Freedom of Religion or Belief in full – A blog by CSW
拥挤的医院大厅、奔忙的穿戴全身防护的医护人员、躺在走廊里的病人、堆放在医院外殡葬车上的尸袋……2020 年 2 月初，57 岁的商人方斌驾车在武汉市内转悠，记录下了他在五家医院的所见所闻。他在社交媒体上发布的短视频让人们难得一见地看到疫情中心地带发生的一切。
2020 年 2 月 1 日，方斌被警方短暂拘留。获释后，他变得更加敢言。在社交媒体上广泛传播的视频中，他直言不讳地说：“病毒的根源是暴政！” 几天后，2 月 9 日，他在 YouTube（一个在中国被禁止的社交媒体平台）上呼吁“全民反抗”、要求当局“还政于民”后消失。
Continue reading “一个破碎了24年的家庭——法轮功维权人士方斌的故事”方斌、张展和另外至少两名公民记者的先后失踪引起了全世界媒体的关注。尽管当局知道方斌及其妻子是资深法轮功维权人士，但很多熟悉的朋友在呼吁释放方斌时，选择不提他的信仰背景。他们可能意识到中国社会仍对法轮功这一信仰团体存在某种歧视，或者担心当局对方斌抓捕判刑可能不基于其网络言论而基于其信仰，他甚至可能因之遭到当局酷刑。
‘Today, I received terrible news that our dream of reunion has once again been dashed.’
On 22 May 2023, Jin Bianling learnt that her husband Jiang Tianyong’s applications for a passport and a travel pass for Hong Kong and Macau had been turned down again. It had been ten years since the disbarred award-winning human rights lawyer was separated from his wife and daughter.
Being blocked from leaving China by the authorities has become common under Xi Jinping’s rule. Some have had their passport applications or renewals turned down, others have been stopped at the airport by police, such as the exiled activist Lin Shengliang’s 12-year-old daughter, while still others have had their boarding passes torn up by airport security guards. In the case of 80-year-old historian and writer Zhang Yihe, just a word from one of the government departments was enough to bar her from leaving China. She revealed on 8 June 2023 that she had become ‘a prisoner of the state’ as of the day before, unable to travel abroad.
Continue reading “‘Worse than physical torture’ – how China uses exit bans to inflict suffering on human rights defenders and their loved ones”
“三个警察来了，要把我带走。不能再发信息了。”
张春晓回忆说，这是2023年7月28日她丈夫在老挝被拘留前对她说的最后的话。
卢思位是在试图前往泰国时被老挝警方带走的，他原本计划到泰国搭乘飞往美国的航班。其妻张春晓及 14 岁的女儿等候与他团聚。
卢先生是中国著名的人权律师，因多年来代理被中国当局视为异议人士而抓捕的政治案件，其律师证于 2021 年被当局吊销。
Continue reading “中国，停止跨境打压人权捍卫者”
‘Three policemen have come. They want to take me away. I can’t send you messages anymore.’
Zhang Chunxiao recalled these as the last words her husband left her before his detention in Laos on Friday 28 July 2023.
Lu Siwei was taken by Lao police while trying to travel to Thailand, where he would board a flight to the United States to reunite with Zhang and their 14-year-old daughter.
Mr Lu is a well-known Chinese human rights lawyer, whose license was revoked by authorities in 2021 following years of representing clients deemed to be dissidents by the authorities.
Continue reading “China, stop targeting overseas human rights defenders”
It is believed that more than 300,000 people have fled Cuba since nationwide protests swept the country on 11 July 2021. Many of them are religious leaders, journalists, human rights defenders and others who were given no choice but to leave the island under intense pressure from the Cuban government. CSW’s Into Exile series tells some of their stories.
Pastor Alaín Toledano Valiente and his wife, Marilín Alayo Correa, led Emanuel Church, one of the largest churches in terms of attendees in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba for 20 years. As part of the charismatic Protestant Christian network known as the Apostolic Movement, which the government refuses to register, Pastor Toledano, his family and his church were subjected to two decades of intense harassment at the hands of the authorities.
Their church building was demolished on two separate occasions by the government, and Pastor Toledano and his wife were regularly subjected to summonses, interrogations and short term arbitrary detention. Meanwhile, their daughters have been the targets of bullying and violence at school, orchestrated by school officials with the backing of Cuban State Security. In August 2019 he was threatened with imprisonment if his church went ahead with a planned event for women. In October 2021, officials informed him that a criminal case had been prepared against him, meaning he could be arrested and imprisoned at any time.
Continue reading “Into Exile: Alaín Toledano Valiente”