Joint Civil Society Assertion following the Fifth Anniversary of the ‘Xiamen Gathering’ Crackdown

Joint Civil Society Assertion following the Fifth Anniversary of the ‘Xiamen Gathering’ Crackdown

February 12, 2025      

Following the fifth anniversary of the ‘Xiamen Gathering’ crackdown, Chinese language Human Rights Defenders and 37 different civil society organizations and activists internationally signed a joint assertion, reaffirming our solidarity with Chinese language human rights defenders and attorneys persecuted for advocating for human rights.

26 December 2024 marked the fifth anniversary of the crackdown on the ‘Xiamen gathering,’ a personal gathering that about 20 Chinese language human rights defenders and attorneys convened in Xiamen, China in December 2019 to debate the state of affairs of human rights and civil society in China. Within the weeks after, Chinese language authorities interrogated, harassed, detained and imprisoned each participant who was not in a position to depart China then and subjected virtually all of them, together with some households and buddies, to journey bans, as much as the current day, beneath the pretext of nationwide safety.

Amongst these detained had been authorized scholar Xu Zhiyong and human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi. Each are main human rights defenders who spearheaded the “New Citizens’ Movement,” empowering residents as rights-bearers to advocate for a extra equal, rights-respecting and free society, and to fight corruption, wealth inequality and discrimination in entry to training. In 2014, Xu and Ding had been each sentenced to 4 years and three and a half years in jail, respectively, for collaborating within the New Residents’ Motion and charged with “gathering a crowd to disturb public order”.

From 26 December 2019, and over the weeks that adopted, the Chinese language authorities forcibly disappeared each beneath Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL), a prison process permitting secret detention for as much as six months with out entry to authorized counsel or household. RSDL is considered by UN Particular Procedures specialists to represent secret detention and a type of enforced disappearance, and should quantity to torture or different ill-treatment. Whereas held beneath RSDL, each males had been subjected to torture and different ill-treatment, earlier than being charged with the nationwide safety crime of “subversion of State energy.” They had been subsequently convicted in a secret trial and handed extreme jail sentences of 14 and 12 years, respectively, in April 2023. Regardless of a number of calls from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk and from UN Particular Procedures’ specialists as not too long ago as November 2024, China has failed to deal with these grave violations.

These circumstances are emblematic of a broader and alarming pattern of persecution of human rights defenders and attorneys in China. Authorities systematically make use of RSDL, harsh nationwide safety fees, torture and different ill-treatment, extended detention, journey bans and harassment to silence dissent and dismantle unbiased civil society. Using imprecise fees akin to “subversion of State energy” or “choosing quarrels and frightening bother” has change into a routine tactic to criminalise human rights work, regardless of UN human rights specialists’ repeated name for them to be repealed. Victims usually face extended pre-trial detention, lack of due course of, restricted entry to lawyer and sufficient healthcare, and torture or different ill-treatment geared toward extracting pressured ‘confessions.’

This systematic repression is additional mirrored within the circumstances of human rights attorneys Xie Yang and Lu Siwei, feminist activist Huang Xueqin, labour activist Wang Jianbing, and citizen journalist Zhang Zhan, all of whom are presently subjected to arbitrary detention or imprisonment. UN Particular Procedures’ specialists have not too long ago described these circumstances as a part of “recurring patterns of repression, together with incommunicado detention and enforced disappearance geared toward […] silencing human rights defenders and dissenting or opposing views vital of the Authorities.”

As we commemorate the fifth anniversary of the crackdown, we, organisations and activists from all around the world, proceed to face in solidarity with all human rights defenders and attorneys in China who courageously advocate for justice regardless of figuring out the dangers of doing so.

We urge the Chinese language authorities to:

1. Instantly and unconditionally launch all human rights defenders and attorneys arbitrarily detained or imprisoned for his or her human rights work, together with Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi;
2. Finish the systematic crackdown on civil society, together with harassment, unjustified detention, enforced disappearance, and imprisonment of human rights defenders and attorneys;
3. Amend legal guidelines and laws, together with nationwide safety laws, the Felony Regulation and the Felony Process Regulation, to carry them absolutely consistent with worldwide human rights requirements;
4. Rescind the journey bans imposed on the gathering members in addition to their buddies and households instantly.

Signatories:

1. Alliance for Residents Rights
2. Amnesty Worldwide 
3. Asian Legal professionals Community (ALN) (Japan)
4. CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
5. Free Tibet (United Kingdom)
6. Human Rights in China
7. Humanitarian China
8. India Tibet Friendship Society Nagpur Maharashtra (India)
9. Worldwide Bar Affiliation’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI)
10. Worldwide Marketing campaign for Tibet
11. Worldwide Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), throughout the framework of the Observatory for the Safety of Human Rights Defenders
12. Worldwide Service for Human Rights (ISHR) 
13. Worldwide Tibet Community
14. Judicial Reform Basis (Taiwan) 
15. Legal professionals for Legal professionals (Netherlands)
16. LUNGTA – Lively for Tibet (Belgium)
17. PEN America (United States)
18. Safeguard Defenders (Spain) 
19. Swiss Tibetan Friendship Affiliation (Switzerland)
20. Taiwan Affiliation for Human Rights (Taiwan)
21. The 29 Ideas (United Kingdom)
22. The Community of Chinese language Human Rights Defenders(CHRD)
23. The Rights Observe (United Kingdom)
24. Tibet Justice Middle (United States)
25. Tibet Solidarity (United Kingdom)
26. Voluntary Tibet Advocacy Group (V-TAG) (Netherlands)
27. World Organisation In opposition to Torture (OMCT), throughout the framework of the Observatory for the Safety of Human Rights Defenders
28. Acción Solidaria (Venezuela)
29. Amnistía Internacional Chile (Chile)
30. CADAL (Argentina)
31. Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Francisco de Vitoria OP, A.C. (Mexico)
32. CONTIOCAP – Coordinadora Nacional de Defensa de Territorios Indígenas Originarios Campesinos y Áreas Protegidas en Bolivia (Bolivia)
33. Movimiento Autónomo de Mujeres (Nicaragua)
34. Crimson Nacional de Organismos Civiles de Derechos Humanos Todos los Derechos para todas, todos y todes (Mexico)
35. Voces de Tíbet (Mexico)

Particular person signatories:

1. Andrea Cordero Vargas (Chile)
2. María Blancas (Mexico)
3. Sofía J. Poiré (Mexico)