As soon as we meet with partners, whether it be in Central America, Africa or Asia, who work on human rights, the rights of peasants and aboriginal communities, the Canadian mining companies are always denounced as a major problem.

I talked about the human rights violations, the labour rights violations, the forced and violent displacement from land.

It said that there had been results under the Chinese Supreme Court’s Second Five-Year Reform Plan in several areas. These included reforming the system of court adjudication committees and the system of criminal evidence, attempts to reform the prison system and extend the practice of individual investigations, improvements to the advisory and legal aid system, public hearings in cases where the death penalty is being considered in a court of second instance, sound or video recordings of hearings to prevent torture, avoidance of overlong detention periods through better supervision mechanisms and smoother reporting channels, the protection of farmers’ rights and improvements to legislation on the right to work, and the protection of the rights of vulnerable p ...[+++]opulation groups, including opportunities for the partially abled and disabled for rehabilitation and work.

61. Deplores the recent crackdown by Chinese officials on defence lawyers aimed at stamping out legal challenges to their authority; calls upon the Chinese authorities to reveal the whereabouts of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, one of China's most outspoken lawyers and dissidents who is held on suspicion of criminal activity, and to release him unless he is to be charged with a recognised criminal offence; similarly calls for the release of Chen Guangcheng, a peasants' rights advocate who has helped citizens in their attempts to sue their local authorities for carrying out forced abortions and sterilisations and who was sentenced to ...[+++] more than four years in prison, and of Bu Dongwei, who has been assigned to two and a half years of 'Re-education through Labour' (RTL) and who is detained at an undisclosed location; therefore urges the authorities to ensure that all human rights defenders can carry out peaceful and legitimate activities without fear of arbitrary arrest, torture or ill-treatment and that they be given access to proper legal representation in the event of arrest;

61. Deplores the recent crackdown by Chinese officials on defence lawyers aimed at stamping out legal challenges to their authority; calls upon the Chinese authorities to reveal the whereabouts of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, one of China's most outspoken lawyers and dissidents who is held on suspicion of criminal activity, and to release him unless he is to be charged with a recognised criminal offence; similarly calls for the release of Chen Guangcheng, a peasants' rights advocate who has helped citizens in their attempts to sue their local authorities for carrying out forced abortions and sterilisations and who was sentenced to ...[+++] more than four years in prison, and of Bu Dongwei, who has been assigned to two and a half years of 'Re-education through Labour' (RTL) and who is detained at an undisclosed location; therefore urges the authorities to ensure that all human rights defenders can carry out peaceful and legitimate activities without fear of arbitrary arrest, torture or ill-treatment and that they be given access to proper legal representation in the event of arrest;

– Mr President, I would like to propose the following oral amendment: ‘Calls upon the Chinese authorities to reveal the whereabouts of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng and to release him unless he is to be charged with a recognised criminal offence; similarly calls for the release of Chen Guangcheng, who has helped citizens in their attempts to sue their local authorities for carrying out forced abortions and sterilisations, and of Bu Dongwei, who has been assigned to two and a half years of “Re-education through Labour” (RTL) and who is detained at an undisclosed location; therefore urges the authorities to ensure that all human right ...[+++]s defenders can carry out peaceful and legitimate activities without fear of arbitrary arrest, torture or ill-treatment and that they be given access to proper legal representation in the event of arrest; ’.