- Update info:
- 2 May 2014 (Suspended)
- Latest info:
- 9 Apr 2014
- Country:
- PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
- Subject:
- Liu Hua
Gender: Female
- Period:
- 2 Jun 2014
- Distribution date:
- 9 Apr 2014
- UA No:
- 079/2014
Anti-corruption activist Liu Hua, a woman who exposed abuses in China’s Re-Education Through Labour (RTL) system, has been criminally detained on the charge of “picking quarrels and making troubles”. It is widely believed that she is being punished by the authorities for appearing in a documentary that exposed the torture and other ill-treatment of the RTL system. She is a prisoner of conscience and should be immediately and unconditionally released.
Liu Hua was first detained on 10 March in Beijing by public security bureau officers from Shenyang, Liaoning Province. She was transferred back to Shenyang, where she lives, and is now being held at the Shenyang Number 1 Detention Centre. She has been questioned repeatedly by police officers about the allegations of torture that she raised in a documentary on the Masanjia Women’s RTL camp, and about her petitioning in Beijing during the National People’s Congress in February along with 20 other former Masanjia RTL inmates.
From 2006 to 2011, Liu Hua served three terms at the Masanjia Women’s RTL camp as a result of her efforts to expose corruption in her home village of Zhangliangbao. Following her release, she was interviewed as part of an investigative article by the Chinese photography magazine Lens on the appalling conditions in the Masanjia RTL camp. The article was published on 6 April 2013, and it helped galvanize public opinion against the RTL system. Liu Hua then featured prominently in the documentary The Women of Masanjia Labour Camp, which was released later in the year. In the film she vividly describes how RTL camp guards beat the female detainees, used electric batons to shock their breasts, inserted the batons and poured red hot chilies into their vaginas and put them into various torture devices such as “the Death Bed” and “the Tiger’s Bench”.
On 28 December 2013, the government passed a resolution that abolished the Re-education Through Labour (RTL) system. Liu Hua made a valuable contribution to push for human rights improvements in China, and continues to be targeted as a result.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
On 28 December 2013, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress adopted a resolution abolishing the Re-Education Through Labour (RTL) system. For nearly sixty years, the RTL system had allowed the police to lock people up for up to four years without judicial review, appeal, or any due process. RTL inmates were typically forced to work for many hours a day under harsh and unsafe conditions, for little or no pay. The living conditions in RTL were also poor, and torture of especially political prisoners commonplace. The abolition of the RTL is a welcome and important step towards protection of human rights in China.
However, initial evidence gathered by Amnesty International as reports of the closure of RTL camps started to come in suggests that the authorities are increasingly using alternative channels of arbitrary detention as well as criminal prosecutions of individuals who previously may have been sent to RTL. These include petty criminals, suspected drug users, sex workers, Falun Gong practitioners, activists and human rights defenders and petitioners. Without more fundamental changes in the policies and practices that drive arbitrary detention, the abolition of the RTL is at risk of becoming nothing but a change in the name of the system.
Name: Liu Hua
Gender m/f: Female
- Update info:
- 2 May 2014 (Suspended)
- Latest info:
- 9 Apr 2014
- Country:
- PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
- Subject:
- Liu Hua
Gender: female
- Period:
- 2 Jun 2014
- Distribution date:
- 2 May 2014
- UA No:
- 079/2014
Anti-corruption activist Liu Hua was released from detention on 17 April. She was criminally detained for 37 days as a result of her work exposing abuses in China’s Re-Education Through Labour (RTL) system. The attention on her case following the Urgent Action may have contributed to her release, and Liu Hua has thanked all those who took action on her behalf.
Liu Hua was first detained on 10 March in Beijing by public security bureau officers and was transferred back to Shenyang, where she lives. She was held at the Shenyang Number 1 Detention Centre under the charge of “picking quarrels and making troubles”. She was questioned repeatedly by police officers about the allegations of torture that she raised in a documentary on the Masanjia Women’s RTL camp, and about her petitioning in Beijing during the National People’s Congress in February along with 20 other former Masanjia RTL inmates. She was treated relatively well while at the detention centre, but after her release, state security officials threatened that she would be detained again if she continues to talk about her experiences in RTL.
From 2006 to 2011, Liu Hua served three terms at the Masanjia Women’s RTL camp as a result of her efforts to expose corruption in her home village of Zhangliangbao. Following her release, she was interviewed as part of an investigative article by the Chinese photography magazine Lens on the appalling conditions in the Masanjia RTL camp. The article was published on 6 April 2013, and it helped galvanize public opinion against the RTL system. Liu Hua then featured prominently in the documentary The Women of Masanjia Labour Camp, which was released later in the year. In the film she vividly describes how RTL camp guards beat the female detainees, used electric batons to shock their breasts, inserted the batons and poured red hot chilies into their vaginas and put them into various torture devices such as “the Death Bed” and “the Tiger’s Bench”.
On 28 December 2013, the government passed a resolution that abolished the Re-education Through Labour (RTL) system.
Many thanks to all those who took part in this action. We will continue to monitor her situation, however no more action from the Urgent Action Network is required at this time.
This is the first update of UA 79/14. Further information: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA17/019/2014/en
Name: Liu Hua
Gender m/f: female
Further information on UA: 79/14 Index: ASA 17/024/2014 Issue Date: 23 April 2014
