UN fears Chinese human rights lawyer has been 'disappeared' by authorities
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[quote]United Nations human rights experts are demanding answers from Beijing over the disappearance of a prominent Chinese lawyer they fear has been targeted by authorities in reprisal for meeting a UN official earlier this year.
Jiang Tianyong, a 45-year-old Christian lawyer known for defending a number of prominent human rights activists, has not been seen since 21 November. Relatives and supporters believe he has been taken into secret custody by security forces.
Jiang’s unexplained disappearance comes amid what appears to be a fresh wave of detentions targeting Chinese activists.
Human rights groups say that more than 250 activists, lawyers and their relatives have been detained or interrogated as part of a sweeping crackdown labelled China’s “war on law” that began in July 2015.
In a statement released on Tuesday by the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights in Geneva, the group said it suspected Jiang had become one of the latest victims of that campaign: “We cannot rule out the possibility that Jiang may have been disappeared by state agents because of his human rights work.
The UN experts noted that as a result of his longstanding human rights work Jiang has been repeatedly targeted by Chinese police and agents from its powerful spy agency, the ministry of state security, which is tasked with tackling political threats to the Communist party.
“We fear that Jiang’s disappearance may be directly linked to his advocacy and he may be at risk of torture,” said the statement.
Philip Alston, the UN’s special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, said he was “deeply concerned that Jiang’s disappearance has occurred, at least in part, in reprisal for his cooperation with the UN during my visit to China”.
Alston conducted a nine-day fact-finding mission in August, telling reporters in Beijing that President Xi Jinping’s crackdown on dissent risked causing mass unrest.
“The international standards are clear: states must refrain from and protect all persons from acts of reprisal,” Alston said on Tuesday of Jiang’s disappearance.
The UN representative claimed others he met during his trip to China were also subjected to apparent reprisals. “Governments must provide assurance that no persons will suffer intimidation, threats, harassment or punishment … for their cooperation with the UN experts.”[/quote]
[url]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/06/un-human-rights-china-missing-lawyer-jiang-tianyong[/url]
Always a fun reminder of what can happen if a single political party gains total control of a country
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