human rights are not a luxury
May. 5th, 2012 08:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eDefense of human rights is not a luxury; it is a requirement for progress. It prevents us slipping backward into the kind of distrust that poisons social discourse. Society needs defenders of human rights for its long-term health and survival.
Unfortunately some authorities prefer to punish the messenger instead of repairing the underlying human rights problems. But covering up human rights problems is a very dangerous thing to do because of the long-term damage it does to society. What could be easy to rectify now, can become very difficult to fix later if allowed to fester. Society needs people like blind human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng to alert it to social ills.
Chen has been persecuted for years after exposing forced abortions and sterilizations.
In 2010 he was released from prison after spending 4 years there on trumped up charges, then he and his family became the focus of a 19-month campaign of persecution, violence and harassment at the hands of local authorities in Shandong province. The campaign included the illegal house arrest of Chen and his family, as well as constant intimidation, surveillance and vicious beatings by local security forces.
Here is the email I received from Amnesty International:
http://www.amnesty.org.au/action/28560/
Unfortunately some authorities prefer to punish the messenger instead of repairing the underlying human rights problems. But covering up human rights problems is a very dangerous thing to do because of the long-term damage it does to society. What could be easy to rectify now, can become very difficult to fix later if allowed to fester. Society needs people like blind human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng to alert it to social ills.
Chen has been persecuted for years after exposing forced abortions and sterilizations.
In 2010 he was released from prison after spending 4 years there on trumped up charges, then he and his family became the focus of a 19-month campaign of persecution, violence and harassment at the hands of local authorities in Shandong province. The campaign included the illegal house arrest of Chen and his family, as well as constant intimidation, surveillance and vicious beatings by local security forces.
Here is the email I received from Amnesty International:
Today, Chen Guangcheng's future hangs in the balance.Send an email through Amnesty International to China's Minister of Foreign Affairs Yang Jiechi Buzhang and USA's Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to save Chen.
The Chinese human rights advocate, who is blind, made a daring Houdini-like escape from house arrest in Shandong province two weeks ago -- but his future remains uncertain.
Right now, the US and China are holding a high level meeting in Beijing that will decide his fate. Urge leaders to respect Chen's human rights and allow him to choose his own future.
Chen, a self-taught lawyer who was imprisoned and then subjected to violence and house arrest for exposing forced abortions and sterilisations in China, made a daring escape to the US embassy [1]. Following delicate negotiations with the US, Chinese officials promised to allow Chen to live a "normal life" with his family, and he initially agreed to return home.
Does this sound "normal" to you?
"I don't know what's happened to my mother. There are guards inside the yard, in all the rooms, even on the roof. They've set up lots of cameras in my home and are preparing electric fences. They told my family they'd take wooden sticks and beat my family to death, so it's very unsafe."
-Chen Guangcheng, in an interview with NPR.
It is time for this shameful saga to end - join Amnesty supporters around the world and take action to protect Chen Guangcheng.
In recent hours, Chen has expressed a desire to leave China, fearing that he and his family can never enjoy freedom under the current system [3]. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in China today, and her presence can provide the pressure we need to ensure Chen's safety. Click here to let Chen choose his own future.
http://www.amnesty.org.au/action/28560/