Dui Hua Launches New Website as Need for China Dialogue Grows

SAN FRANCISCO (January 12, 2012) — Dui Hua, a nonprofit organization with 13 years of experience promoting respect for human rights in China, today announces the launch of its new website, www.duihua.org, to better communicate its ongoing and expanded mission. The need for dialogue and accessible information is crucial, as there are now more people incarcerated in China for political reasons than at any time since 1989, the year of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Articles on China’s criminal justice system and Dui Hua’s work advancing the rights of at-risk detainees are now featured on a dynamic homepage. A more intuitive menu organizes content on Dui Hua’s four areas of focus—political and religious prisoners, juvenile justice, women in prison, and criminal justice; five-pronged, dialogic approach; and history, from its founding by businessman-cum-activist John Kamm in 1999.

For research professionals, officials, diplomats, and others with a scholarly interest, the website’s Research Resources page provides links and information on Dui Hua publications, databases, and official testimonies and statements. For media professionals, the Press page offers a complete archive of Dui Hua press statements and selected media coverage in a variety of formats.

Fostering the dialogue with Dui Hua’s friends and supporters, the new website also provides a list of ways to Get Involved. Job openings, internship and volunteer opportunities, and events are featured. Direct paths to making online donations and information on other ways to contribute to Dui Hua’s work are available on the Give page.

"Transparency and access are important to our advocacy work, and they should be equally important to our website," says John Kamm, founder and executive director of Dui Hua. "With this new web launch, Dui Hua hopes to make its mission and efforts clear to help advance informed, mutually respectful human rights dialogue with China."

Dui Hua will launch its new website on Thursday, January 12, 2012, US Pacific Standard Time. During the update links may still be directed to old website content. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Dui Hua Estimates 4,000 Executions in China, Welcomes Open Dialogue

SAN FRANCISCO (December 12, 2011) — On December 1 through 3, 2011, a seminar on the death penalty was held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province in eastern China. The seminar was jointly organized by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, assisted by the Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The seminar is believed to be the first time a meeting focusing on the death penalty was organized in a UN forum in China. More than 30 Chinese scholars and officials whose work involves implementing and monitoring policies on the death penalty joined a group of three western experts and two UN officials at the seminar.

Topics addressed were wide-ranging. Chinese participants reiterated China’s long-term goal of abolishing the death penalty, but there was disagreement over when abolition would occur. There was support for further reducing the scope of the death penalty by removing more offenses from the list of capital crimes and lowering the upper age limit for eligibility. (The National People’s Congress set the age limit to 75 and removed capital punishment as a penalty for 13 crimes in February 2011.) At present 55 offenses in China’s Criminal Law are punishable by death. Participants agreed that more work needs to be done to rigorously define “the most serious crimes”—the only offenses for which the death penalty can be imposed under Article 6.2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which China is a signatory—and reduce the possibility of wrongful conviction.

There was widespread agreement that greater transparency is needed, but none of the Chinese participants—several of whom are believed to have access to statistics on death verdicts and executions—disclosed the number of executions being carried out in China. Nevertheless a key statistic was revealed: since the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) regained the power to conduct final review over death sentences on January 1, 2007, the number of executions has dropped by approximately 50 percent. It was also revealed that the SPC currently overturns about 10 percent of the death sentences it reviews each year (see seminar participant William Schabas’ blog for his account of the seminar and these statistics, as well as his suggestion that China abstain instead of voting “no” when the UN holds its next vote on a global death penalty moratorium).

On the eve of the seminar, a participant, Professor Liu Renwen, told an audience in Suzhou that in the four years since the SPC recommenced death-penalty review, the number of executions had declined by more than 50 percent. According to a 2006 media report, Professor Liu estimated that there were around 8,000 executions a year at that time. Dui Hua, a nonprofit humanitarian organization which regularly publishes its own estimates, also put the number at 8,000 in 2006. Xinhua, China’s official news agency, reported in 2008 that an “international human rights organization” estimated that as of 2007, China executed at least 8,000 people a year. Using this data and assuming a 50 percent drop, Dui Hua now estimates that approximately 4,000 executions take place in China every year.

“China has made dramatic progress in reducing the number of executions, but the number is still far too high and declining far too slowly,” said John Kamm, executive director of Dui Hua. “At the present rate of decline it will take many years for the government to reach its goal of abolishing the death penalty. The seminar jointly held by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a step towards greater openness and transparency. When officials and the public know the full extent of the death penalty in China, abolition will be achieved more quickly.”

Video: Kamm Testifies before House Committee on Foreign Affairs

On November 3, 2011, the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the US House of Representatives held its first-ever hearing on the annual report of the Congressional Executive Commission on China. Dui Hua Executive Director John Kamm was among the handful of panelists testifying before the committee. Watch him explain how political prisoners face separate and unequal treatment in China's criminal justice system.

Testimony can be downloaded here (PDF).

Kamm Speaks at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights

On November 15, 2011, Executive Director John Kamm will give a seminar on “Recent Developments in Human Rights in China and the draft Criminal Procedure Law” at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights in Oslo, Norway. The seminar, open to all, will be held at Auditorium 1, 1st Floor, Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, Cort Adelers Gate 30, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. In August, China posted draft amendments to its Criminal Procedure Law (CPL). The draft has stimulated much debate, both inside China and by international commentators and organizations. Kamm will examine the draft CPL in the context of other human rights developments in China—including positive trends (e.g., development of a juvenile justice system), negative trends (e.g., enhanced police powers to impose residential surveillance), and those that cut both ways (e.g., increased use of bail as a control mechanism). Please register by sending an email to yi.wang@nchr.uio.no. Simple lunch, coffee and tea will be served during the break.

Kamm Speaks at US-Asia Law Institute

On November 10, 2011, Executive Director John Kamm will be the principal guest at the weekly US-Asia Law Institute (USALI) lunch, an informal event closed to a group of about twenty people from the USALI group.

Kamm Speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations

On November 11, 2011, Executive Director John Kamm will speak at a closed roundtable discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He will be introduced by Professor Jerome A. Cohen, senior fellow for Asia Studies at CFR and an eminent expert in Chinese law. Kamm’s talk, “At Risk: Treatment of Political Prisoners, Juvenile Offenders and Women Prisoners in China's Justice System,” will focus on the treatment of prisoners convicted of endangering state security, while also addressing the expanded areas of work in Dui Hua’s new mission.

Kamm Speaks at the Paul M. Montrone Seminar Series on Ethics at Columbia Business School

On November 10, 2011, Executive Director John Kamm will speak at The Paul M. Montrone Seminar Series on Ethics, hosted by the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics at Columbia Business School. The event, closed to around twenty students of the school, will be in the form of a roundtable dinner discussion, allowing for a deeper level of conversation.

Kamm Speaks at Westport Public Library

On November 8, 2011, Executive Director John Kamm will speak at the Westport Public Library, Connecticut, on “US-China Relations in an Election Year.” 2012 will be a year of leadership transition—including the US presidential, Senate, and House elections, and China’s change in top Communist Party leadership. During this time of uncertainty, America’s focus on China’s trade, security, and human rights practices is bound to increase.

Kamm Speaks at Timothy Gelatt Dialogue at New York University School of Law

On November 7, 2011, Executive Director John Kamm will take part in the Timothy A. Gelatt Dialogue, hosted by New York University School of Law’s US-Asia Law Institute. The event, open to the public, will run from 2:00 to 6:00p.m., with a reception following the dialogue. Professor Jerome A. Cohen, co-director of the US-Asia Law Institute and an eminent expert in Chinese law, will serve as moderator and commentator.