Peng Lanlan
Cases- Location of case in SG report
- 2014-017-002
- Relevant SG report
- Year of the report
- 2014
- From Country
- Country Geolocation
Latitude: 35.86166
Longitude: 104.195397
- Country Geolocation (linked Cases)
- China
- From Region
- UN body that raised the case prior to the SG report
- UN Special Procedures: Thematic
- Dates of prior UN action
- Unclear
- Type of record
- Named individual
- Gender
- Female
- 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, member of the security forces or of the judiciary?
- No
- Reported trigger of reprisal
Since December 2008, a group of human rights activists, including Ms. Cao, Chen Jianfang and Peng Lanlan, had been requesting the Chinese authorities to allow their participation in the preparation of the national report of China for its first and later its second universal periodic review.
- Engagement with UN body
- UN Human Rights Council: UPR
- Dates of engagement
- Since December 2008; June 2013
- Type of attempted engagement
- Other
- Participation in meeting on UN premises
- Dates of mentioned reprisals
- August 2012; 8 June 2013
- Reprisal information
Since December 2008, a group of human rights activists, including Ms. Cao, Chen Jianfang and Peng Lanlan, had been requesting the Chinese authorities to allow their participation in the preparation of the national report of China for its first and later its second universal periodic review. On 14 September 2013, while boarding a flight to Geneva to attend a training session on United Nations human rights mechanisms, Ms. Cao was reportedly stopped and transferred to an unknown location by security agents.
On 21 October 2013, five weeks after she was first taken into custody and one day before the consideration of China by the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, the authorities confirmed that Ms. Cao had been detained at Chaoyang District Detention Centre. Ms. Cao’s health deteriorated progressively. Medication for her liver condition was reportedly taken away and a medical examination, conducted at the request of her lawyer on 18 November 2013, confirmed that she had tuberculosis in her lungs, liver effusion and uterine myomas and cysts. Her lawyer applied for medical parole several times, which was reportedly orally denied by officials of the detention centre. Ms. Cao died on 14 March 2014.
- Alleged/likely perpetrators
- State actors
- 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 content
Government of China had replied to three communications, sent on 23 September 2013, 7 January 2014 and 24 January 2014 respectively, indicating that careful investigations into those cases had shown that the information contained in the communications was not consistent with the facts
- 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?
- 0