This page is devoted to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and materials that lean toward activist involvement with current human rights issues, rather than academic discussion and analysis. This is at best a fuzzy line to draw, but may nonetheless be of some use in understanding the many perspectives on human rights in China.

General Human Rights NGOs and their Reports

• Amnesty International 2003 Annual Report, China section
  • See also Amnesty's page with all China documents
  • See also Amnesty reports on the death penalty, religion, and torture on the Topical Areas page of this website.
• Human Rights Watch 2008 Annual Report, China & Tibet section
  • 2007 World Report, China and Tibet section
  • Comments and criticisms on China's 2001 white paper on human rights.
  • Other press releases and reports on China by Human Rights Watch.
  • A new Asia Watch report: "Dangerous Minds: Political Psychiatry in China Today and its Origins in the Mao Era."
    • A Chinese translation of a briefer version of this report, on the HRIC site.
  • A report on North Korean refugees in China.
  • See also the HRW reports on religion on the Topical Areas page of this website.
• Human Rights First has a number of sections regarding world-wide issues, including Human Rights Defenders in China.

Asia- and/or China-Specific Human Rights NGOs

• Human Rights in China (HRIC). Founded in March 1989, this organization monitors the status of activists within China, campaigns on behalf of human rights and democracy in China, and engages in human rights education.
  • HRIC publishes an online journal in Chinese, Ren yu Renquan (Humanity and Human Rights).
    • See also the essays by philosopher Guo Luoji collected on the Texts page of this website.
  • HRIC also publishes a quarterly journal, the China Rights Forum
  • HRIC has issued a brief comment, in Chinese, on the recent CECC Annual Report (on which see the Government section of this website).
  • HRIC has a report on migrants: "Institutionalized Exclusion: The tenuous legal status of internal migrants in China's major cities"
    • A Chinese summary of the report is available here.
  • See also the HRIC report on torture, referenced on the Topical Areas page of this website.
  • See also the HRIC discussion of UN, regional, and national "dialogues" with China on human rights, referenced on the Topical Areas page of this website.
• Asian Human Rights Comission (AHRC). The AHRC was founded in 1986 by a group of jurists and human rights activists in Asia. It promotes human rights awareness and seeks to mobilize public opinion to relieve human rights violations. It also sponsored the Asian Human Rights Charter.
  • Asia Human Rights Charter in English: on the web or as an Adobe Acrobat file
  • Asia Human Rights Charter in Chinese
  • See also this recent article about the Charter: "Asian Human Rights: Forming a Regional Covenant," by Seth R. Harris
• The Duihua Foundation, founded in 1999 by John Kamm to improve human rights by means of a well-informed dialogue conducted between the United States and China.
  • Tina Rosenberg's New York Times article on John Kamm and Duihua, "John Kamm's Third Way."
• Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR). Established on December 10, 1984, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR) is the oldest independent human rights organization in Taiwan. Its goals include education, insitution-building, and activism regarding specific issues.
  • For information in English, click here
  • In December 1999, twenty-two NGOs, including TAHR, formed a coalition to push for the establishment of a National Human Rights Comission, the draft proposal for which we translated in the Reader. The idea of establishing a commission has been taken favorably up by the government of Chen Shuibian who in October 2000 set up a President's Advisory Group on Human Rights; his speech on this occasion is also translated in the Reader.
    • For Chen's and other official comments on setting up a National Human Rights Commission, see the Taiwan section of this site's Governmental Documents page.
    • Mab Huang, a member of TAHR and the author of one text translated in the Reader, also gave a speech (in English) at the conference on the background to the National Human Rights Commission idea.
• Hong Kong Human Rights Commission. The Commission is a coalition of eleven non-governmental organizations including religious, community, women's, and students' groups. It was founded in March 1988. Since it was founded, in addition to lobbying for the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments to the law at local level, the Commission has also submitted reports to UN treaty bodies and promoted human rights education through exhibitions, gatherings in schools, and community centres.
  • The Commission's main site in Chinese.
  • The Commission website contains discussions of a wide range of local human rights issues, selected publications and reports, and other materials.
• Information Center for Human Rights & Democracy. Based in Hong Kong, this Center uses a network of informants throughout China to gather information and report on human rights issues in China.
  • English information is available here.
• Tibetan Information Network. A news and research service specializing on Tibet, whose coverage includes human rights issues.
• Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor. Established in April 1995, this an independent, non-partisan organisation. It aims to promote better human rights protection in Hong Kong, both in terms of law and of practical life, and to encourage greater human rights awareness through education. It maintains a database of treaties, laws, and other documents related to Hong Kong and human rights, in both English and Chinese.
  • The Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor also issues regular reports on human rights-related issues and events in Hong Kong.

Other Activist Materials

• The Gate of Heavenly Peace website explores the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and related topics. It contains extensive information about the 1989 protests, along with background material on recent Chinese history and human rights issues. The site has over 1200 pages in English and 800 pages in Chinese, as well as an "interactive" map of Tiananmen Square and a Media Library with posters, photographs, music and more than fifty video clips.
  • This page deals specifically with human rights.