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Amnesty student activists go for gold for human rights in China
Student activists nationwide are unifying to defend human rights in China as part of Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand’s annual Freedom Challenge.
Freedom Challenge allows students from Invercargill to Whangarei to take action on the burning human rights issues of the day, as part of the human rights organisation’s public action Freedom Week – (July 28-August 3),” says its spokesperson Margaret Taylor.
“The Olympics and China’s non-delivery on its human rights promises around that event is this year’s Freedom Challenge theme. In particular our students are campaigning on behalf of two Chinese human rights defenders - Huang Jinqiu and Ye Guozhu,” says Taylor.
Ye Guozhu was due to be released on Saturday 26 July, but overnight Amnesty was informed he will now remain imprisoned until 1 October, well after the end of the 2008 Olympic Games.
"Ye Guozhu is being kept in prison to prevent him from speaking out about the people, like himself, who were forcibly evicted from their homes in Beijing to make room for the Olympics. This is in complete contradiction to the promises China made to improve human rights before the start of the Games," says Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand spokesperson, Margaret Taylor
“It’s what makes our student activism so important – they speak out when Ye Guozhu can’t. And they do so in creative ways that ensures their peers and community take action on behalf of human rights defenders such as Ye Guozhu,” adds Taylor
Under the slogan Don’t Play Games with Human Rights, students are doing everything from holding Mini-Olympics’ games such as chopstick races and hurdling human rights, to organising art exhibitions, teacher-cagings, silence- and blind-athons, and baking fortune cookies with human rights messages.
“It’s great to see so many students willing to take action to ensure that people living in China can enjoy the same rights as we have here in New Zealand,” says Freedom Challenge co-ordinator Jay Crangle.
Freedom Challenge human rights defenders
Ye Guozhu applied to Beijing police in 2004 for permission to hold a peaceful protest when his house was bulldozed to make way for an Olympic stadium. He was immediately arrested, charged to four years in prison where he has repeatedly been subject to torture.
Journalist Huang Jinqiu announced in 2003 his plans to found a China Patriotic Democracy Party via his online blog. Following his return home from overseas studies he was detained for this act and received a 12-year prison sentence. He is not due for release until 2013.
Visit www.bebo.com/FreedomC10 for more details.
Click here to see what Freedom Challenge events are happening in your region
