Wei
Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A392-W208
魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A392-W208
Release
Date: July 27, 2008
发布日：2007年7月27日
Topic:
Wei Jingsheng's Foreword to the 2007 Annual Report by the Observatory for the
Protection of Human Rights Defenders (and the related reports by Agence
France-Presse and French 24)
标题：魏京生为“人权捍卫者保护观察”的2007年世界人权报告撰写前言（及法新社的相关报道）
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Wei
Jingsheng's Foreword to the 2007 Annual Report by the Observatory for the
Protection of Human Rights Defenders (and the related reports by Agence
France-Presse and French 24)
In
June 2008, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
published its 2007 annual report.
The observatory is a joint project by the Geneva-based World Organisation
Against Torture (OMCT) and the Paris-based International Federation of Human
Rights (FIDH). This annual report
is one of most respected reviews of human rights condition worldwide. In this latest report, it detailed the
fact that the Chinese authorities have stepped up efforts to censor dissenting
voices in the run-up to the Olympic Games, including arresting people who were
making protests in relation to the Olympic Games.
Hereby,
we appraised the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders for
its good effort to get the information from the most knowledgeable human rights
defenders and other venues. In
this newsletter, we include Mr. Wei Jingsheng's forward for this report, which
of course is specifically focused on China. Other people who also contributed to the report include:
Hina Jilani, Barbara Hendricks, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, José Ramos-Horta, and
Desmond Mpilo Tutu.
For
the report by the Observatory, please visit the following links:
http://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/report2007obs_eng.pdf
The
related reports of this annual report especially on China by others include
Agence France-Presse and French 24 are available at:
http://www.france24.com/en/20080619-china-tightens-screws-against-dissidents-ahead-olympics
__ __ __
China:
Major Setbacks
--
Mr. Wei Jingsheng
Writer,
1996 Laureate of the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, China
In
the last a couple years, Chinese human rights have experienced minor progresses
in some areas, but over all major setbacks.
The
minor progresses are reflected by all death sentences being approved by the
Supreme People's Court. Since the era of Deng XiaoPing, the authorisation and
approval of the death sentences were given to the provincial courts, even
district courts, which resulted in massive abuses of the use of death
sentences. For their own political motivations or revenge purposes, many local
officials expanded the use of death penalties, even making faults and wrongful
cases for personal and selfish gains. The death penalty in China represents
more than 3/4 of the whole world.
Under
the pressure of the public opinions, both internationally and within China,
especially the mobilisation of various NGOs, the Chinese Government had to face
this issue seriously. Finally, starting last year, the right to approve the
death penalty returned to the Supreme Court. According to the unpublished
estimation of the Chinese jurisdictional department, in the next few years, the
number of death penalty sentences will be reduced rapidly, the difficulty for
the local officials to make related false and wrongfully cases will be
increased.
This
is a major achievement of the global efforts for the promotion of human rights.
However, in almost all the other areas, Chinese human rights conditions have
suffered major setbacks, in particular in two areas.
1.
Major setbacks in the areas of freedom of speech
Because
of sanctions and penalties against various media professions being adopted in
order to cut and modify information according to the Chinese Communist Party
(CCP), the freedom of press has reduced to the lowest level of the world.
Besides, the freedom of commentaries was restricted to meet the propaganda
standard of the CCP, especially electronic media. Beside self-censorship, China
also has the strongest Internet blockage. Information that does not meet the
standard of the CCP's propaganda is very hard to reach the Internet users.
People
of various media who try to break through this speech blockage (such as
journalists, editors, freelance reporters) often suffer cruel assails, such as
losing jobs, being beaten by the Mafia, or even sent to jail. What should be
underlined in particular are the Western businesses' help to the CCP agencies'
efforts of searching the dissidents, as well as blockage of the Internet, which
resulted in jail sentences against innocent people.
2.
