Parliament Website

Legal Community In China

EDM number 859 in 2015-16, proposed by Ann Clwyd on 14/12/2015.
Categorised under the topics of Asia, Human rights and Legal profession.

That this House is very concerned about China's country-wide crackdown against lawyers and the legal community, with hundreds of criminal defence and human rights lawyers, law firm staff, family members and lay advocates being subjected to wrongful arrests and prosecutions, arbitrary and incommunicado detentions and enforced disappearances without judicial oversight, and over 20 still missing or detained; notes that the trial of lawyer Pu Zhiqiang on charges of inciting ethnic hatred and picking quarrels and provoking trouble for comments made on social media, some of which questioned the authorities' excessively violent crackdown on Uighurs in Xinjiang, has been marred by repeated procedural irregularities and ended with no verdict being announced, though he faces up to eight years in prison if convicted; further notes in connection with that trial that diplomats were denied entry to the courtroom and that police and plain clothes security officials pushed and harassed journalists and cameramen near the courthouse entrance; believes that the crackdown on these lawyers in China effectively denies the right to legal representation for Chinese people and groups seeking remedies for other rights violations; and calls on the Government to be more forthright in its condemnation of Chinese President Xi Jinping's crackdown on lawyers, campaigners and journalists who challenge the Chinese government and China's failure to adhere to its international human rights obligations and to uphold the rule of law.

This motion has been signed by a total of 16 MPs.

MPDateConstituencyPartyType
Ann Clwyd14/12/2015Cynon ValleyLabourProposed
Jim Cunningham15/12/2015Coventry SouthLabourSeconded
Jim Shannon15/12/2015StrangfordDUPSeconded
Mark Durkan15/12/2015FoyleSocial Democratic and Labour PartySeconded
Tom Brake16/12/2015Carshalton and WallingtonLiberal DemocratSeconded
Margaret Ritchie16/12/2015South DownSocial Democratic and Labour PartySeconded
Michael Weir16/12/2015AngusScottish National PartySigned
Lady Hermon16/12/2015North DownIndependentSigned
Helen Hayes17/12/2015Dulwich and West NorwoodLabourSigned
Dennis Skinner17/12/2015BolsoverLabourSigned
Liz Saville Roberts05/01/2016Dwyfor MeirionnyddPlaid CymruSigned
Mark Williams06/01/2016CeredigionLiberal DemocratSigned
Mary Glindon06/01/2016North TynesideLabourSigned
Virendra Sharma06/01/2016Ealing, SouthallLabourSigned
Caroline Lucas11/01/2016Brighton, PavilionGreenSigned
Helen Goodman15/03/2016Bishop AucklandLabourSigned

Download raw data as csv or xml.