【权利:2168】 合众国际社：中国取消人权律师执业资格

中国取消人权律师的执业资格

合众国际社 记者S.L.Shen

2009年6月17日

 

北京，中国--律师的工作通常包括维护委托人的权利和利益，并在它们受到不法侵害时寻求赔偿。然而，在中国，很多律师却仅仅因为从事这样的本职而被取消执业资格，尤其是他们代理的案件牵涉到人权问题时。为了阻止他们处理敏感案件，当局并使用行政手段，把这一打压人权律师的责任转嫁给了律师事务所。

人权组织说至少有20名人权律师没有通过年度考核，导致他们的执业资格被暂停或者取消。这已严重地影响了至少3家代理人权案件而知名的主要律师事务所。

来自北京高博隆华律师事务所的6名律师，包括知名的人权律师李春富，是这批在上月底律师执照没有获得续期的律师中的一些。此外还有著名的维权律师李和平和江天勇。

在今年三月份，北京忆通律师事务所被处以停业整顿半年的处罚，因为当局指责该所一名成员尚未取得律师执照却违法执业。而事实上，这位李苏滨律师在2001年起诉洛阳市司法局违法收取律师注册费并胜诉，结果自当年起就无法在当局处正常延续他的执业资格。忆通律所称，因为没有完备的执业资格，李苏滨在他们处只是做一些行政上的工作。

香港的中国维权律师关注组主席何俊仁说，由于当局的打压，大陆已经有100多名律师无法通过今年的年度考核。另外一个设在香港的律师组织对这种打压也表达了关注，并督促中国政府对这些律师的执照予以正常续期。

尽管个别的律师在过去曾面临过这样的制裁，但当局采取这种手段来集中威胁或惩罚如此大的一个群体，这还是第一次。当局正采取明确的政策打压利用法律作为武器来反对共产党和政府权威的行为，而维权律师们所受的对待似乎是这项政策中的一环。

这项政策也体现在中国政府6月11日对联合国人权理事会的回应上。理事会的60多个成员在审查了中国人权记录之后，在日内瓦的一个会议上提出了70多项建议，其中包括建立独立的司法体系，保障对法律职业及维权人士。当局对此完全置之不理。

在接手敏感案件，如为地下基督教徒和被禁止的法轮功的练习者辩护时，律师们会被看做把自己摆在了当局的对立面上。

其他的敏感案件会牵涉到在腐败官员手上受到伤害或遇不公正待遇的人。这些人包括土地被征收的农民和家园被拆迁的城镇居民--他们都没有得到合适的补偿。

去年中国经历了两大悲剧：一是5月12日的地震，导致了数以千计学生的丧生；另一个是三鹿奶粉事件，数以万计的婴儿的健康因此受到了损害，其中一些甚至因此死亡。两次事件中，地方官员都因未能执行安全标准广受指责，而代理受害者的律师则受到了威胁甚至是攻击。

在当下的中国，官员们通常倾向于互相掩盖以免受批评和攻击。在这种情况下，维权人士往往会被视作敌人。唐吉田律师在5月下旬告诉一位外国媒体记者："司法局说人权律师是社会和谐稳定的破坏者"。在6月3日，即六四事件20周年纪念日的前一天，唐律师被国保警察带走并非法羁押。直到6月7日在34名中国律师联署呼吁之后，他才得以重获自由。

当前对律师的打压可能也是对之前事件的回应--官方控制下的北京律师协会的一些会员曾要求在协会内进行直接选举。唐律师说，当几位律师去司法局询问有关他们为什么未通过年度考核时，办公室人员传言说所有支持在北京律协进行直接选举的律师都遇到了这样的问题。

律师年度考核制度是中国独特的官僚控制体系的一部分。所有持照律师每年都必须通过考核，并缴纳从500到5000元数额不等的费用从而继续从事这项职业。通过这个途径，政法当局，包括官方的律师协会，既可以攫取钱财又能有效的打压律师。

司法局基本上对新近被取消执业资格律师的诉求置之不理，声称问题出在律师协会方面或者他们所属的律师事务所身上。律师协会则说它们会就事件展开调查并报告给当局。

在律师事务所方面，根据外电报道，至少有9家律所接到上级通知，让它们或者延迟递交律师年度考核申请，或者刻意为特定的律师提供不完整的文件以使得暂停或者取消执业资格的决定有据可循。甚至，关注人权案件的北京市共信律师事务所全部10名律师--包括其创始人李柏光--都没能通过考核。

在年度考核于5月31日结束前，2名北京律师应家属要求赴地处西南的重庆市调查一名在押人员非自然死亡的可疑案件，却遭到了当地警方的毒打。这件事在律师和公众中引起了强烈的反响。

其他律师面临更不幸的遭遇。曾因接手涉及法轮功和地下基督徒的人权案件后被秘密警察拘禁和虐待的著名律师高智晟自2月4日后再次失踪，人们认为公安人员带走了这名因为捍卫人权而获2008诺贝尔和平奖提名的律师。他的妻子和孩子在3月逃至美国寻求政治避难。

尽管面临不断的打压，很多律师仍然坚持认为他们的努力是值得的。一名被取消执业资格的律师表示，从他的观点看，最近的镇压措施来自于政法系统内"一些顽固的保守派"，而并不一定就是中央政府领导层的命令。他说，即使是中国，也不能抵御世界性的法治潮流。

 

原文：http://www.upiasia.com/Human_Rights/2009/06/17/china_disbars_human_rights_lawyers/5292/

 

China disbars human rights lawyers

 

By S.L. Shen
UPI Correspondent
Published: June 17, 2009

 

Beijing, China -- A lawyer's job generally includes defending his clients' rights and interests, and seeking reparation when these have been unjustly denied or damaged. In China, however, many lawyers are losing their licenses for doing just that, especially if their cases involve human rights.
The authorities seem to want to shift responsibility for this repression onto the country's law firms, keeping their own hands "clean" by using administrative procedures to stop lawyers from handling "sensitive" cases.

