Thursday, December 21, 2006

Sign an open letter to the IOC

The Legal Aid Group for Gao, Zhisheng and Guo, Feixiong, Beijing, China has prepared an open letter to the President of the IOC urging the Committee to care about human rights in China. According to the news reported the NY Times "The lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, 42, was sentenced to three years in prison but given a five-year reprieve, the official New China News Agency said." (more) Look here for HRW’s letter to the IOC on harassment of human rights lawyers in China.

Please support this effort by signing the open letter to the IOC here:

Excerpt: In today’s China, not only the populace but also attorneys and law professionals are not able to protect their own constitutional rights. In March this year, Mr. Chen, Guangcheng, a blind man yet a well known human rights defender, lost his freedom. Then in August, Mr. Gao, Zhisheng, a famous attorney who had traveled to Shandong province to provide legal service to Mr. Chen for his trial, was arrested right there. In September, again, Mr. Guo, Feixiong, a famous nongovernmental law professional who organized legal aid to Mr. Gao, was unjustly arrested. These are just three typical examples of a series of deteriorating human rights cases in the recent half year.

OLYMPIC WATCH: Human Rights in China and Beijing 2008

No comments: