Against the Law – Crackdown on China’s Human Rights Lawyers Deepens

Every year members of the legal profession in China have to undergo an ‘Annual Assessment’ which many believe has no legal basis under Chinese law. Local authorities assess law firms, while individual lawyers are assessed by supposedly independent lawyers associations. Lawyers who dare to take up ‘sensitive’ cases, such as human rights cases, often fail this assessment, which leads to their licence being suspended or revoked. 

When annual assessment or threats fail to deter lawyers taking on such cases, lawyers are silenced by the authorities in ways that violate international human rights standards, and even China’s own laws. 

The pressure, intimidation and persecution faced by human rights lawyers have kept their numbers down. Out of more than 204,000 lawyers in China, only a brave few hundred risk taking on cases that deal with human rights. 

New regulations introduced in 2009-2010 prohibit lawyers from defending certain clients, commenting on their work to the media or challenging court malpractice, and expand the basis for lawyers to be charged with crimes of “inciting subversion” when carrying out legal defence. 

The measures have made legal representation more difficult to find for those who need it most.