Message from Christina Fu's advisor to supportersJared Genser Feb 26 2004 Dear Friends, We wanted to provide you with a quick update as the pressure to release Yang Jianli (and others, of course) increases on the People's Republic of China. Two key events happened yesterday. First, the U.S. Department of State issued its annual human rights reports, including the report focused on China. The report was quite strong in its criticism of the PRC and specifically mentioned Yang Jianli's case in four separate sections. As an example: "Unlawful extended detention disproportionately affected political dissidents. Dissident Yang Jianli was held without charges for over a year before his August 4 trial. At year's end, he remained in jail without a conviction or legal justification for his extended detention. In June, the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that China's pretrial detention of Yang Jianli violated the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights." Second, the House International Relations Committee passed House Resolution 530, calling on the U.S. Government to raise a resolution on China's human rights record to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and calling on the PRC to address their major human rights violations, including releasing of major prisoners of conscience including Yang Jianli. The Resolution was introduced by Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) with the bipartisan support of over 40 other Members of Congress. Our hope, of course, is that the PRC will seek to avoid having a resolution raised in Geneva and will begin to take some steps to address the concerns of the United States. Best,
Jared Genser
[Note]:
Sponsor: Rep Smith, Christopher H. [NJ-4] (introduced 2/24/2004) Cosponsors: 43 -------------------------- |