A Joint Statement Upon the Establishment of
China Human Rights
Accountability Center
January
10, 2017
On December 23,
2016, President Obama signed into law “The Global Magnitsky Human Rights
Accountability Act.” The law authorizes the U.S. president to levy sanctions
against foreign nationals who engage in the following acts: significant
corruption, extrajudicial killings, torture, violation of international human
rights covenants, and persecution of those who expose government corruption or
seek to defend internationally recognized human rights.
The mechanisms it provides to the president to carry out such
sanctions include prohibiting
or revoking U.S. entry visas or other entry documentation; freezing and prohibiting U.S. property transactions of an
individual if such property and property interests are in the United States,
come within the United States, or are in or come within the control of a U.S.
person or entity.
The absence
of democratic election and rule of law, and the lack of checks and balances,
breed corruption. As a result, power
and money work hand in hand to pillage the people and the society.
The Chinese
communist regime is unrestrained in violating China’s own law and
internationally recognized human rights standards. Its barbaric attack on civil
society actors is widely known; forced disappearances, torture in custody,
illegal and arbitrary detention, and use of severe prison terms have become
routine.
While the regime
acts at will to violate its own laws or alter them as it sees fit, it has also
established an extralegal apparatus dedicated to human rights persecution, systematically
targeting rights defenders.
The Chinese
Communist regime uses the promise of profit to turn interest groups in China
into violators of human rights — and these human rights violators in turn
operate under the shelter of the regime, never punished for their
transgressions.
As human rights
defenders, we will use this new U.S. law, as well as similar laws that have
been and will be passed in other countries, as a tool to bring sanctions
against Chinese human rights violators and corrupt officials.
We hereby announce
the joint establishment of the China Human Rights Accountability Center (中国人权问责中心).
The Center will
conduct the following tasks:
- Collect cases, data, and evidence on Chinese human
rights violators and corrupt officials;
- Write reports based on such data and evidence;
3. Push the U.S.
government to enforce the Global
Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, to ensure that specific and
effective sanctions are taken against human rights violators;
- Promote the establishment of similar human rights
accountability legislation in other democratic countries.
The work of the
office will be conducted in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Washington, D.C.
Founders (not in order
of importance):
Yaxue Cao (曹雅学), Zhou Fengsuo (周锋锁), Yang Jianli (杨建利), Chen Guangcheng (陈光诚), Teng Biao (滕彪), Han Lianchao (韩连潮), Bob Fu (傅希秋), Fang Zheng (方政), Hu Jia (胡佳),Tong Mu (童木).
(The official website is under construction. Inquiries
may be sent to renquanwenze@gmail.com)
