Lawyer Chang is a promising human rights lawyer in China. He was disappeared on 22 October 2020 under 'Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location' for 'inciting subversion of State power.'
Chang Weiping has bravely defended sensitive cases of victims of sexual harassment during China’s ‘Me Too’. He has provided pro bono counsel to victims of discriminatory practices due to their sexual orientation or HIV status, or targeted for speaking freely or practicing their religion. He has also helped other activists facing judicial harassment for the legitimate exercise of their human rights.
On January 12, 2020, he was placed under Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location (RSDL) by police from Baoji City for ‘endangering national security’, after attending an informal gathering of human rights lawyers and citizens in Xiamen a month earlier. He was released ten days later on ‘bail pending trial.’
In October 2020, after months of constant police intimidation and restricted movement, he denounced the torture he had been subjected to under RSDL in a video posted on YouTube.
In late 2020, judicial authorities in Baoji City suspended his lawyer’s license. He was disappeared under RSDL on 22 October 2020.
UN experts have publicly called for his release. No one knows where he is held.
Feeling supported is vital for disappeared defenders and their relatives. Send a solidarity message to Chen Zijuan, lawyer Chang’s wife: write a postcard, and share it with her on your social media. Don’t hesitate to personalise it before tweeting.
RSDL is undoubtedly a form of enforced disappearance, as well as arbitrary detention. It should be abolished. This is why ISHR and partners are campaigning to #RepealRSDL.
On 5 and 6 May 2025, during its 83rd Ordinary Session, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) held the second joint forum of its special mechanisms. This serves as an opportunity to bring actors from various backgrounds to discuss the possibility of converging human rights and sustainable development for the benefit of Africans.
At the 83rd ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, held in Banjul (The Gambia) from 2 May to 22 May, ISHR delivered an oral statement calling for peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the continuation of the process toward a human rights defenders protection law in Zambia, reparations for Africans and people of African descent, and a binding treaty on environmental rights in Africa.
On 3 May 2025, on the sidelines of the 83rd ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, ISHR co-sponsored a side event on the situation of human rights defenders in the Sahel, organised by the International Federation for Human Rights and the World Organisation against Torture.
