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THANK YOU for supporting human rights change in China

Sophie 9 December 2008, 08:18AM

The year gave us some successes, alot of reason for hope and we were able to show solidarity with human rights defenders in China. The Chinese Government did not live up to its Olympic promises and the International Olympic Committee were put into difficult positions as it became clear that China was not making the changes it had committed to.
However, there were some significant changes and we continue to see the positive effects of the international spotlight. Here's a wrap up of how we saw 2008:

Highlights from the campaign

  • Over 30,000 people signed the China pledge
  • The ‘Great Firewall of China’ action toured 48 cities towns and more than 16,000 people took action
  • 17,837 postcards were sent to major Internet companies
  • 8,606 people signed postcards to prisoners of conscience in China
  • 767,723 searches were performed through ‘Search for Freedom’
  • Uncensor.com.au has been visited 48,491 times from 149 countries. This includes 1,117 visits from within China

What’s changed in China?

  • New media regulations allowing easier access for foreign journalists during the Games have been extended indefinitely.
  • Amnesty International and other major websites remain unblocked in China. Within the first three days after the ban was lifted, amnesty.org was visited 14,251 times from 244 cities across China.
  • Bu Dongwei was released earlier than his sentence time and has made it safely to the USA to be with his wife there, Mao Hengfeng another prisoner of conscience was also released.
  • Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! have signed a set of Principles for Conduct.
  • Shi Tao now receives much better treatment in prison, access to books and radio and family visits.

Goodbye to Uncensor.com.au

As the Uncensor campaign draws to a close, the Uncensor website – uncensor.com.au – will also end on 10 December 2008.
We will continue to keep a close watch on human rights in China and keep you informed through our website amnesty.org.au

What’s next?

Amnesty International in Australia will continue our long-term and urgent action work with prisoners of conscience imprisoned or at risk in China.

Globally, we will continue working on the issues of internet censorship, the death penalty, fair trials, torture in detention and defending human rights defenders across the Asia-Pacific including China.

Join our Human Rights Day celebrations

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR60).

Join Amnesty International as we celebrate the wonderful achievements of the last 60 years and look ahead to the challenges in the future.

Check out these pages for more information.

We look forward to your continuing support for human rights in 2009!

About the Author

This blog entry was created by Sophie and does not necessarily represent the position or opinion of Amnesty International Australia.

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After long-term imprisonment for speaking publicly about human rights issues, Wei Jingsheng was finally released with help from Amnesty International.

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