Staff members of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD)
Cases- Location of case in SG report
- 2019-014-006
- Relevant SG report
- Year of the report
- 2019
- From Country
- Country Geolocation
Latitude: 35.86166
Longitude: 104.195397
- Country Geolocation (linked Cases)
- China
- From Region
- Type of record
- Named organization
- Was the victim a foreign national?
- No
- Was the victim a minor?
- No
- Type of rights defended
- Civil/political rights
- Was the victim a civil servant or member of the security forces or of the judiciary?
- No
- Reported trigger of reprisal
sharing information with the United Nations and conducting trainings for China-based human rights defenders seeking to cooperate with the United Nations. The last reported email was sent weeks before the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) review of China in August 2018, and three months before the universal periodic review (UPR) of China in November 2018.
- Engagement with UN body
- UN Treaty Bodies: CERD
- Other
- Unclear
- UN Human Rights Council: UPR
- Dates of engagement
- Unclear
- Type of attempted engagement
- Other
- Submission of information to UN
- Dates of mentioned reprisals
- Between February and July 2018
- Reprisal information
In May 2019, it was reported that staff members of the international non- governmental organization Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) faced serious intimidation and harassment for sharing information with the United Nations and conducting trainings for China-based human rights defenders seeking to cooperate with the United Nations. Between February and July 2018, repeated anonymous emails in Chinese reportedly threatened CHRD and its staff members with “severe consequences” if the organization held its planned trainings, including physical assault and abduction at airports and forcible return to China. The last reported email was sent weeks before the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) review of China in August 2018, and three months before the universal periodic review (UPR) of China in November 2018. It was further reported that an article published in a Chinese newspaper denounced CHRD’s United Nations human rights trainings and efforts to engage the UPR and treaty body reviews.
- Types of reprisals suffered
- Defamation / Defamation campaign
- Threats/Intimidations (incl. "fear of reprisal")
- Alleged/likely perpetrators
- Unclear
- Was the reprisal based on new legislation?
- No
- Does the report make general comment about country’s environment for engagement with UN?
- No
- Government response dates
- 1 July 2019
- Government response content
Regarding the allegations pertaining to international NGO Chinese Human Rights Defenders, the Government has inquired and found no relevant information.
- Is the country cited for a "pattern of reprisal" in the context of this case?
- No
- Is a pattern of reprisals mentioned otherwise in the context of this case?
- No
- Does the report cite "self-censorship" as an issue in the context of this case?
- No
- How many times has the case been followed up in subsequent SG reports?
- 1
- In which SG report was this case followed up on? 0
- 2020
- Follow up information provided in SG report 0
The case of the international non-governmental organization Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) was included in the 2019 report of the Secretary-General (A/HRC/42/30, para. 46 and Annex I, para. 19) on allegations of intimidation and harassment for sharing information with the UN, as well as for training human rights defenders seeking to cooperate with the UN. In December 2019 and January 2020, Chinese state media criticized CHRD’s research submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in 2018.
- Followup Trends 0
- Deterioration/further reprisals
- Did the government respond? 0
- No