30 August 2022
Today (30th August) is the United Nations International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, to commemorate people who have suffered from "enforced disappearance". The 29 Principles, a UK-based organisation that supports lawyers who face human rights oppression, has drawn attention to several cases of enforced disappearance among the Chinese human rights lawyers and publicly calls on the international community to pay attention to and support these Chinese human rights lawyers.
According to the United Nations, an enforced disappearance occurs when:
"persons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government, or by organised groups or private individuals acting on behalf of, or with the support, direct or indirect, consent or acquiescence of the Government, followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons outside the protection of the law.” Enforced disappearance has become a global problem and is not restricted to any specific region of the world.
To combat this problem, the UN General Assembly adopted the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance on 20th December 2006, and declared 30th August the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances (to be observed from 2011). At the time of writing, 98 countries have signed the Convention. China, the world's most populous country and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, not only refuses to sign the Convention, but continues to use "enforced disappearance" against human rights defenders, lawyers, academics, victims and their families.
They are "forced to disappear", subjected to secret interrogation, detention and even torture. Their families are only informed of their whereabouts when they are formally prosecuted. In some severe cases, victims completely disappear for years and it is unclear whether they are still alive. Enforced disappearance is frequently used as a strategy to spread terror within society. It silences the disappeared, is used as a tool to threaten their relatives, and generates a feeling of insecurity among their supporters.
Here are the cases of three prominent Chinese lawyers who have been the victims of enforced disappearance:
Tang Jitian - Tang became a prosecutor in 1998 and later a human rights lawyer in 2005. He has represented disadvantaged groups in fighting for their rights, such as AIDS patients, people who were sentenced to re-education through labour, Falun Gong followers and other imprisoned human rights lawyers. Therefore he has often encountered detention and physical assaults. His wife and daughter now live in Japan, where his daughter has been in a coma for a prolonged period due to cerebral edema. Tang wanted to visit her in Japan in June 2021, but the authorities prevented him from leaving the country at Fuzhou airport. On his way to attend an event for International Human Rights Day in December 2021, he was taken away by the officers of Beijing State Security Bureau, who neither presented any evidence for his arrest nor went through any formal procedures against him. Since then, he has disappeared and the authorities have not brought any charges against him. In early June 2022, it was reported that he was in a coma and suffering from head injuries, raising concerns about his health and the torture he might have suffered. Two lawyers reported that they were barred by the Justice Bureau to represent Tang.
Gao Zhisheng - Lawyer Gao was once celebrated as one of the "Top Ten Lawyers in China" by the Ministry of Justice of China. Yet, his license was revoked in 2006, after he had represented Falun Gong followers, defended the rights of vulnerable groups and participated in China's rights protection movement. He was later sentenced to three years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power” and tortured repeatedly. After being released from prison in 2014, he was placed under house arrest by the authorities. In August 2017, during a trip to Shanxi to seek medical treatment, he was forcibly disappeared. At the point of writing, he has been missing for five years. His wife and two children, who live in exile in the United States have not heard from him since then.
Guo Feixiong (formerly known as Yang Maodong) - Guo has been involved in the rights protection movement since 2001 and was the legal counsel of lawyer Gao Zhisheng, mentioned above. In July 2005, he provided legal advice to villagers of the Taishi Village Incident. He also organised protests, demanded officials to disclose their properties and as a result, was tortured and jailed twice for 11 years. His wife Zhang Qing and their children live in exile in the United States. In early 2021, Zhang was diagnosed with cancer. Guo Feixiong applied to go to the United States to take care of her, but was prevented at the airport from leaving the country and forcibly disappeared for many months. In December 2021, Guo was criminally detained and formally arrested shortly after his wife passed away. He has been deprived his right to see a lawyer as the authorities claimed his “crimes” are related to national security. Guo is currently in custody pending trial on charges of "inciting subversion of state power”.
Human rights lawyers and their families often go missing, are sent to designated locations for residential surveillance, banned from leaving their homes, forced to leave home for “holidays” and etc. This has been made worse by the ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic. Each citizen is forced to install a COVID-tracking app on their mobile phone - some human rights lawyers often get a red code, which stops them from leaving their homes, even when they have not been to any “hotspots”. In short, their personal freedom is often violated as a means of political repression.
China’s intolerance to press freedom and civil society organisations, makes it impossible to estimate the actual number of victims of "enforced disappearance". However, the experiences of these Chinese human rights lawyers show that "enforced disappearance" is a very serious problem in China.
Last year, on the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances , the United Nations stated that “Enforced disappearances can nowadays be perpetrated in complex situations of internal conflict, especially as a means of political repression of opponents. Of particular concern are:
- the ongoing harassment of human rights defenders, relatives of victims, witnesses and legal counsel dealing with cases of enforced disappearance;
- the use by States of counter-terrorist activities as an excuse for breaching their obligations;
- and the still widespread impunity for enforced disappearance.”
The 29 Principles urges China to immediately stop practicing “enforced disappearance” against lawyers or any other citizens, and to immediately release those who are treated in this way; to sign and ratify the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance as soon as possible; to thoroughly investigate reports of, and take actions to end impunity for enforced disappearance.