China Cracks Down on Human Rights Activists Amid UN High Commissioner's Visit

Chinese authorities on Monday raided the office of an American-funded human rights group, the Empowerment and Rights Institute, in a bid to prevent its director, Hou Wenzhuo, from meeting with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour. The raid came as Arbour arrived in Beijing to discuss China's human rights record with senior Communist Party officials. Hou's group has documented widespread human rights abuses in China, including land confiscations and police torture. The Chinese authorities have a history of suppressing dissent and preventing human rights activists from speaking out.

Key Takeaways:

• The police raided the office of the Empowerment and Rights Institute, a leading human rights advisory group, shortly before Arbour's visit.
• The group's director, Hou Wenzhuo, feared that the police could potentially take further action to prevent her from meeting Arbour and to punish her and her associates for documenting rights abuses.
• Hou's group has documented systematic suppression of people who complain about problems like land confiscations and police torture.
• Dozens of intellectuals, lawyers, journalists, and human rights activists signed an open letter to Arbour last week asking for her help in defending the basic human rights of Chinese citizens.
• The United Nations said Arbour's primary focus of the visit was to press China to make changes to its legal system and to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which China signed in 1998.
• China executes more people each year than all other countries combined, with estimates ranging from 10,000 to 15,000 annually.
• Hou, 35, founded the group after studying human rights law at Oxford University and Harvard Law School, and it is funded primarily by the National Endowment for Democracy in Washington.

Statistics:

• China executed an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people each year.
• China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1998 but has yet to ratify it.
• The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, visited China on a five-day trip to discuss the country's human rights record.

Sources:

• Joseph Kahn, BEIJING: -- The New York Times
• The National Endowment for Democracy
• The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights