Mao Hengfeng (毛恒凤) petitioned for redress of coercive and abusive implementation of China’s Family Planning Policy. Shuang Shuying (双淑英) petitioned for official intervention in cases of forced eviction. Ye Jinghuan (野靖环) petitioned for a government investigation into an investment scam that cost Chinese workers tens of millions of dollars from their life savings. The response to their exercise of the right to petition, protected under Chinese law: all three are in detention and subject to ongoing abusive treatment, including solitary confinement, physical punishment, and denial of medical treatment. “In the final lead up to the Olympics, instead of cracking down on and rounding up petitioners and other activists, the Chinese authorities need to constructively address the serious problems petitioners are raising,” said Human Rights in China Executive Director Sharon Hom.

In the final lead up to the Olympics, instead of cracking down on and rounding up petitioners and other activists, the Chinese authorities need to constructively address the serious problems petitioners are raising. — Sharon Hom, Executive Director of HRIC

Like many petitioners, these three women are the victims of a range of abusive tactics, including detention, forced retrieval, beatings, surveillance, house arrest, Reeducation-Through-Labor (RTL), forced admission to psychiatric hospitals, and the detention and harassment of family members. “Softer” tactics—restrictions on housing, denial of medical treatment, and forcing signatures on agreements to stop petitioning—are also common. All these tactics directly undermine the lawful right of Chinese citizens to petition the government and violate international law, including obligations under the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

• Mao Hengfeng has been an activist and petitioner for 20 years and is now suffering a range of humiliating abuses in prison. She was dismissed from her soap factory job in 1988 when she refused to abort a second pregnancy, and since that time has petitioned the government for redress on that dismissal and subsequent abuses, including forcible eviction. As a result of her petitioning, she has been detained, forcibly admitted to a psychiatric hospital, and sentenced to RTL. She is now serving two and a half years in prison for having broken two table lamps and other objects while in detention for petitioning in 2006.

Visit HRIC’s Incorporating Responsibility 2008 Olympics Take Action Campaign (http://www.ir2008.org) for more information on these cases and on petitioning.

• Take Action for Mao Hengfeng! (http://www.ir2008.org)
• Take Action for Petitioners in China! (http://www.ir2008.org)

• "Mao Hengfeng Abused in Prison Again," October 29, 2007, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/45402;
• "Mao Hengfeng Protests Abusive Confinement," September 19, 2007, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/45049;
• "Mao Hengfeng Held in Abusive Conditions, Appeal Denied," April 16, 2007, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/35941;
• "Mao Hengfeng Sentenced to 2-1/2 Years for Breaking Lamps," January 16, 2007, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/32149;
• "Crackdown on Activists Leading up to June 4th," May 26, 2006, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/28009;
• "Roundup of Shanghai Rights Activists on Eve of NPC Session,"February 27, 2006, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/27307;
• "Further Crackdown on Petitioner Mao Hengfeng and Others in Beijing and Shanghai," January 3, 2006, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/26504;
• "Family Planning Opponent's Sentence Extended," January 4, 2005, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/19617;
• "Family Planning Opponent subjected to Further Abuse," November 24, 2004, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/18764;
• "One-Child Policy Opponent Tortured," October 5, 2004, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/18912.

For further information on Shuang Shuying, see:

• "HRIC condemns attack on Hua Huiqi in lead up to 17th Party Congress," October 12, 2007, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/45221;
• "Elderly Activist Denied Medical Parole," September 13, 2007, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/44890;
• "Activist's Mother 'Held Hostage' for Information," August 17, 2007, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/44569;
• "Elderly Activist Ill in Prison, Denied Family Visits," June 22, 2007, http://www.hrichina.org/public/contents/42693.