Cheng Yuan (程渊)
Cheng Yuan (程渊) is the co-founder of the public interest advocacy NGO Changsha Funeng and has over ten years of experience in advocating for health rights, non-discrimination, and the empowerment of vulnerable groups, including persons living with HIV/AIDS, hepatitis B patients, and persons with disabilities. He led and supported the impact litigation of several hepatitis B and HIV/AIDS discrimination cases, which fellow defenders said contributed positively to the dismantling of systematic discrimination based on health status in China. In 2013, Cheng Yuan and another lawyer led a HIV employment discrimination lawsuit in Jiangxi province, which resulted in an unprecedented, landmark court decision to award compensation to the plaintiff, who was denied a teaching position due his HIV-positive status. Cheng Yuan has also campaigned for an end to China’s One Child family planning policy and reform of the discriminatory household registration system.
Many of China’s most prominent and most stringently prosecuted defenders have worked to protect the health and well-being of victims of physically harmful government and corporate practice, including forced abortion, food health scandals, environmental pollution, and corrupt or negligent government action leading to preventable loss of life.