Severe repression against human rights defenders
The
collective rights defending activities of the Chinese people have been
developing rapidly in the folder of several times every year, both in number
and scale, which resulted in the creation of many rights lawyers and group
leaders. Because of their leadership and consultancy, the effectiveness of the
rights defending activities was increased in larger scale as well. This is a
particular case in China: because the Government does not take the
responsibility to protect the people, because more and more officials are
accomplices of the evil forces, people have to organise themselves to protect
their own rights and thus produce their own leaders.
Meanwhile,
CCP's repression against the rights movement has come from the traditional,
without certain rule type, into the systematic repression that have its goal,
and rules to follow. On one hand, there are newly equipped, most modern
military police of 200,000 that cooperate with local polices and are composed
into a large and strong repression system that specifically targets people's
rights activities. On the other hand, the CCP tries to destroy all the leaders
and right defending people by severely torturing the detained rights defenders,
in an effort to destroy them both physically and mentally. Many political
prisoners were destroyed both ways, thus losing their ability to make a living.
In
particular, last year the Chinese Government's repression has rapidly upgraded,
in an effort to make sure there is no dissident voices from the people during
the 2008 Olympics. The repression scale has been expanded into the Western
sportsmen, media and tourists. In a few Western countries, this kind of
repression of dissident voices has been relayed by some Western politicians,
such as: Belgium, England and New Zealand who tried to repress their sportsmen
to express their political opinions during the Olympics.
We have
reasons to believe, it is not just the Chinese people who suffer the
repression; the repression is expanding towards every corner of the world.
__ __ __
AFP
News Briefs List
China
tightens screws against dissidents ahead of Olympics
Chinese
authorities have stepped up efforts to censor dissenting voices in the run-up
to the Olympic Games, a report by two human rights groups charged Thursday.
"The
context related to the run-up to the Olympic Games in August 2008 has
continuously strengthened an environment already hostile to human rights and
their defenders," said the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights
Defenders in its annual report.
The
observatory is a joint project by the Geneva-based World Organisation Against
Torture (OMCT) and the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights
(FIDH).
It
cited four people who were arrested after making protests in relation to the
Olympic Games.
Among
them was Hu Jia, who was taken into custody last December 27 after publicly
criticising the Chinese government's failure to keep its promise to promote and
protect human rights, a promise that was make when it was awarded the Games.
Hu,
34, was found guilty at a Beijing court of "incitement to subvert state
power" following a one-day trial in March, and sentenced to
three-and-a-half years behind bars in early April.
In
a foreword to the report, writer Wei Jingsheng wrote: "In particular, last
year the Chinese Government's repression has rapidly upgraded, in an effort to make
sure there is no dissident voices from the people during the 2008
Olympics."
Outside
China, charged Wei, some Western politicians have even tried to stop their
sportsmen from expressing their political opinions on China during the Games.
In
February, the London-based Mail on Sunday newspaper reported that the British
Olympic Association had inserted clauses into its athletes' contracts
forbidding them to comment on "politically sensitive issues."
Other
human rights repression in China had included the forced evictions of citizens
from their homes as well as censorship of the media and Internet, said the NGO.
Press
freedom in China is now among the lowest in the world, and commentaries are
tailored to meet "the propaganda standard(s) of the Chinese Communist
Party," said the report.