 

Human rights groups say that at least 20 human rights lawyers failed to pass an annual performance review, leading to the suspension or cancellation of their licenses. This has adversely affected at least three major law firms known for working on human rights cases.

 

Six lawyers from the Beijing Globe Law Firm, including well-known human rights lawyer Li Chunfu, are among those whose licenses were not renewed when they expired at the end of last month. So are other famous rights defenders including Li Heping and Jiang Tianyong.

 

In March, the Yitong Law Firm in Beijing was forced to shut down for six months, allegedly because one of its members was practicing law without a license. In fact the lawyer in question, Li Subin, has been unable to renew his license since 2001, when he won a case against the Louyang City Bureau of Justice for collecting illegal licensing fees. The law firm claims that he has done only administrative work since losing his license.

 

Albert Ho, chairman of the China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group in Hong Kong, says that more than 100 human rights lawyers across the mainland failed to pass this annual evaluation due to repression from the Chinese authorities. Another lawyers' organization in Hong Kong also expressed concern over this repression and called on the Chinese government to renew the lawyers' licenses.

 

Although individual lawyers have faced this kind of sanction in the past, this is the first time the Chinese authorities have used this method to threaten or punish such a large group at one time. It appears to be part of a clear policy to suppress the use of the law as a weapon against the authority of the Communist Party and the government.

 

This policy was also reflected in the Chinese government's response at a June 11 meeting in Geneva to 70 recommendations by member states during the U.N. Human Rights Council's review of China's human rights record. The recommendations included an independent judiciary, guarantees for the legal profession and protection of human rights defenders, among many others. China rejected them all.

 

Lawyers are seen as positioning themselves against the authorities when they accept "sensitive" cases, such as defending followers of banned religions like the Falun Gong and underground Christian churches.

 

Other sensitive cases involve people who suffered injustice or injury at the hands of corrupt officials. These include farmers whose lands were confiscated and city dwellers whose homes were demolished without proper compensation being paid.

 

Last year saw two major tragedies - the May 12 earthquake in which thousands of schoolchildren died, and the Sanlu Milk Powder scandal in which tens of thousands of babies were sickened, and some died. In both cases local officials were blamed for failing to enforce safety standards. And in both cases lawyers who tried to represent the victims have been intimidated or attacked.

 

In the prevailing Chinese culture, bureaucrats tend to shield one another from criticism and attack. In this context, human rights defenders can be seen as the enemy.

 

"The Judicial Bureau says that human rights lawyers are elements who destroy harmony and stability," lawyer Tang Jitian told a reporter for a foreign media company in late May. Tang was illegally taken into custody in Beijing by national security officers late at night on June 3 - one day ahead of the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown - and then released on June 7 after 34 Chinese lawyers signed an appeal for his release.

 

The current crackdown on lawyers may also be in response to an attempt by some members of the government-controlled Beijing's Lawyers' Association to advocate direct elections within the association. According to Tang, when several human rights lawyers went to the Judicial Bureau to inquire about their failed license renewal, office staff whispered that all those who had advocated direct elections had come in with the same problem.

 

The annual performance review of lawyers is part of China's unique bureaucratic system. All licensed lawyers must pass an examination each year, and pay fees ranging from 500 yuan (US$73) to 5,000 yuan (US$730) in order to continue working in their profession. It is an effective means whereby political and legal authorities, including the official Lawyers' Association, can squeeze money from the lawyers and repress them at the same time.

 

The Judicial Bureau has largely ignored appeals from the newly disbarred lawyers, claiming that responsibility lies either with the Lawyers' Association or their own law firms. The Lawyers' Association has said it will investigate the situation and report to the authorities.

 

As for the law firms, according to foreign media reports at least nine firms were instructed by higher authorities to delay the submission of their lawyers' license renewal requests, or to purposely provide incomplete documents for specific lawyers, so the denials could be justified. Even so, for example, the Gong Xin Law Firm in Beijing, which focuses on human rights issues, found all 10 of its lawyers failed to pass the review, including its founder Li Baiguang.

 

Before the review concluded on May 31, two Beijing lawyers were beaten by local police officers in the southwestern city of Chongqing when they went to investigate the suspicious death of a man in custody, at the request of his family. This incident stirred a strong reaction from other lawyers and the public.

 

Others have suffered worse fates. Noted lawyer Gao Zhishen, who was detained and tortured by secret police after taking on several human rights cases involving members of the Falun Gong and underground Christians, is again missing. He disappeared on February 4, and is believed to have been taken away by public security officers. His wife and children fled in March to the United States, where they have sought political asylum. Gao was nominated for the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to defend human rights.

 

In spite of the ongoing repression, many lawyers still think theirs is a cause worth fighting for. One disbarred lawyer expressed the view that the latest crackdown is the work of "some obstinate conservatives" in the political and legal bureaucracies, not necessarily ordered from the central leadership. Not even China can forever resist the worldwide trend toward the rule of law, he said.

 

 

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