China Human Rights Briefing

Human Rights Defender Liu Jie’s Re-education through Labor Decision Upheld

(Chinese Human Rights Defenders, February 22, 2008)- On February 19, Heilongjiang Re-education through Labor (RTL) Management Committee rejected Liu Jie’s (刘杰) application for an administrative review of the decision to send her to the RTL camp. Ms. Liu has decided to appeal. (Click here for the rejection letter in Chinese)

Meanwhile, the RTL authorities have continued to delay its decision over Liu’s application for release for medical treatment. According to a doctor who examined her on December 20, 2007, Liu will go blind if she does not receive proper treatment immediately. The treatment is unavailable in Heilongjiang Province, so she must be sent to Beijing. However, the authorities have refused to consider her application, on the grounds that they have not received the doctor’s report confirming her illness, even though it has already been two months after the examination.

Despite close to being blind, Liu is put to work fourteen hours a day, six days a week at the camp. 

Background

Liu is a veteran rural campaigner and human rights defender currently serving 18 months of RTL in Qiqihaer, Heilongjiang province. She was the lead organizer of a public letter signed by 12,150 petitioners calling on leaders at the 17^th Party Congress to implement political and legal reforms. On October 11, 2007, three days after the letter was released, Liu was seized by Beijing police. On November 12, Liu was sentenced to RTL for "instigating trouble" and "disturbing social order." On December 20, she applied for an administrative review of the decision to send her to RTL.

Because of her activities protecting the human rights of petitioners, she has been beaten a number of times by police from Heilongjiang Provincial Nongken (Military Farm Bureau) Public Security Bureau (PSB). In March 2002, in one of such beatings, she suffered permanent eye injuries and drastically reduced vision. Between October and November 2007, while in detention, she was again beaten which caused further injuries to her eyes.

About Re-education through Labor

RTL is an administrative detention measure, according to which, without any proper legal procedures or trial, individuals can be sent to detention facilities for forced labor for a maximum of four years. Although detainees have the right to appeal by filling for an administrative review, they could only do so after the decision is made to send them to a RTL camp. However, rarely does an administrative review successfully overturn the decision to send an individual to RTL.

For more information, please visit:

Human Rights Defender Liu Jie Denied Treatment for Eye Illness at RTL Camp (December 28, 2007)

Human Rights Defender Liu Jie Sentenced to Re-Education through Labor (November 14, 2007)

Police Detain Organizers of Open Letter to 17th Party Congress (October 23, 2007)