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Corporate Social Responsibility
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8.08.2007 - 02:30pm ET
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China: Olympics Countdown - Human Rights Abuses Risk Blighting Olympics Legacy
(CSRwire) August 8, 2007- As the one year countdown begins, time is running out for
the Chinese government to fulfil its promise of promoting human rights as
part of the Olympics legacy, Amnesty International's Secretary General
Irene Khan said today.
"Unless the Chinese authorities take urgent measures to stop human rights
violations over the coming year, they risk tarnishing the image of China
and the legacy of the Beijing Olympics," Irene Khan said.
In its latest assessment of China's progress towards its promised human
rights improvements ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Amnesty
International finds that several Beijing-based activists continue to face
'house arrest' and tight police surveillance, while activists in other
parts of China are facing heightened patterns of abuse as attention is
focused on Beijing in the run-up to the Olympics. The report also
highlights an ongoing crackdown on journalists, which has most recently
extended to the closure of certain publications on Chinese civil society
and development.
"The crackdown on human rights defenders and domestic media continues to
overshadow more positive reforms with regard to the death penalty and
foreign media coverage in China. Not only are we not seeing delivery on
the promises made that the Olympics would help improve the human rights
situation in China, but the police are using the pretext of the Olympics
to extend the use of detention without trial."
The report also highlighted the continued use of detention without trial
as part of Beijing's "clean up" operations of the city ahead of the 2008
Games, despite the fact that substantial reform or abolition of methods of
arbitrary detention including "Re-education through Labour" has been on
China's reform agenda for many years.
In its report, Amnesty International welcomed recent statements by Supreme
Court officials expressing the need for greater transparency on the death
penalty and unified criteria for imposing death sentences. However, the
organization urged the authorities to broaden this approach by increasing
access to information on individuals facing the death penalty,
particularly for lawyers and members of their families, and by publishing
full national statistics on death sentences and executions.
"The application of the death penalty in China -- the world's top
executioner -- remains shrouded in secrecy," Irene Khan said.
"Full transparency is essential to help prevent miscarriages of justice
and provide the Chinese public with sufficient information to reach
informed conclusions on the death penalty. Nothing short of publishing
full national statistics on the application of the death penalty in China
will suffice," Irene Khan said.
Amnesty International's report, China: The Olympics countdown - one year
left to fulfil human rights promises, focuses on four key areas of human
rights relating to the Olympics: death penalty, detention without trial,
human rights activists and media freedom.
Key findings in the latest assessment are as follows:
Death penalty
Continued use of death sentences and executions for non-violent
crimes and ongoing failure to disclose national death penalty statistics,
despite official assertions that use of the death penalty has declined by
10 per cent following the restoration of Supreme Court review on 1 January
2007;
Evidence that official commitments to introduce greater transparency
in courts at all levels may not be being implemented and the continued
denial of access for the families and lawyers to those sentenced to death
as well as information on their situation;
Recent official confirmation that the imposition of the death penalty
is often arbitrary with courts applying different criteria in different
parts of the country;
Detention without trial
Increased use of detention without trial to "clean up" Beijing ahead
of the games, including "Enforced Drug Rehabilitation" and the extension
of categories of petty crime for which "Re-education through Labour" is
applied;
Human rights activists
Intensification of abuse against human rights activists in other parts
of China, including the death of award-winning housing rights activist Chen
Xiaoming in Shanghai on 1 July, shortly after his release from prison on
medical parole; reports indicate that he was tortured in detention;
The targeting of lawyers and legal advisors working on behalf of
victims of human rights violations, including the reported beating of
imprisoned blind legal advisor Chen Guangcheng by fellow inmates on the
orders of prison guards on 16 June. Chen was imprisoned in Shandong
province after he tried to bring local authorities to book for allegedly
forcing local women to undergo forced abortions and sterilization in
pursuit of birth quotas;
The targeting of activists who try to draw attention to those evicted
from their homes as a result of Olympics-related construction projects,
including the ongoing imprisonment of Ye Guozhu, who was reportedly beaten
with electro-shock batons at the end of last year;
Media freedom
A continued crackdown on domestic journalism including the continued
imprisonment of journalists and writers, forced dismissal of media staff
and the closure of publications;
Pervasive internet censorship involving the closure of websites and
recent attempts in one city, Xiamen, to silence protests with new
regulations to force Internet users to register under their real names.
Amnesty International has sent copies of its latest update to the Chinese
authorities and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), noting that
these issues are directly relevant to Beijing's hosting of the Olympics
and core principles in the Olympic Charter.
"The ongoing serious human rights violations in China constitute an
affront to core principles in the Olympic Charter relating to the
'preservation of human dignity' and 'respect for universal fundamental
ethical principles'. The IOC must promote a positive legacy of the
Olympics built on respect for human rights and rule of law," Irene Khan
said.
"With just one year to go, time is running out before the Beijing Olympic
Games are irreversibly tarnished by the China's lack of respect for human
rights. The Chinese authorities must press ahead with their promises to
improve human rights so that when August 2008 arrives the Chinese people
can be proud in every respect of what their country has to offer the
world."
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