Whereas on December 21, 1998, a Hangzhou court sentenced Wang Youcai to 11 years in prison for "plotting to overthrow state power"; Mr. Wang

was attempting to establish the China Democracy Party; during his trial he was permitted no legal representation because Chinese security personnel intimidated his lawyer;

Whereas on December 22, 1998, Beijing’s No. 1 Intermediate Court sentenced Xu Wenli to 13 years in prison after a three hour trial for "plotting to overthrow state power"; Mr. Xu was attempting to establish the China Democracy Party; when Mr. Xu rose to speak in his own defense, he was shouted down by the trial judge; his prison sentence was imposed in 20 minutes;

Whereas on December 22, 1998, a Wuhan court sentenced Qing Yongming to 12 years in prison for "plotting to overthrow state power"; he was attempting to establish the China Democracy Party; during his trial he was permitted no legal representation because Chinese security personnel intimidated his lawyer;

Whereas on December 27, 1998, a Xupu County court sentenced Zhang Shanguang to 10 years in prison for passing information to Radio Free Asia; the information was about farmer protests over high taxes in Xupu province, where one of the demonstrations ended in violence;

Whereas on January 20, 1999, the Shanghai Intermediate People's Court sentenced Lin Hai to two years in prison for "inciting the overthrow of state power"; Mr. Lin supplied Internet VIP Reference Magazine with 30,000 e-mail addresses; in addition to his prison sentence he was fined $1,200; the "tools of his crime" were also confiscated, including two desktop computers, one laptop, a modem and a telephone;

Whereas in 1995 Cheng Meng was sentenced to 12 years in prison for "betrayal of state secrets"; Mr. Chen transmitted a confidential file named "49 Especially Controlled Exiles and Members of Reactionary Organizations" to the overseas media in 1995; this action exposed the fact that the Chinese government was denying democracy dissidents the right to return to their homeland; while in prison Mr. Cheng contracted hepatitis B and C; until recently he was denied any medical treatment whatsoever; currently he is experiencing cirrhosis of the liver;

Whereas on December 21, 1998, Zhou Yongjun, a founder of the Free China Movement and a member of the executive committee, disappeared while visiting his parents inside China; later it was confirmed by sources in Taiwan that he was arrested; Mr. Zhou had been working in New York City for the past six years; neither his family nor his friends have heard from him since the date of his disappearance;

Whereas in October, 1998, the Government of the People's Republic of China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the world's leading human rights treaty, ratified to date by 137 countries, including the United States;

Whereas under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which the Government of the People's Republic is bound by law to observe, a State "is obligated to refrain from acts which would defeat the object and purpose of a treaty when... it has signed the treaty or.... until it shall have made its intention clear not to become a party to the treaty";

Whereas Article 22 of the ICCPR provides that "[e]veryone shall have the right to freedom of association.... [and that] no restrictions may be placed on the exercise of this right other than those which are prescribed by law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national society or public safety.... or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others."

Whereas the right to freedom of association is also guaranteed under Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR);

Whereas the European Commission on Human Rights has previously held that the refusal to register an organization and, by implication, a political party, could constitute an interference with the right of freedom of association; therefore, the right to form a political party is a matter of settled international law, and therefore an implicit right guaranteed under Article 22 of the ICCPR;

Whereas the arrests and prison sentences of Wang Youcai, Xu Wenli and Qing Yongming for attempting to register the China Democracy Party constitute a violation of Article 22 of the ICCPR;

Whereas Article 19 of the ICCPR also guarantees "the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print... or through any other media of his choice";

Whereas the arrest and prison sentence of Zhang Shanguang for passing information to Radio Free Asia about farmer protests, and the arrest and prison sentence of Lin Hai for supplying 30,000 e-mail addresses to VIP Reference Magazine, constitute de facto human rights violations under Article 19 of the ICCPR;

Whereas while the arrest and prison sentence of Cheng Meng for transmitting a confidential file to the overseas media was handed down prior to the signing of the ICCPR by the People's Republic of China, Mr. Cheng’s arrest and sentence nevertheless violates the letter and spirit of Article 19 of the ICCPR, as well as contravenes Article 19 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which asserts the right of everyone "to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers"; the UDHR shrines the international human rights standards of the United Nations, of which the People's Republic of China is a founding member;

Whereas Article 10 of the ICCPR guarantees that "[a]ll persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity"; under Article 7 of the ICCPR, "[n]o one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment"; the prolonged denial of humane and essential medical assistance to Mr. Cheng in prison constitutes de facto human rights violations of under Articles 10 and 7 of the ICCPR;

Whereas Wang Youcai and Qing Yongming were convicted and sentenced to prison without the benefit of legal counsel; under Article 14 of the ICCPR, everyone is entitled to "communicate with counsel of his own choosing," and "[t]o be tried in his presence, and to defend himself.... through legal assistance of his own choosing"; the denial of counsel to the defendants during the course of their trials constitutes de facto human rights violations under Article 14 of the ICCPR;

Whereas Xu Wenli rose to speak in his own defense during his 3 hour trial, the trial judge shouted him down; under Article 14 of the ICCPR, everyone has a right "to defend himself in person"; the denial of the right to defend himself constitutes a de facto human rights violation under Article 14 of the ICCPR;

Whereas Article 9 of the ICCPR provides that "[a]nyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge shall be brought promptly before a judge or other officer authorized by law to exercise judicial power and shall be entitled to trial within a reasonable time or to release. It shall not be the general rule that persons awaiting trial shall be detained in custody.... [a]nyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings before a court, in order that that court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his detention and order his release if the detention is not lawful";

Whereas the disappearance of Zhou Yongjun inside China and his subsequent arrest, and the failure of the Chinese government to bring Mr. Zhou to trial, constitutes a de facto human rights violation under the Article 9 of the ICCPR;

Whereas the 1.5 year sentence of "detention for the purposes of education" imposed on Peng Ming by the Chinese police without due process, constitutes a de facto human rights violation under Article 9 of the ICCPR;

Resolved, That it is the sense of the international NGO community that the U.N. Commission on Human Rights

2) should urge the People's Republic of China to release Wang Youcai, Xu Wenli, Qing Yongming, Zhang Shanguang and Lin Hai from prison, and to support the registration and formation of the China Democracy Party;

3) should urge the People’s Republic of China to release Cheng Meng from prison on humanitarian grounds, and continue to provide him with medical assistance;

4) should urge the People’s Republic of China to reveal the whereabouts of Zhou Yongjun, and allow him the right to due process; and

5) should urge the People’s Republic of China to grant Peng Ming the right to due process;

6) should publicly demonstrate its support and encouragement for peaceful political reform in the People’s Republic of China, including the transition to a multi-party system;

7) should ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as soon as practicable.