Joint Statement | Human Rights and Lawyers Groups Call on Governments Worldwide and the Government of Laos to Ensure the Immediate Release of Chinese Human Rights Lawyer Lu Si-wei

(August 1, 2023) According to reports, the Government of Laos arrested and detained prominent Chinese human rights lawyer Lu Si-wei on July 28, 2023. We express grave concern over the risk that Attorney Lu faces forced repatriation to China, where he would likely be subjected to torture and other ill-treatment.

Governments across Southeast Asia have frequently succumbed to pressure, forcibly returning vulnerable individuals to China and thereby exposing them to risks of arbitrary detention, unfair trials, torture, and other ill-treatment. Human rights organizations have documented numerous such cases, ranging from the forced repatriation of Uyghurs from Cambodia in 2009, to the disappearance of Chinese democracy activist Tung Kuang-ping in Vietnam in August 2022, who was subsequently found to be detained in China. Bookseller Gui Minhai disappeared in Thailand in 2015 and later resurfaced in China, with his passport confiscated by the government. In fact, all of these individuals experienced prolonged enforced disappearances, with their families and colleagues often left without news for months or even years.

We urge third-party governments to:

1. Demand that the Government of Laos immediately halt the repatriation of Lu Si-wei, and take prompt action to ensure he has access to UN personnel and counsel of his choice; and
2. Publicly call on the Chinese government to drop any potential charges against Lu Si-wei.

Any handover of Lu Si-wei by the Lao government to the Chinese government would place Lu at severe risk of torture and inhuman treatment. UN human rights experts have repeatedly noted that the Chinese government routinely inflicts torture and inhuman treatment on human rights defenders and lawyers.

Under customary international law and as a state party to the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) since September 2012, the Government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic is bound by the principle of non-refoulement under Article 3 of the Convention, prohibiting the expulsion or return of any person to a state where there are substantial grounds for believing that they would be in danger of being subjected to torture.

We urge the Government of Laos to:

1. Immediately suspend all procedures for the repatriation of Lu Si-wei and release him, in accordance with international human rights obligations;
2. Arrange for him to meet with relevant UN officials and counsel of his own choice;
3. Permit him to meet with diplomatic officials from the United States and other countries as needed, to facilitate his continued journey to the United States to reunite with his family; and
4. Publicly disclose his whereabouts and ensure his personal safety as well as physical and mental well-being until the aforementioned conditions are realized.

Lu Si-wei is a prominent Chinese human rights lawyer and defender who has spoken out for vulnerable groups and represented numerous political dissidents. In recent years, as the Chinese government has exhibited a progressively lower tolerance for rights advocacy, it has subjected Attorney Lu to intimidation and harassment. This included revoking his legal license in January 2021 on the pretext that his online statements "endangered national security"; Attorney Lu was even attacked on his way to the relevant hearing. Since then, Lu Si-wei has been kept under close surveillance by the Chinese government and barred from leaving the country since May 2021.

It is understood that Attorney Lu Si-wei was transiting through Laos in order to travel to the United States to reunite with his family.

Jointly Signing Organizations

(in alphabetical order by English name)

Amnesty International
ALTSEAN-Burma
Asia Democracy Network (ADN)
Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
ARTICLE 19
Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales
Bytes For All, Pakistan
Campaign For Uyghurs
ChinaAid
China Change
Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD)
Civic Initiatives
CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation
Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM)
Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation
CSW
Exile Hub, Thailand, Myanmar
FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Focus on the Global South
Foundation for Media Alternatives
Freedom Seekers International
Free Expression Myanmar
Freiheit für Hongkong e.V.
Fresh Eyes, United Kingdom
Front Line Defenders
Georgetown Center for Asian Law
Gill H. Boehringer, Professor, Chair, Australian Branch, IAPL
Hong Kong Watch
Hongkonger in Deutschland e.V.
Humanitarian China
Human Rights in China
Human Rights Online Philippines (HRonlinePH)
Human Rights Watch
HuMENA for Human Rights and Civic Engagement
ILGA Asia
Indonesia Save Uyghur
Innovation for Change – East Asia
Innovation for Change – South Asia
International Association of People's Lawyers (IAPL) Monitoring Committee on Attacks on Lawyers
International Service for Human Rights (ISHR)
International Society for Human Rights
International Tibet Network Secretariat
Internet Policy Observatory Pakistan
Judicial Reform Foundation
Lawyers for Lawyers
Manushya Foundation
Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA)
New School for Democracy Association
Open Net (Korea)
PakVoices.pk
PEN America
Public Virtue Research Institute
Safeguard Defenders
Social Innovations Advisory
Society of Young Social Innovators (SYSI)
Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet)
Taipei Bar Association Human Rights Committee
Taiwan Bar Association Human Rights Protection Committee
Taiwan Support China Human Rights Lawyers Network
Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy
Tibet Initiative Deutschland e.V.
29 Principles
Uyghur Human Rights Project
Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
Wang Dan, Dialogue China
We The Hongkongers
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT), within the framework of the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders
Young Leadership for Social Change Network