Current Conditions For Human Rights Defenders And Lawyers In China And Implications For U S Policy

This book offers a unique insight into the role of human rights lawyers in Chinese law and politics. In her extensive account, Eva Pils shows how these practitioners are important as legal advocates for victims of injustice and how bureaucratic systems of control operate to subdue and marginalise them. The book also discusses how human rights lawyers and the social forces they work for and with challenge the system. In conditions where organised political opposition is prohibited, rights lawyers have begun to articulate and coordinate demands for legal and political change. Drawing on hundreds of anonymised conversations, the book analyses in detail human rights lawyers’ legal advocacy in the face of severe institutional limitations and their experiences of repression at the hands of the police and state security apparatus, along with the intellectual, political and moral resources lawyers draw upon to survive and resist. Key concerns include the interaction between the lawyers and their bureaucratic, professional and social environments and the forms and long term political impact of resistance. In addressing these issues, Pils offers a rare evaluative perspective on China’s legal and political system, and proposes new ways to assess domestic advocacy’s relationship with international human rights and rule of law promotion. This book will be of great interest and use to students and scholars of law, Chinese studies, socio-legal studies, political studies, international relations, and sociology. It is also of direct value to people working in the fields of human rights advocacy, law, politics, international relations, and journalism.

In the past two decades, human rights has been a principal area of U.S. concern regarding the People's Republic of China (PRC), along with security and bilateral trade. Some U.S. leaders argue that U.S. policies of engagement with China, particularly since granting the PRC normal trade relations status in 2000, have helped to accelerate economic and social change and build social and legal foundations for human rights progress in the PRC. Others contend that U.S. engagement has failed not only to produce meaningful political reform but also to set any real change in motion. This book analyses China's mixed human rights record of the past several years -- major human rights problems, new human rights legislation, and the development of civil society, legal awareness, and social activism.

This report examines selected human rights issues in the People's Republic of China (PRC) and policy options for Congress. U.S. concern over human rights in China has been a central issue in U.S.-China relations, particularly since the Tiananmen crackdown in 1989. In recent years, human rights conditions in China have deteriorated, while bilateral tensions related to trade and security have increased, possibly creating both constraints and opportunities for U.S. policy on human rights.

International standards for lawyers. -- The legal profession: a general lack of independence. -- Mass cases and the rights protection movement. Box: Mass incidents on the rise (April 2005-November 2006). -- The New Guiding Opinions. -- A. Tightening of control by the judicial bureaus and other governmental departments -- B. Requiring lawyers to share confidential information with the authorities -- C. Strengthening of controls exercised by the lawyers associations -- D. Introduction of specific requirements for accepting cases -- E. Greater restrictions on working with petitioners -- F. Discouraging contacts with media and foreign organizations -- G. Requiring lawyers to take cases based on their possible effect on "stability"--H. Intimidating sanctions. -- Promulgation of local versions of the Guiding Opinions. -- Lawyers' reactions to the new restrictions and the government's response. Lawyers' initial reactions - Government response. -- Recommendations. To the Chinese government - To the United Nations - To the international law community. -- Acknowledgments. -- Appendix I: Guiding Opinions of the All-China Lawyers Association on Lawyers Handling Mass Cases. -- Appendix II: Glossary of Chinese terms.