Chen Discusses How China’s Human Rights Violations Threaten Global Justice

Last week Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng released an article on Public Discourse where he discusses the next human rights revolution- writing on the abuses taking place in China.  His article highlights how China’s barbaric violations of human dignity threaten justice not only in China but across the world.

He asserts that if we all ignore a totalitarian regime enslaving an entire people none of us can achieve justice or true civilization.

Chen shot to international fame last year after escaping house arrest and the brutal abuse of the Chinese officials who kept him, and his family, captive.  He fled to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.  Chen and his family were ultimately able to come to the United States after days of negotiations between our State Department and senior Chinese officials.

Chen has long been known for his activism in China, especially on behalf of women and the poor. He is best known for his 2005 class action law suit in which he exposed the coercive nature of the population control authorities in Shandong Province who enforced China’s horrific One-Child Policy through a program of forced abortions and forced sterilizations. It was due to his work on this case that Chen was ultimately arrested and placed under house arrest.

Since arriving in the States, Chen has been studying at New York University.  However this October it was announced that Chen will now serve as Distinguished Senior Fellow in Human Rights at the Witherspoon Institute, as well as Visiting Fellow of the Institute for Policy Research and Catholic Studies at the Catholic University of America and Senior Distinguished Advisor to the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice.