USCIRF Questions Legitimacy of Kazakhstan’s OSCE Chairmanship

11/16/09: USCIRF Questions Legitimacy of Kazakhstan’s OSCE Chairmanship

 
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today (Nov. 16) questioned the legitimacy of the Kazakh chairmanship of the 56-nation Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in 2010, due to Kazakhstan's poor human rights record.

“Due to recent and troubling developments, USCIRF questions how Kazakhstan's human rights record is consistent with its upcoming OSCE chairmanship, particularly since human rights are such a key element of the Organization,” said Leonard Leo, USCIRF chair. “Indeed, while Kazakhstan tomorrow (Nov. 17) hosts a high-profile event in the U.S. Congress to highlight its official human rights action plan, the Kazakh government continues to imprison a key drafter of that very plan, Evgeny Zhovtis.”

Mr. Zhovtis is a leading human rights defender and is the director of the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and the Rule of Law.  Mr. Zhovtis was involved in a car accident in July that resulted in the tragic accidental death of a pedestrian.  The resulting case against Zhovtis was marred by legal irregularities. For example, officials delayed two weeks in notifying Zhovtis that he was an official suspect, thereby depriving him of certain legal rights. Zhovtis was transferred in late October to a labor colony about 750 miles from his native city of Almaty.

CHINA: USCIRF Recommendations for Obama Trip

11/10/09: CHINA: USCIRF Recommendations for Obama Trip

USCIRF sent the following letter to President Obama Nov. 9, 2009: http://www.uscirf.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2818&Itemid=1 The President The White House Washington, DC Dear Mr. President: The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom hopes your upcoming trip to China is both successful and productive.  During your visit, we urge you to raise critical issues of religious freedom and the rule of law with Chinese officials, seek meetings with prominent human rights defenders and repressed religious leaders, and make a strong public statement about the importance of human rights to the future of U.S.-China relations.  The trip is an opportunity to dispel any notion that human rights and religious freedoms are not priorities, and to set the record straight on any of the Administration’s prior statements on the place of human rights in our bilateral relationship with China. Religion matters in China and it should matter in Sino-American relations as well.  Religious adherence is growing in China, as hundreds of millions of Chinese seek to worship and exercise other religious freedom rights, such as expression, freely, without interference or harassment.  Increasingly, religious believers are demanding rights guaranteed by China’s Constitution and international human rights conventions to which China is a party.   Religious organizations are a large segment of China’s civil society and Chinese officials, including President Hu Jintao, have stated publicly that religious groups can play a beneficial role in the development of Chinese society. The Chinese government has accommodated some religious practice, but repression of peaceful religious activity remains intense and widespread, focusing on unregistered Christians, Tibetan Buddhists, Uighur Muslims, Falun Gong practitioners and religious groups the government considers “evil cults.”  In Tibetan and Uighur areas of China, repression of religious freedom has created deep resentments that cannot be mitigated by the inappropriate use of force or other repressive measures.  Repression of peaceful Uighur and Tibetan religious practice has fueled, not solved or resolved, ethnic unrest.  The importance of defending freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief has also shaped a growing movement of Chinese rights defenders, intellectuals and lawyers who, at great personal and professional expense, seek to advance religious freedom, promote the rule of law, and protect internationally guaranteed rights and freedoms in China.

CHINA - Persecution of Falun Gong

CHINA

Parsippany man says his daughter-in-law's only crime is Falun Gong activism

Eugene Paik

The Star-Ledger (16.11.2009) / HRWF (18.11.2009) - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - Email: info@hrwf.net - What 80-year-old John Shen knows is this: His son is dead and his daughter-in-law is imprisoned because of their activism with the Falun Gong.

In the nearly eight years since they were arrested in China, Shen has labored to free Luo Fang from a Chinese jail cell while he grapples with his son's death.

Shen says Luo and his son Shen Lizhi are some of the thousands of prisoners who have been arrested over the past decade for being a practitioner of Falun Gong, a lifestyle that has its roots in an ancient Chinese tradition but is considered a cult by Chinese authorities.

"We are a peaceful people. We've done nothing wrong," said Shen, also a Falun Gong follower, through an interpreter.