Detention Of Trade Unionists And Workers' Rights Advocates In Guangzhou

EDM number 962 in 2015-16, proposed by George Kerevan on 14/01/2016.
Categorised under the topics of Asia and Human rights.

That this House notes with concern the detention by the Chinese authorities of leading trade union activists and workers' rights advocates in Guangzhou, China, despite none of those involved having advocated or taken part in any violent acts; further notes well-verified sources quoted in the Financial Times and New York Times explaining these arrests as the authorities' response to rising labour unrest in southern China; notes that normally well-informed Hong Kong civil rights circles have described this as the harshest crackdown against organised labour in China in two decades; notes that those detained include Zeng Feiyang, lawyer and director of the Panyu Workers' Centre in Guangzhou, Zhu Xiaomei, labour organiser and He Xiaobo, member of an NGO in Foshan that aids workers injured in industrial accidents; condemns the fact that those known to have been detained have been denied contact with their lawyers; calls on President Xi Jinping and the Chinese authorities to respect and enforce the fundamental labour and democratic rights enshrined in the International Labour Organisation Convention; and further calls on the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to make urgent representations to the Chinese government regarding the treatment of those detained.

This motion has been signed by a total of 28 MPs.