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中文版
Wei
Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A392-W208
魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A392-W208
Release
Date: July 27, 2008
发布日：2007年7月27日
Topic:
Wei Jingsheng's Foreword to the 2007 Annual Report by the Observatory for the
Protection of Human Rights Defenders (and the related reports by Agence
France-Presse and French 24)
标题：魏京生为“人权捍卫者保护观察”的2007年世界人权报告撰写前言（及法新社的相关报道）
Original
Language Version: English/Chinese (Chinese at the end)
此号以英/中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）
如有中文乱码问题，请与我们联系或访问:
http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2008/report2008-07/WeiJSforeword080727OPHRD2007reportA392-W208.htm
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魏京生为“人权捍卫者保护观察”的2007年世界人权报告撰写前言（及法新社的相关报道）
2008年6月，“人权捍卫者保护观察”发表了它的2007年世界人权报告。这是由总部在巴黎的“国际人权联盟”和日内瓦的“世界反酷刑组织”共同协作的一个项目。这个人权报告是世界上最为重要的人权报告之一。在这次的人权报告中，它列举了中国政府在奥运前夕加紧封闭意见，包括拘捕针对奥运抗议的人们的事实。
魏京生基金会谨此就“人权捍卫者保护观察”所做的努力表示敬意。在此，我们将魏京生先生就中国人权问题所写的前言呈献给读者。
有关“人权捍卫者保护观察”2007年世界人权报告，请访问：
http://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/report2007obs_eng.pdf
或
有关这个年度报告的中国部分的新闻报道，请参看法新社及法国电视24台的报道：
http://www.france24.com/en/20080619-china-tightens-screws-against-dissidents-ahead-olympics
或
__ __ __
中国人权状况
-- 魏京生
中国的人权状况在最近两到三年里，有微小的进步和大幅度的倒退。
微小的进步表现在死刑复核的权利收回到最高法院。从邓小平时代开始，《刑法》所规定的死刑复核权，被下放到省一级甚至地区一级，造成了死刑泛滥。大量的地方官员为了政治原因和报私仇的原因，扩大了死刑的适用范围，甚至制造假案、冤案，以便达到地区性的和私人的目的，使死刑的数量达到了全世界的四分之三以上。
在世界舆论和国内舆论的压力下，特别是各国人权团体的强烈抨击，迫使中国政府不得不认真对待这个问题。从去年开始，死刑复核的权力终于依照《刑法》的规定，收回到最高法院。据司法部门私下估计，在今后的几年中，死刑的数量将迅速下降。地方官员制造冤案、假案的难度，将大幅度上升。这是全球人权事业的巨大成就。
除此以外。中国的人权状况在几乎所有的方面都呈现了大幅度的倒退。最严重的倒退表现在两个方面。
（1）言论的自由度大幅度倒退。
对各种媒体的审查和惩罚，迫使媒体从业人员按照中共的要求剪裁信息：新闻的自由度降到了全球最低水平；评论文章的言论也大幅度收缩（围绕在中共宣传标准周围）。特别是电子媒体，除了自律以外，还有全世界最强的网络封锁。所有不符合中共宣传标准的言论，几乎无法到达网络用户手中。
在各种媒体上企图突破言论封锁的人员（记者、编辑、自由撰稿人等等），经常遭受残酷无情的打击：失去工作；被黑社会殴打；以至被送进监狱。特别应该引起注意的是：中共特务机关对媒体异议分子的搜寻工作和网络封锁工作，得到了西方一些企业的协助，使很多无辜的人蒙受着牢狱之灾。
（2）维权人士遭受到残酷镇压。
中国的人民集体维护权益的运动，发展迅猛，数量和规模每年都成倍的增长。因此而产生了大量的维权律师和群众领袖。由于有他们的领导和咨询，维权活动的有效性也得到了大幅度的提高。这是中国的一个奇特的现象：由于政府不再承担保护人民的责任，由于官员越来越多成为恶势力的帮凶，人民被迫自己组织起来维护自己的权益，并产生了自己的领袖。
中共对维权运动的镇压，从传统的、无规律的镇压，发展到有目标、有规律、形成体系的镇压。一方面，新装备了二十万人的最现代化的武装警察，与各地方的武装警察互相配合，构建了强大的、针对群众维权活动的镇压体系。另一方面，消灭可能抓到的所有群众领袖和维权人士。对被捕的维权人士严刑拷打，进行肉体和精神的摧残，使很多政治犯从肉体到精神被摧毁，失去了生活能力。
特别是最近一年来，为了保证奥运会期间没有人发出不同的声音，政府的镇压行动正在迅速升级，并且将镇压的范围扩大到了西方运动员、媒体和游客。在少数西方国家，这种压制不同声音的镇压行动，正在得到西方政治家的配合。例如，比利时、英国、新西兰就曾试图阻止本国运动员在奥运会期间表达自己的政治观点。
我们有理由认为。遭到镇压的不仅仅是中国人民，镇压正在扩展到全球的每一个角落。
（魏京生基金会首发。请注明出处：www.WeiJingSheng.org）
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