Take Action for Ran Chongbi
Almost two months after being detained by Chinese authorities, human rights defender, Ran Chongbi (冉崇碧), remains incommunicado, with no access to family members or legal counsel. Ran Chongbi’s detention has surpassed the 37-day legal limit established by Chinese procedural law.
Ran Chongbi has worked in defence of human rights since 2008, when she first traveled to Beijing as a petitioner. Since then, she has been involved in citizen movements and human rights activism, leading street demonstrations and picketing activities in China’s capital. Among other issues, she has campaigned for upholding China’s constitutional rights and for transparency in disclosing government assets.
Ran Chongbi has been repeatedly detained and imprisoned for her activism. The defender was subjected to 37 days in detention for publicly campaigning for imprisoned Chinese human rights lawyer, Pu Zhiqiang, and to seven months in detention for supporting Hong Kong’s Occupy Central movement. In addition to six instances of official criminal detention since she has been a human rights defender, Ran Chongbi, has also been detained in Beijing’s illegal, incommunicado “black jails” on several occasions.
Ran Chongbi’s current detention began during China’s “Two Sessions” political meeting in February 2017. In what has become standard procedure for Beijing law enforcement during high-level events, Beijing authorities took the defender into custody on 22 February 2017, later transferring her to the authorities of Chongqing, Ran Chongbi’s home municipality, where she was placed in criminal detention on 4 March 2017. Ran Chongbi is currently being kept at Detention Center #2, No. 252 Zhoujiabei Heilongjiang Road, Wanzhou District, Chongqing City.
Under Chinese procedural law, after 37 days in detention, authorities must either release the detainee or advance the case to a further stage. Ran Chongbi’s 37th day in criminal detention fell on Monday, 10 April 2017, but the defender’s status remains unchanged. Visitors to Detention Center #2 have been refused access to Ran Chongbi, and the defender has not been allowed to choose her own legal counsel. During visits and telephone calls to Detention Center #2 by other human rights defenders, Chongqing authorities have refused to give any information about the nature of Ran’s detention or what crime she allegedly committed.
While Ran Chongbi remains in detention, the defender’s daughter has been cared for by a network of human rights defenders in Beijing. On 24 March 2017, Chongqing authorities contacted a member of this network and demanded that the daughter be placed in government care. Members of the Beijing network are certain that Chongqing authorities intend to use Ran Chongbi’s daughter as a tool of coercion against the defender, and have refused to take any action without Ran Chongbi’s consent.
Ran Chongbi’s criminal detention constitutes an illegal deprivation of the defender’s right to liberty. I believe that the actions of Beijing and Chongqing authorities are attempts to obstruct the defender from carrying out her legitimate and peaceful work protecting and upholding human rights.
I urge the authorities in China to:
1. Immediately and unconditionally release Ran Chongbi;
2. Ensure that the treatment of Ran Chongbi, while in detention, adheres to the conditions set out in the ‘Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment', adopted by UN General Assembly resolution 43/173 of 9 December 1988, and in particular, access to a lawyer of her choosing, and contacts and visits;
3. Take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity and security of Ran Chongbi and her family members and in particular, cease intimidation focusing on Ran Chongbi’s daughter.
4. Guarantee in all circumstances that all human rights defenders in China are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals and free of all restrictions;
Sincerely,
