Chinese Authorities Prevent Wife Of Human Rights Advocate Chen From Going To Philippines To Accept Award

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Women's Health / Gynecology;  Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Article Date: 28 Aug 2007 - 12:00 PDT

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Yuan Weijing, the wife of human rights advocate Chen Guangcheng, was prevented by Chinese authorities on Friday from leaving China to visit the Philippines to accept an award from the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation on behalf of Chen, according to AIDS advocate Hu Jia, the AP/Guardian reports (Bodeen, AP/Guardian, 8/24).

Chen was arrested in China after attempting to bring a class action lawsuit for alleged human rights abuses associated with the enforcement of the country's one-child-per-family policy. Chen recorded testimony from men and women in communities in and around China's Linyi province who experienced forced abortions and sterilizations. In August 2006, he was sentenced by a court in China's Shandong province to four years and three months in prison for allegedly "willfully damaging property" and "organizing a mob to disturb traffic." An appeals court in Shandong in October 2006 ordered a retrial, but the Intermediate People's Court in the province rejected the appeal and upheld the sentence in January (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 6/26).

Yuan "has been detained by police at the airport ... and they declared her passport void," Hu said, adding, "Her phone has since been taken away, so we don't know where she is kept now" (AFP/Yahoo! News, 8/24). Yuan in an interview Thursday said, "I haven't done anything wrong, so I'll give it a try, and if they stop me then it's not my problem." According to Hu, the "biggest loser here is not Yuan Weijing and not the Magsaysay Foundation, but the Chinese government." He added, "This just really shows how bad the human rights situation is here." According to the AP/Guardian, the foundation's Magsaysay award is Asia's version of the Nobel Prize (AP/Guardian, 8/24).

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