To: m.busdachin@agora.stm.it
Subject: shanshan inter
Commission on Human Rights
Fifty-third session
Agenda Item 8
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* FIRST DRAFT
Oral statement submitted by the Transnational Radical Party, a non-governmental organization in consultative status (category I).
Respected Mr. Chairman,
The Transnational Radical Party wishes to draw the attention of the Commission to situations where the mere exercise of the rights to freedom of expression and association, such as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, leads to patterns of arbitrary detention, whether pre- or post-trial. At previous sessions of the Commission, concern has been raised about the arbitrary use of the concept of national, or state, security. A number of countries, including the Republic of Korea and more recently China, have incorporated the concept of "endangering state security" in their legislation. Owing to the ambiguous definition of "state" or "national" security, these legal provisions may lead to abitrary and unfair judicial procedures. Furthermore they can be used as a convenient tool to restrict freedom of expression and association. The case study of how these laws are implemented in certain countries shows that they are used primarily t
o silence the voices of those who openly criticize the government and its practices.
In 1979 my brother Wei Jingsheng was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment. Less than six months after his release in 1993, my brother disappeared at the hands of Public Security Bureau agents and for 20 months he was held in incommunicado detention until finally, in December 1995, he was charged with "conspiracy to subvert the government" for "crimes" which included "publishing anti-government articles abroad," discussing "the struggle" with his friends and raising money for victims of political persecution and their families. He was subsequently sentenced to a further 14 years' imprisonment. Wei shares a cell with six common criminals who keep watch on him 24 hours a day. He suffers from high blood pressure, myocardial infarction and angina pectoris.
I chose to speak about Wei Jingsheng because he came to symbolize the fate of numerous pro-democracy, religious and labour activists who dared to exercise free speech and were punished for this. All Wei Jingsheng did during his brief period outside detention was writing articles and expressing in a peaceful manner his opinion about the necessary reform of the government. For criticizing the government's serious violations of human rights in Tibet and Qinghai, he was additionally charged with "pursuing separatism".
In spite of constitutional guarantees, the exercise of the fundamental rights to freedom of expression and association is strictly limited in practice. All those who appealed to the Chinese authorities on behalf of my brother were detained. They include Chen Longde and Fu Guoyong who were sentenced to three years of Reeducation Through Labour, an administrative punishment imposed without any judicial procedure for one to three years on those who commit minor offenses "not warranting prosecution" and, extensively, on dissidents. People sent to reeducation through labour are denied the right to counsel and to fair trial. This form of detention has been judged "inherently arbitrary" by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in 1993. In order to escape torture and bad treatments, in August 1996 Chen Longde jumped from a window of the Luoshan Labour camp. A police officer admitted to Chen's father that he and a group of other officers had beaten Chen Longde with electric batons and clubs, encouraging C
hen's fellow inmates to do the same.
Restriction on freedom of expression has also become apparent in the new laws enacted since the late 80s, the Law for the Protection of State Secrets, the State Security Laws, and more recently the replacement in the Criminal Law of the crime of "counterrevolution" by that of "jeopardizing state security". Ever since the foundation of the People's Republic of China, the authorities have repeatedly claimed that there were no political prisoners in China, prefering to refer to them as "counterrevolutionaries". The State Security Law and its Implementing Regulations categorize acts which endanger state security as including "conspiracy to overthrow the government" and "splitting the country", as in the case of Wei Jingsheng. However the definition of these acts is left to the discretion of law-implementing athorities; this is true also of state secrets, which lack a legal definition. These practices cast serious doubts on the independence of the judiciary and the due process of law in China.
Moreover, the Transnational Radical Party believes that failure to revise the two above-mentioned laws may lead to further cases of repression against advocates of free speech.
The Transnational Radical Party urges the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Freedom of Expression to conduct a thorough survey of the actual situation of the rights to freedom of expression and association, as well as on arbitrary detention in China and the Republic of Korea. It invites the governments of these countries to cooperate fully with the UN Human Rights Special Procedures. It calls on the authorities who resort to the concept of "endangering state security" to release immediately and unconditionally all those who are detained or imprisoned for the peaceful exercise of their rights to freedom of expression and association. Finally, the Transnational Radical Party urges these governments to reform their legislation so as to give a more narrow definition of national security interests.
Thank you Mr. Chairman
