China should ensure a full, independent and impartial investigation into the death of human rights defender Cao Shunli and immediately and unconditionally release five women's rights activists detained for campaigning against sexual harassment, ISHR said today on the first anniversary of Cao Shunli's death.

(Geneva) - China should ensure a full, independent and impartial investigation into the death of human rights defender Cao Shunli and immediately and unconditionally release five women's rights activists detained for campaigning against sexual harassment, the International Service for Human Rights said today on the first anniversary of Cao Shunli's death.

Cao Shunli died on 14 March 2014 after being arbitrarily detained and denied adequate access to health care and a lawyer as a reprisal for her efforts to raise the issue of human rights in China, both in Beijing and at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. Prior to her death she was held under the spurious charges of 'picking quarrels and provoking trouble'.

In a disturbing parallel, five Chinese women human rights defenders remain arbitrarily detained after being arrested for 'picking quarrels and creating a disturbance' in association with their efforts to highlight sexual harassment on the occasion of International Women's Day on 8 March. There are concerns that the five women - Li Tingting, Zheng Churan, Wu Rongrong, Wei Tingting and Wang Man - are similarly being denied access to adequate health care or legal counsel. 

'One year on from Cao Shunli's passing there has still not been any adequate investigation, far less accountability, into her alleged ill-treatment or disturbing death, despite China's obligations under the Convention against Torture and other international human rights standards to ensure that a prompt and thorough investigation is undertaken and perpetrators held to account. If China is unable or unwilling to conduct such an investigation and combat impunity, then the UN Human Rights Council has a responsibility to act,' said ISHR Director Phil Lynch.

'Equally disturbingly, China continues to harass, detain and perpetrate reprisals against human rights defenders who peacefully exercise their rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, whether in China or at the UN. This is a flagrant violation of the international Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and plainly incompatible with China's membership of the UN Human Rights Council,' Mr Lynch said.

Like Cao Shunli, some of the women had been active in submitting information about China to the United Nations and worked to promote China's compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. In November 2014, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women called on the government of China to ‘take all necessary measures to protect women human rights defenders, including those who have provided information to the Committee’.

'Speaking up against sexual harassment and discrimination, and in favour of women's rights, LGBT rights and equality, should be supported and applauded, not silenced and criminalised,' said ISHR's Director of Human Rights Council Advocacy, Michael Ineichen.

'ISHR calls on Chinese authorities to end reprisals and to immediately and unconditionally release Li Tingting, Zheng Churan, Wu Rongrong, Wei Tingting and Wang Man, together with all other human rights defenders detained for exercising their basic rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly and cooperation with the UN,' Mr Ineichen said.

The detention of the five women's rights activists comes at a time when the space for human rights defenders and civil society organisations in China appears to be further contracting. A draft law on 'foreign' NGOs would, if enacted, substantially restrict their operations and access to funding and subject them to greater government interference and control. At the same time, a draft anti-terrorism law contains a range of vague and overbroad provisions the interpretation and application of which could be used to further restrict and criminalise the work of human rights defenders.

'On this one year anniversary of the death of Cao Shunli, we call for justice and a recognition that her work, together with the work of many other courageous human rights defenders in China, is not only lawful and legitimate, but absolutely essential for any semblance of good governance, sustainable development, and respect for the rule of law in China,' Mr Lynch said.

Contacts:

• Michael Ineichen at [email protected] or + 41 78 827 77 86
• Phil Lynch at [email protected] or + 41 76 708 47 38

Photo: Chinese human rights defenders call for an international investigation into the death of Cao Shunli (courtesy: Chinese Human Rights Defenders)