Word: humanics
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...that the country would be ruled by law. Since then, China has made dramatic headway in developing a legal system, but the application of law has been choppy. In recent years a small group of independent lawyers across the nation has been attempting to force the state to uphold human rights. The lawyers have been subject to arrest, violence and even, in the case of one prominent advocate, disappearance. But this month's apparent disbarment of the country's top human-rights lawyers could permanently damage legal-reform efforts. "You can't pretend you care about legal reform...
...disbarred lawyers believe they are being punished for taking cases seen as contrary to the interests of the Communist Party. "The domestic-security police tell the Bureau of Justice, 'These lawyers don't listen; they keep doing these kinds of cases,' " says Jiang Tianyong, a Beijing human-rights lawyer. "We say this is what's permitted under the law. But they say we have no right to argue that these defendants aren't guilty. So when it comes time for our annual assessment, our licenses aren't renewed...
...agitating for independence and, as in Li's case, defending followers of Falun Gong. "Lawyers no longer serve only as instruments of political control like how they were expected to perform from the 1950s to the 1970s," says Albert Ho, a Hong Kong solicitor and chairman of China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group. "With the opening and liberalization of China, it needs to build a system of law and a sound legal system. The government and the governing party shall abide by the law. But they are very, very concerned that the law may cause an obstacle to the control...
...Human-rights activists worry that by disbarring these lawyers, the government will turn a group of people working within the system into a group of outsiders. "If they don't have many avenues to protest what has happened to them, then it can easily turn into a situation where they will be seen as dissidents," says Bequelin. And once they fall into that category, the lawyers will lose whatever marginal protections their profession once gave them...
...prominent human-rights attorney, Gao Zhisheng, disappeared in February, shortly after his family fled to exile in the U.S. He is believed to be in police custody. Gao, who had defended underground Christians and Falun Gong members, released an open letter describing the extensive and grotesque torture he had been subjected to by state security officers in 2007. He said he was threatened with death if he ever revealed the details of the abuse he suffered. When asked about his case in March, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Gao was not a victim of political persecution and his case...