Space Industry and Business News  
SINO DAILY
Activists fight to keep jailed Nobel winner's name in view

by Staff Writers
United Nations (AFP) Nov 21, 2010
Rights groups are determined to keep Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo in the international spotlight despite China's efforts to stop the detained activist getting recognition.

One group of international lawyers has petitioned a UN human rights panel hoping to get Liu's detention declared against international law. Rights groups have showered awards on him and other Nobel prize winners have appealed for his release.

But few see any early signs of hope for the release of the 54-year-old literary critic, as China refuses to let his family attend the December 10 award ceremony and lobbies other countries to boycott the event.

Lawyers working on Liu's behalf registered a petition with the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention on November 4.

The prison term being served by Liu and the house arrest imposed on his wife, Liu Xia, "shocks the conscience," said Maran Turner, executive director of Freedom Now, the group providing the lawyers for the Nobel winner.

Liu was jailed for 11 years in December 2009 on subversion charges after co-authoring Charter 08, a petition calling for political reform. His wife has been put under house arrest in Beijing.

The UN working party will send the petition to the Chinese government which can refuse to make a response, said Beth Schwanke, a spokeswoman for Freedom Now. China has said that the award was "encouraging crime."

"Certainly the working group will have a favorable opinion and will establish that the conviction and the detention of Liu Xiaobo are in violation of international law," Schwanke told AFP.

"Our opinion is that the Chinese government has no legal basis under the international law to condemn and detain Liu Xiaobo," she added.

The working group's opinion will be made public. "That will be further reason for the Chinese government to release Dr. Liu," said Schwanke.

No one knows how long the process will take however.

Jerome Cohen, a New York University law professor who is on the team of lawyers, said dozens of cases involving detainees in China have already been put to the UN working group.

"It has almost always decided that detention is arbitrary," Cohen said. "It will most likely be the case this time.

"But even if they do it, of course there is not very much to expect," added Cohen, who called Liu's detention and sentencing arbitrary. "It will just be another signal."

International PEN, the writers' group is also stepping up activities for Liu. The German branch of the group awarded him its top prize. Human Rights Watch gave its Alison des Forges award to Liu last month.

Fifteen other Nobel Peace Prize winners sent a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and leaders of the Group of 20 economic powers to put pressure on China, a member of the group which recently held a summit.

But there was no mention of Liu's case at the G20 summit in Seoul this month and the UN leader, like many heads of government, has been extremely prudent in his comments on Liu's Nobel victory.

The UN petition will have greater effect on the West than it will China, said Marie Holzman, head of the French non-government group Solidarite-Chine.

"It is excellent for making Western public opinion aware that China is only a big economic power and that human rights there are thwarted," said Holzman.

"I do not expect any impact on the Chinese government, but this petition, like the Nobel Prize award, will have an impact on the West's conscience," she said.



Share This Article With Planet Earth
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit
YahooMyWebYahooMyWeb GoogleGoogle FacebookFacebook



Related Links
China News from SinoDaily.com



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


SINO DAILY
Chinese bloggers meeting cancelled for being too sensitive
Beijing (AFP) Nov 20, 2010
A grassroots bloggers conference to be held in Shanghai has been cancelled after authorities decided it was too sensitive, participants said Saturday, as officials tighten control over social media. It is the first time the Chinese Blogger Conference had been cancelled since it began six years ago, said Zhou Shuguang, who had booked the venue at the Shanghai Jiaotong University for the meeti ... read more







SINO DAILY
News Corp. set to unveil iPad newspaper, 'The Daily'

Thales announces venture for Chinese in-flight systems

Amazon lets gift-givers send Kindle books by email

Yahoo! Connected TV store to start selling widgets

SINO DAILY
Codan Receives JITC Certification For 2110 HF Manpack

Northrop Grumman Bids for Marine Corps Common Aviation CnC

DSP Satellite System Celebrates 40 Years

ManTech Awarded US Army Contract To Provide ECCS In Afghanistan

SINO DAILY
Ball Aerospace's First Standard Interface Vehicle Set To Launch

ILS Proton Launches Lightsquared Satellite

Russia Launches Advanced US Telecom Satellite

NASA plans Alaska satellite launch

SINO DAILY
Russia To Launch New Generation Satellite In 2013

SkyTraq Introduces New GLONASS/GPS Receiver

SES To Contribute To Galileo Operations

GPS IIF-1 Introduces A Host Of New Capabilities For Users

SINO DAILY
Airbus CEO takes dive as A380 has issues

Air China announces 4.49 billion-dollar Airbus deal

Embraer signs 1.5-billion-dollar deal with China's AVIC

Lawsuit looms for EADS over A380: lawyers

SINO DAILY
Caltech Physicists Demonstrate A Four-Fold Quantum Memory

Building A Racetrack Memory

Microsoft sues Motorola over 'excessive' royalty demands

Motorola fires back against Microsoft in patent dispute

SINO DAILY
Redrawing Our Borders

Art on planetary scale shines spotlight on climate change

Google agrees to delete Street View data in Britain

Eruption At Mount Merapi

SINO DAILY
A Technology Solution To Hungarian Disaster Relief With DeconGel

Hungary promises full compensation for toxic mud victims

Victims of Hungarian toxic spill to hold off protest

Saudi faces daunting task of post-hajj cleanup


The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement