In China, brave activists are trying to improve the daily life of their fellow citizens and defend their rights to speak freely, to be treated on an equal footing with others, to protest peacefully, or to practice a religion. But the Chinese government fears that their actions will challenge its power and that their criticisms will undermine it. Like the Uyghur and Tibetan peoples, many who stand up for human rights are repressed and silenced, and the authorities have found a very effective way to do that: they disappear them.
Ding Jiaxi is a prominent Chinese human rights activist and lawyer. In December 2019, the authorities resorted to one of its repressive tools to target Ding – they disappeared him under China’s system of Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location’ (RSDL). For 6 months, no one knew where Ding was or what had happened. According to his testimonies, the police tortured him during his detention. He was tied to a ‘tiger chair’, deprived of sleep and continuously exposed to artificial light and loud noise. In June 2020, he reappeared in the city of Linyi, where he was formally arrested without access to his lawyers. In January 2021, they were notified Ding was indicted on charges of ‘subversion of State power.’ Only then was he allowed to see a lawyer. However, his lawyer has not been granted full access to the case files or able to freely meet with him. Ding has not been allowed to see or talk to his loved ones since 2019. His detention conditions are very poor and his health is deteriorating. His trial got postponed repeatedly without clear reasons. Ding could be tried anytime now.
Since 2012, China’s rubber-stamp legislative body passed and amended several articles in its Criminal Procedure Law that give police the power to take people into custody without disclosing where they will be held: this is called ‘Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location’. When this happens, people are denied all contact with the outside world, even with their family or a lawyer, for up to six months. No one knows where they are. They are interrogated and often tortured to extract confessions. Meanwhile, despite the barriers and risks they have to overcome, their families persist in seeking knowledge about their loved one’s fate and justice for what they suffered.
United Nations experts are clear: RSDL is a form of enforced disappearance. With estimations of up to 57.000 individuals under RSDL, enforced disappearances are endemic in China. RSDL tears families apart, and is intended to instill fear into China’s human rights movement.
Many human rights activists have stopped promoting dignity, peace and justice in their communities because they fear to be disappeared by the police. This practice – enforced disappearance – is absolutely wrong and prohibited under international law. Everyone should be able to speak their mind and participate in the life of their communities.
What do we want?
We want the Chinese government to review article 75 of China’s Criminal Procedure Law and repeal RSDL so that no one has to go through what Ding Jiaxi did. We want human rights defenders, like Ding Jiaxi, who have been subjected to RSDL and then arbitrarily and unfairly detained to be promptly released. We want truth and justice for victims.
RSDL should be high on the agenda of any human rights exchange with the Chinese government. We want governments worldwide to speak out and use all bilateral and multilateral channels to press the Chinese government to #RepealRSDL. We want the UN to amplify its monitoring of RSDL in China, and to sustain its pressure on the authorities to respect international law and to #RepealRSDL.
Feeling supported is vital for disappeared defenders and their relatives. We want the media, human rights groups and activists across the world to pay closer attention to RSDL, to raise awareness around them, and to stand in solidarity with disappeared Chinese human rights defenders and their relatives.
How do we achieve this?
We are working hard to:
- Increase the awareness and legal understanding of government officials and diplomats, UN experts, journalists, and human rights groups, about RSDL as a form of enforced disappearance, forbidden under international law. We have created a short document that explains clearly what UN experts have said about RSDL, and are spreading the word online and offline.
- Mobilise diplomatic missions, through meetings and letters, and encourage them to speak out on RSDL at the UN and in other spaces;
- Push UN experts to take up individual cases and pay a closer look at the use and impact of RSDL in light of China’s obligations under international human rights law ;
- Encourage governments, activists, and concerned individuals to stand in solidarity with disappeared human rights defenders and their relatives
What can you do?
We have been supporting three cases of Chinese human rights defenders who are or have been disappeared under RSDL, where your action can make a difference. Take action for them now!
