New acts of ill-treatment against Mrs. Mao Hengfeng while in detention

November 1, 2007

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), has received new information and requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

New information:

The Observatory has been informed by Human Rights in China (HRIC) about further acts of ill-treatment against Mrs. Mao Hengfeng, a Shanghai activist who has been active in defending housing rights, opposing forced evictions and also in promoting women’s reproductive rights.

According to the information received, on September 13, 2007, at the instigation of prison authorities, a fellow inmate was forced to beat Mrs. Mao in retaliation for revealing that she had been held in solitary confinement for 70 days in July and August 2007, in violation of Article 15 of the Chinese Prison Law (which stipulates a maximum of 15 days). Mrs. Mao was covered with bruises from the beating. She also reported having been force-fed.

On September 24, 2007, prison authorities sent Mrs. Mao to the Nanhui Prison Hospital. She had earlier refused to undergo a medical check-up, fearing of being forcibly injected with drugs (such events had already happened during her previous incarceration at a psychiatric institution in the 1980s). At the hospital, Mrs. Mao was stripped bare and tied to a bed so that she could only move her fingers. She was held in this way until October 15, monitored by closed-circuit television, and force-fed by other inmates.

Furthermore, her husband, Mr. Wu Xuwei, was prevented from visiting her at the Shanghai Women’s Prison until October 26, 2007. On that date, Mrs. Mao and her husband were supervised by prison guards, who stopped her from speaking several times when she attempted to go into details about being force-fed.

The Observatory reiterates its deep concern about the ongoing abusive and humiliating treatment which Mrs. Mao Hengfeng is being subjected while in detention, and considers her detention as arbitrary, as the grounds for her sentencing very probably aim at sanctioning her activity in favour of human rights. The Observatory calls upon the Chinese authorities to guarantee in all circumstances her physical and psychological integrity.

The Observatory condemns more generally the recurrent use of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment against human rights defenders, in violation of the provisions of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment ratified by the PRC, and of UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/61/153 which provides that freedom from such treatments “is a non-derogable right that must be protected under all circumstances”.

The Observatory wishes to recall that the National People’s Congress amended the Chinese Constitution in 2004 to include that “ the State respects and safeguards human rights” and that in April 2006, the PRC submitted a document to the UN Secretariat in order to support its candidacy to the Human Rights Council’s first election[1], in which it affirmed that the amendment to the Constitution was aiming at “defining the position of human rights in the overall national development strategy”. The Observatory further wishes to point out that as a member of the Human Rights Council, China “shall uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights”[2].

Background information:

On April 16, 2007, the Shanghai Municipal No. 2 Intermediate People’s Court had upheld on appeal the sentencing of Ms. Mao Hengfeng to two and a half years’ imprisonment for “intentional damage of property”, after she had broken a lamp in the room where she had been arbitrary placed under “soft detention” from May 23 to June 30, 2006[3].

On May 15, 2007, Ms. Mao Hengfeng was transferred from the police detention centre to prison, in particularly degrading circumstances, as she was only given one very thin and loose shirt to wear, which could hardly cover her body. When she protested, police beat her up and upon arrival at the prison, she was immediately put in solitary confinement. Ms. Mao subsequently started a hunger strike to protest against her situation. On three occasions, prison guards forced her to eat, tying her hands and opening her mouth by force, and inserting a tube into her throat. Prison guards also assigned several inmates to watch and insult her. Moreover, Ms. Mao suffers from high blood pressure and arthritis with painful joints, and her detention conditions are extremely harsh: with no chairs or bed provided to her, she has to sit or lie on the cold and wet floor.

On June 28, 2007, her husband visited her, and requested that the prison authorities allow her lawyer to visit her and help her prepare for an appeal against her sentence, as well as to improve her conditions of detention.

Ms. Mao Hengfeng had already been subjected to various acts of harassment and detentions in the past (See Observatory Annual Reports 2005 and 2006).

Actions requested:

Please write to the authorities in the People’s Republic of China, urging them to:

1. Guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Ms. Mao Hengfeng;
2. Release Ms. Mao Hengfeng as well as all petitioners that are currently arbitrarily detained, and put an end to any kind of harassment against her;
3. Put an end to the harassment against all human rights defenders in China;
4. Conform with the provisions of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9, 1998, especially its Article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realisation of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels”, and Article 12.2, which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration”;
5. Ensure in all circumstances respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with international human rights standards and international instruments ratified by the People’s Republic of China.

Addresses:

• President Hu Jintao, People’s Republic of China, c/o Embassy of the People’s Republic of China; 2300 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, D.C., 20008, USA, Fax: +01 202 588-0032;
• Minister of Justice of the People’s Republic of China, Buzhang Sifabu, Wu Aiying, 10 Chaoyangmen Nandajie, Chaoyangqu, Beijingshi 100020, People’s Republic of China, Fax: +86 10 6529 2345;
• Minister of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China, Buzhang Waijiaobu, Mr. Yang Jiechi, 2 Chaoyangmen Nandajie, Beijingshi 100701, People’s Republic of China, Fax: +86 10 6588 2594, Email: ipc@fmprc.gov.cn;
• Ambassador Sha Zukang, Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China, Chemin de Surville 11, P.O. Box 85, 1213 Petit-Lancy 2, Geneva, Switzerland, Fax: +41 22 7937014, E-mail: mission.china@ties.itu.int;
• Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Brussels, Avenue de Tervuren, 463 1160 Auderghem, Belgium, Tel: + 32 2 663 30 10 / + 32 2 663 30 17 / +32 2 771 14 97 / +32 2 779 43 33; Fax: +32 2 762 99 66 / +32 2 779 28 95; Email: chinaemb_be@mfa.gov.cn.

Please also write to the diplomatic mission or embassy of the People’s Republic of China in your respective country.

***

Geneva - Paris, November 1, 2007

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

The Observatory, a FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need. The Observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.

To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line:
E-mail: Appeals@fidh-omct.org
Tel and fax FIDH + 33 (0) 1 43 55 20 11 / +33 1 43 55 18 80
Tel and fax OMCT + 41 (0) 22 809 49 39 / + 41 22 809 49 29

[1] http://www.un.org/ga/60/elect/hrc/china.pdf.

[2] See OP9 of the General Assembly resolution A/RES/60/251.

[3] From February 13 to March 29, 2006, Mrs. Mao was put under house arrest in a flat in the Yangpu district of Shanghai on suspicion of “causing disturbance on a public thoroughfare”. While under house arrest, Mrs. Mao was under constant surveillance and was beaten several times, in addition of being deprived access to her lawyer. Her arrest followed her participation, in early February, in a nationwide hunger-strike in support of several other human rights defenders who had started a hunger strike against the violence and the repression of Chinese authorities. On May 23, 2006, Mrs. Mao Hengfeng was arrested once again by the police of Yangpu district without being produced an arrest warrant, and placed under “soft” house arrest in Kelaideng Hostel.