Human Rights Day 2012 Speech

Today marks the 64th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This landmark charter recognised that ‘everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives’ and that ‘the will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections’. These values, endorsed by the international community, are legally binding obligations upon the 167 States Parties including the People’s Republic of China. However, the Chinese regime continues to flagrantly show utter disregard for basic human and civil rights and openly flout the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and UN Human Right Treaties that PR China has signed.

In today’s China, the reality is ‘absurd’. In November alone, lacking any popular mandate, Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang assumed the Party’s top two positions of power with the new seven-member Standing Committee of the CCP Politburo revealed at the 18th Party Congress after power struggles behind the scenes. This power transition took place when Sichuan dissident and poet Li Bifeng was given a 12-year sentence on a fabricated charge of ‘contract fraud’, and when, within a month, another 28 Tibetans set themselves on fire.

I condemn the Chinese regime for repressing cultural and political rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and UN human rights treaties. People have the fundamental right to rise up and overthrow any government which has no legitimacy to represent the people under its rule and deny fundamental rights. We call upon civil society across the globe to stand in solidarity with repressed people under the illegitimate rule of the Chinese Communist Party.

• release all prisoners of conscience held by the Chinese regime,
• urges the Chinese regime to allow independent observers and the international media full and unhindered access to all parts of the People’s Republic of China, in particular Tibetan and Uyghur regions,
• calls on the European Union to refer the human rights situation in China to the European Court of Human Rights,
• calls on governments and leaders around the world to make human rights a top priority when engaging with the Chinese leadership, and publicly state their solidarity with human rights defenders and the Chinese, Uyghur and Tibetan peoples,
• urges the international community to demand democracy in China, as the Chinese Communist Party does not represent the people living under its rule.
• calls on civil society across the global to show solidarity with repressed people under the rule of the CCP.