergence of the Weiquan Movement, which often uses the official language of the “rule of law” to demonstrate the legality of its work, a political campaign was launched in April 2006 to consolidate the Communist Party's leadership through the administration of justice to fight the idea of ​​greater independence for judges and lawyers and to educate people and judicial authorities about the "socialist concept of the rule of law". The campaign was announced by Luo Gan , then head of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee of the Communist Party's Central Committee. Luo urged that "strong measures" be taken against those "who engage in sabotage under the pretext of legal protection (Weiquan)" to protect political stability. The start of the campaign coincided with a crackdown on Weiquan's lawyers.

Shortly after the campaign began, party committees issued instructions to the judges to remind them of the political goals their work must accomplish. According to a document presented to judges in Zhejiang and quoted by Human Rights Watch , “Recently, some judges have started to believe that in one case, all you have to do is strictly obey the law to be a judge. Indeed, this kind of concept is wrong [...] all legal language has a clear political background and a clear political direction [...] We need to eradicate this kind of narrow view that believes that judicial work can also be done by having judicial independence Has".

During a conference on politico-legal work in December 2007, Communist Party's general secretary Hu Jintao formulated the “Three Supreme” theory, which reiterated that legal work should consider the concerns and interests of the Communist Party as paramount. In March 2008, Wang Shengjun was confirmed as the new head of the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China . Wang, who had no legal training himself, gave up his predecessors' efforts to improve legal literacy, training, and autonomy. Instead, he emphasized the ideological implications of the “Three Supreme” theory and the maintenance of the leadership of the Communist Party.

In 2010, the Chinese Ministry of Justice issued two new regulations to "strengthen the supervision and administration of lawyers and law firms." According to the Associated Press, the new regulations are intended to "allow authorities to punish lawyers ... for actions such as talking to the media or even causing 'traffic problems'".

In March 2012, the Chinese Ministry of Justice issued a new policy requiring lawyers who wish to acquire their first license or renew an existing license to swear an oath of allegiance to the Communist Party. On the ministry's website, a section of the oath reads: “I swear to faithfully fulfill the sacred mission of legal workers under Chinese-marked socialism. I swear to be loyal to the motherland and the people, to uphold the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and the socialist system, and to protect the dignity of the constitution and the law. "

Repression of lawyers and coercive measures

Weiquan lawyers face various challenges from the Chinese government in their work, including banning or disqualification, violence, threats, surveillance, arbitrary detention, and prosecution. This is especially true for lawyers who take on politically sensitive cases. Reports of harassment, intimidation and violence against Weiquan's lawyers increased in 2006 after the launch of the campaign to promote the “socialist concept of the rule of law”. The authorities refused to renew several dozen Weiquan's lawyers, and several were banned from practicing law for life. For example, in 2009 at least 17 Weiquan attorneys were not allowed to renew their statutory license after taking on politically sensitive cases. Several Weiquan lawyers have been sentenced to prison terms for their work.

A selection of notable suppression cases are listed below:

  • Gao Zhisheng, once recognized by the state as one of the ten most promising attorneys in China, was an advocate for a number of disenfranchised individuals and minorities. In 2006, after he wrote a series of public letters to the Chinese authorities about the torture of Falun Gong practitioners, Gao was revoked from his lawyer license and closed his office. His family was placed under house arrest and he was detained for six months. Gao was sentenced to four years in prison, but the sentence was suspended for five years. He had disappeared and been tortured in custody several times.
  • On December 27, 2007, AIDS and pro-democracy activist Hu Jia was arrested in the run-up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Hu was a well-known rights activist advocating for AIDS victims, farmers and land expropriation victims. Hu also criticized the lack of progress on human rights issues announced ahead of the Olympics. Hu pleaded not guilty at his trial in March 2008, but was sentenced to three and a half years in prison on April 3, 2008 for "inciting undermining state authority". Hu was previously placed under house arrest and beaten by the police.
  • In response to his 2005 class action lawsuit against family planning authorities in Linyi , Shandong Province , Chen Guangcheng was placed under house arrest, threatened, detained, and beaten. Three other Weiquan activists - Li Fangping, Li Subin, and Xu Zhiyong - visited Chen and offered assistance. She was then beaten and interrogated herself. On August 24, 2006, Chen was sentenced to four years and three months in prison for "causing damage to property and gathering crowds to disrupt the transportation regime." After Chen was released, he continued to be placed under house arrest.
  • On April 22nd, 2010, Beijing lawyers Liu Wei and Tang Jitian were banned from practicing life for defending Falun Gong practitioners.
  • On May 13, 2009 in Chongqing, lawyers Zhang Kai and Li Chunfu were brutally beaten and arrested for investigating the death of Jiang Xiqing, a 66-year-old Falun Gong practitioner who was murdered in the labor camp. A month earlier, Beijing lawyer Cheng Hai was similarly beaten by police in Sichuan Province for trying to defend a Falun Gong practitioner.
  • Yang Chunlin was arrested in July 2007 and charged with "inciting subversion of state power". His trial began in Jiamusi City in February 2008 . Yang was sentenced to five years in prison on March 24, 2008. He protested his innocence throughout the process. During the trial and after he was sentenced, Yang was reportedly beaten with an electric baton at least twice.
  • On July 4th, 2009, around 20 security guards broke into Wang Yonghang's home. Wang, a Weiquan lawyer from Dalian City , defended Falun Gong practitioners. He was taken into custody for questioning and reportedly badly beaten. Wang's lawyers were not allowed to contact him. In November 2009, in a closed trial, Wang was sentenced to seven years in prison for advocating for Falun Gong practitioners. After seeing him in January 2010, his lawyers reported that he had been tortured.
  • On July 17, 2009, Beijing authorities raided and shut down the Constitutional Open Initiative, a non-governmental organization founded by lawyers Teng Biao and Xu Zhiyong.
  • On February 20, 2011, several Weiquan activists were jailed after calling for pro-democracy protests in China on the Internet. These included Chen Wei, Jiang Tianyong, Tang Jitian, and Teng Biao.
  • In May 2014, when several Chinese activists began preparing for the 25th anniversary of the 1989 Tian'anmen massacre protests , a number of lawyers were arrested on suspicion of planning a demonstration. Among those arrested was Pu Zhiqiang , a lawyer who helped organize the 1989 demonstrations.

International reactions

Although relatively little is known about the Weiquan phenomenon as a movement outside of China, Western governments and human rights organizations have consistently raised concerns about the treatment of individual Weiquan lawyers in China. Some of them have faced disenfranchisement, imprisonment, persistent disappearance, conviction and torture because of their work to promote civil rights and against one-party rule. In October 2010, a non-partisan group of 29 members of the United States House of Representatives urged President Obama to discuss the cases of Liu Xiaobo and Gao Zhisheng with Chinese leaders. They described Gao Zhizheng's ongoing detention as follows: "If lawyers are dragged away for the 'crime' of defending their clients, the rule of law in China has failed." The State Department later alleged that they were involved in the cases having discussed with her Chinese colleague.

In 2008, Hu Jia was awarded the Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament for his defense of human rights . In the same year, Hu and Gao Zhisheng received nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize and were considered favorites for the award. Two years later, seven members of the US House of Representatives nominated the imprisoned lawyers Gao Zhisheng and Chen Guangcheng and the dissident Liu Xiaobo for the award. The letter indicated that these individuals had sought to "raise awareness among the Chinese people of their dignity and rights, and urged their government to govern according to their constitution, laws and the international human rights treaties they had signed," thereby causing them to rule made a significant contribution to peace. In December 2010, the Nobel Prize Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo in his absence.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

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