China - Peaceful Human Rights Advocate died after months of neglect in prison

[sharon sanders]

Does anyone think that China is transparent about the disease situation there? Read this:

Dispatches: The Death of a Defender in China
MARCH 14, 2014

Sophie Richardson

Cao Shunli died today. She was 52 and was last publicly seen in September 2013, when she was detained by police at the Beijing airport attempting to board a flight to Geneva. She had planned to participate in a training session on human rights ahead of the United Nations? Human Rights Council?s Universal Periodic Review of China.

She never arrived. After her disappearance, Chinese authorities refused to disclose any information about her whereabouts for weeks until she was formally charged in October first with ?illegal assembly? and then with ?picking quarrels and provoking troubles.?

snip

Throughout her subsequent months in detention, her lawyer and family members called attention to her worsening medical condition, and she was diagnosed in November 2013 by a prison doctor with illnesses including pneumonia in both lungs.

Her family repeatedly requested she be granted medical parole, but only when she fell into a coma in February 2014 did prison officials transfer her to a Beijing hospital.

more....

http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/03/14/dispatches-death-defender-china

 

[Shiloh]

Jailed Chinese human rights activist Cao Shunli dies in detention after denied treatment

Jailed Chinese human rights activist Cao Shunli dies in detention after denied treatment

Source: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/arti...-shunli-dies-detention-after-denied-treatment


Jailed Chinese human rights activist Cao Shunli dies in detention after denied treatment
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 15 March, 2014, 5:09am
UPDATED : Saturday, 15 March, 2014, 9:25am

Human rights activist Cao Shunli, who has been detained for months for staging sit-ins at the foreign ministry, has died, a fellow dissident and one of Cao's lawyers said yesterday.

Cao died in a Beijing hospital where authorities had finally let her be taken, after denying her treatment for tuberculosis, liver disease and other ailments. Two weeks ago, a friend said she had suffered organ failure and had only a few days to live.

Her death was announced soon after the start of a session in Geneva of the UN Human Rights Council, a body to which China was elected amid controversy in November...

 

[Pathfinder]

Re: China - Peaceful Human Rights Advocate died after months of neglect in prison

UN experts call on Chinese authorities to probe death of prominent human rights lawyer

18 March 2014 ? A group of independent United Nations experts today urged Chinese authorities to promptly investigate the circumstances leading to the death of prominent human rights lawyer Cao Sun Ly Shunli, who died in the hospital on 14 March.

According to a news release issued by the experts, Ms. Cao had tirelessly campaigned since 2008 for transparency and greater participation of civil society in the periodic review of China?s human rights record by the UN Human Rights Council.

On 14 September 2013, Ms. Cao was prevented by Chinese authorities from boarding a flight from Beijing to Geneva where she was to participate in a human rights seminar and observe China?s review by the Council.

Her whereabouts were unknown until she was charged with the crime of provocation, noted the experts, who are tasked by the Council with reporting on various human rights issues. Her health deteriorated while she was in detention and she was transferred to hospital in a critical condition on 19 February 2014.

?Ms. Cao?s enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, failing health and the fact that she was denied medical care were brought to the attention of the UN experts who transmitted urgent appeals to China,? stated the experts, who urged the Chinese authorities to promptly investigate the circumstances leading to her death.

?The death of Ms. Cao is a tragic example of the results of criminalization of the activities of human defenders in China and reprisals against them. It is unacceptable that civil society activists pay the ultimate price for peaceful and legitimate interaction with the United Nations and its human rights mechanisms,? the experts said.

Independent experts or special rapporteurs are appointed by the Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.

Expressing their concern about Ms. Cao?s death are the Special Rapporteurs on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; on the right to freedoms of peaceful assembly and association; on the right to freedom of opinion and expression; on the situation of human rights defenders; and on the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; and the Working Groups on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, and on Arbitrary Detention.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=47372&Cr=china&Cr1=