Since 2003, large numbers of Chinese citizens have been held incommunicado for days or months in secret, unlawful detention facilities known as “black jails” by state agents who violate detainees’ rights with impunity.
The Human Rights Watch report, “An Alleyway in Hell,” documents how government officials, security forces, and their agents routinely abduct people off the [...]

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The 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre is being marked with a vigil in Hong Kong, the only region in China allowed to commemorate the date. Around 150,000 people gathered in Victoria Park for the annual event, which was addressed by one of the 1989 student leaders, Xiong Yan.
Chinese Human Rights Defenders has documented the [...]

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Today China commemorates the first anniversary of the Sichuan Earthquake.

The earthquake left more than 87,000 people dead or missing.
While China has been widely praised for its rapid response to the Sichuan quake, questions remain unanswered.
Although the Government promised to investigate why so many schools collapsed during the earthquake and to hold individuals accountable if shoddy [...]

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As the first anniversary of the May 12, 2008 Sichuan earthquake approaches, news from China tells of earthquake victim’s relatives being harassed, activists being arrested and the media being obstructed.
The struggle of the many parents who lost their children (in many cases their only child) to find out the reasons why so many school buildings [...]

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The Chinese government should immediately exonerate and release imprisoned grassroots legal defender Ji Sizun. Ji’s efforts to protest during the 2008 Beijing Olympics reportedly resulted in a three-year prison term, handed down on January 7, 2009, for “forging official seals and documents.”
Ji, 58, a self-described grassroots legal activist from Fujian province, was arrested on August [...]

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Chinese authorities should immediately re-establish access to the organization’s website, Amnesty International said today.
Amnesty International has discovered that its main website, www.amnesty.org, is once again blocked inside mainland China. Other sites recently blocked include the popular blog portal Bullog.
“We fear the re-blocking of Amnesty International’s website indicates a widening crackdown, particularly as 2009 will see [...]

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After more than 14 days of detention without approval of arrest, it now appears certain that Liu Xiaobo is considered a “major suspect”, according to Article 69 of the Chinese Criminal Procedure Law. Amnesty International today expressed fears that authorities are pursuing a serious prosecution against the literary critic and activist, a signatory of the [...]

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The Chinese government should release laboratory results and ensure access to appropriate treatment for imprisoned human rights activist Hu Jia, Human Rights Watch and Physicians for Human Rights said in a letter sent to President Hu Jintao today. The two organizations expressed concern that Beijing prison authorities have failed to release to him or his [...]

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In China, illicit drug use is an administrative offence and Chinese law dictates that drug users “must be rehabilitated.” In reality, police raids on drug users often drive them underground, away from methadone clinics, needle exchange sites, and other proven HIV prevention services. And every year Chinese police send tens of thousands of drug users [...]

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The international community should protest the imprisonment and secret sentencing of Paljor Norbu, an 81-year-old Tibetan traditional printer, and seek his immediate exoneration and unconditional release, Human Rights Watch said today.
Norbu, whose Chinese name is Panjue Ruobu (班觉诺布), was taken by the police from his home in Lhasa on October 31, 2008, on suspicion that [...]

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