NGOs Call on Governments & Lao Authorities to Ensure the Immediate Release of Chinese Human Rights Lawyer Lu Siwei

China

Southeast Asian governments have frequently been pressured into forcibly returning vulnerable individuals back to China, where they have faced arbitrary detention, unfair trials, torture, enforced disappearances, and other ill-treatment. Our organizations have documented numerous cases, ranging from the 2009 forced return of Uyghurs from Cambodia to the August 2022 disappearance of Chinese democracy activist Dong Guangping from Vietnam into Chinese custody. Gui Minhai, a bookseller, was disappeared in Thailand in 2015 only to resurface in China without his passport. These individuals are effectively disappeared for extended periods, with family members and colleagues unable to obtain information until months or years after.

We urge third party governments to:

1. Ask Lao authorities to immediately halt Lu Siwei’s repatriation and to move quickly to ensure he has access to the relevant UN authorities and a lawyer of his choice; and

2. Publicly call on Chinese authorities to drop any potential charges against Lu Siwei.

By handing Lu Siwei over to the Chinese authorities, the Lao government would be putting Lu Siwei at grave risk of torture and inhuman treatment. UN rights experts have found that the Chinese government frequently subjects rights defenders and lawyers to torture and inhuman treatment.[1] Under international customary law and as a state party to the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) since September 2012, the Lao PDR government has a non-refoulement obligation as stipulated in Article 3 of the CAT not to return a person to a state where they are at high likelihood of being subjected to torture.

We urge the Lao government to:

1. Halt all processes of repatriation for Lu Siwei and release him immediately according to its international human rights obligations;

2. Arrange for him to meet with the relevant UN authorities and a lawyer of his own choosing;

3. Allow him to meet with diplomats from the United States and other countries, as needed, to help him resume his journey to reunite with his family currently in the United States; and

4. Pending the above, to disclose his whereabouts and ensure his personal safety as well as his physical and mental well-being.

Lu Siwei is a renowned rights defender and lawyer in China, advocating for vulnerable groups and representing numerous political dissidents. As the Chinese authorities have become increasingly intolerant of independent rights advocacy, they have targeted Lu with intimidation and harassment, including disbarment in January 2021 for online speech that allegedly “endangered national security”. Lu Siwei was also physically attacked while traveling to the hearing for his disbarment. Since then, Lu has been closely monitored by the Chinese authorities and subject to an exit ban since May 2021. It is understood that Lu was in Laos en route to joining his family in the United States.

 

Undersigned

Amnesty International

ALTSEAN-Burma

Asia Democracy Network (ADN)

Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)

ARTICLE 19

Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales

Campaign For Uyghurs

ChinaAid

China Change

Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD)

CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation

Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM)

Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation

CSW

Exile Hub, Thailand, Myanmar

FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

Focus on the Global South

Foundation for Media Alternatives

Free Expression Myanmar

Freiheit für Hongkong e.V.

Fresh Eyes, United Kingdom

Front Line Defenders

Gill H. Boehringer, Professor, Chair, Australian Branch, IAPL

Hong Kong Watch

Hongkonger in Deutschland e.V.

Humanitarian China

Human Rights in China

Human Rights Online Philippines (HRonlinePH)

HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement

ILGA Asia

Indonesia Save Uyghur

International Association of People’s Lawyers (IAPL) Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers

International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)

International Society for Human Rights

International Tibet Network Secretariat

Judicial Reform Foundation

Lawyers for Lawyers

Manushya Foundation

Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA)

New School for Democracy Association

Open Net (Korea)

PEN America

Public Virtue Research Institute

Safeguard Defenders

Social Innovations Advisory

Society of Young Social Innovators (SYSI)

Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet)

Taipei Bar Association Human Rights Committee

Taiwan Bar Association Human Rights Protection Committee

Taiwan Support China Human Rights Lawyers Network

Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy

Tibet Initiative Deutschland e.V.

Uyghur Human Rights Project

29 Principles

Wang Dan, Dialogue China

We The Hongkongers

World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders

Young Leadership for Social Change Network

Civic Initiatives

Bytes For All, Pakistan

PakVoices.pk

Innovation for Change South Asia

Internet Policy Observatory Pakistan

Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation

 

Find the statement in PDF (English + Chinese) here.