——罗胜春施明磊在第五届人权律师节演讲中文
我叫罗胜春，是1226厦门聚会案被羁押的丁家喜律师的妻子。2013年4月份丁家喜第一次被刑事拘留时，我才得知有人权律师这个群体。之后的8年多，我目睹了人权律师执业的艰难和处境的日益恶化，非常忧心。尤其是过去一年多为家喜，为1226案呼吁的过程里，更进一步切身体会到中国人权律师实在是到了最危险的时刻，必须引起国际社会、国际法律同仁的密切关注和重视。
我叫施明磊，我的丈夫程渊和他的两个同事刘大志、吴葛健雄（长沙公益仨）已经被中共政府任意羁押719天了。程渊是长沙富能NGO创办人。在他们被羁押的前两年，长沙公益仨为中国人权律师的权益倡导和保护做了大量的工作，尤其是吊照的律师。他们为此付出了巨大的代价。现在他们的律师辩护权和通讯权尽被剥夺,包括吴葛健雄被迫解除他自己的父亲吴有水律师。官派律师的身份竟然成为“国家机密”，向家属隐藏。他们仨都面临酷刑的危险。比如在我丈夫被抓的那天，我也被带黑头套和手铐，被威胁，而且被监视居住180天。我们3岁的女儿目睹他的父亲被抓，母亲被威胁。我女儿所在的教会学校也被迫关闭。
我希望国际社会关注中国人权律师和长沙公益仨的困境。
中国人权律师在执业过程中面临日益艰难的处境。以下是我们两个家庭的律师亲自经历到的情况，以及我们从其它案例中了解到的情况：
- 被秘密羁押、强迫失踪，被酷刑，被秘密审判，被超期羁押，如高智晟律师、王全璋律师、余文生律师、李昱函律师。
- 长期非法软禁律师，剥夺其行动自由，即所谓的“释放后无释放”的情况，如江天勇律师。
- 直接阻止律师介入人权案件：常玮平案4位已经接受委托的律师被逼迫退出，丁家喜案2位已经接受委托的律师被逼迫退出，我作为委托人，电话询问近二十位律师能否接受委托，没有收到回复，或直接回复丁家喜案属于敏感案件，司法局不让接受代理。2020年的12港人案也有几个律师签了合同后被逼退。
- 律师在接案前和办案中饱受各种威胁：以不让通过年检、吊销或注销律师执照、以解散事务所、以及以限制律师及家人出境相威胁。在很多情况下把上述威胁变成现实。比如唐吉田律师至今被中国政府限制离境，无法去探望在日本重症监护病房两个多月，生命垂危的女儿唐正琪。
- 不让律师接受采访或者发推特，限制律师就所代理的案件和当事人发表言论。
- 当局任意制定案件密级，强迫律师签署保密协议，否则不允许阅卷，如覃永沛律师案、丁家喜许志永案都出现这种情况。
- 不允许律师复制卷宗，只能看和摘抄，增加律师阅卷难度。
- 律师与当事人会见不能拍照片，不能录音或录像。相反律师和当事人的交谈被非法全程监听。
- 干涉律师按法律程序办案，不允许律师会见当事人，限制律师出庭，或者开庭时禁止或者限制律师充分发言；律师在法庭庭审中进行交叉询问受到阻扰，向法院申请证人出庭不被允许。禁止或限制家属、朋友等旁听庭审。
- 逼迫当事人解除家属委托的律师，不顾家属的反对和抗议，强行指派官派律师。长沙公益仨案6位律师，在侦查期满同一天集体遭到解除，全部被官派律师取代。端点星案，也就是因为备份新冠疫情资料而被抓捕的陈玫、蔡伟案，陈枚的律师梁小军律师被官派律师取代。12港人案中，被告也被指派官派律师。
- 法庭上，公检法人员可以随时攻击、殴打律师，不尊重律师基本的辩护权和个人尊严。举近年的几个例子，卢庭阁律师、黎雄兵律师2017年在四川办案时被法警殴打；王全璋律师2015年在山东出庭时被法警殴打；程海律师在大连、北京、天津办案时被殴打。
- 受不明身份人员攻击：陈科云律师今年四月在广州自己家附近被身份不明的人殴打，报警后不受理，上告无门。李柏光律师2017年在浙江办案时被身份不明的人绑架、殴打。
- 通过骚扰律师家人和相关的人，给人权律师施加压力。如常玮平父母和兄弟姐妹都受到了恐吓；对卢庭阁律师的家属进行骚扰；绑架殴打律师的孩子，如王宇律师的儿子在父母被抓后遭到殴打和软禁；令律师小孩失学，如王全璋、李和平、陈建刚律师的孩子均被学校强迫取消入学资格；向律师的房东施压，逼迫律师搬家；向律师家属的雇主施压，令其失业。
中国人权律师是中国人权捍卫者的坚实后盾，人权律师承受这样大的压力，付出巨大代价，使得在中国捍卫人权更加艰难。中国人权律师的困境应引起国际社会的强烈关注！
附英文：
The Increasing Hardship China’s Human Rights Lawyers Face in Their Practice
My name is Luo Shengchun (罗胜春). I am the wife of lawyer Ding Jiaxi (丁家喜), who was detained in connection with the December 26th Xiamen Gathering case. I first became familiar with the community of human rights lawyers when Ding Jiaxi was detained for the first time in April 2013. Over the next eight years, I bore witness to the difficulties and deteriorating circumstances faced by human rights lawyers in their practice. It is an extremely worrying situation. I was made especially aware of this when I spent the past year and more, appealing for Ding Jiaxi in the Xiamen case. I felt acutely that human rights lawyers in China are in a worsening predicament and that we urgently need to bring this to the immediate attention of the international community and supporters who work in the legal profession around the globe.
My name is Shi Minglei (施明磊). My husband Cheng Yuan and his two colleagues Liu Dazhi, WuGe Jianxiong have been arbitrarily detained by the Chinese government for 719 days. Cheng Yuan (程渊) is the founder of NGO Changsha Funeng. In the two years prior to their arrest, the ChangSha3 contributed greatly to advocating for and protecting the rights of Chinese human rights lawyers, especially for those whose licenses were revoked. They have sacrificed much for their efforts. They are now personally experiencing being stripped of their rights to legal defense and communication. Wuge Jianxiong was also forced to dismiss his own father, lawyer Wu Youshui (吴有水). Our families are kept in the dark about the government-assigned lawyers, whose identity is apparently a “state secret.” They too face brutal torture as well as the pain of knowing that our families face recurring persecution. Take myself as an example, on the day my husband was arrested, I was put into black hood, hand-cuffed, threatened and put into home arrest (Living Under Surveillance) for 180 days. My 3-year-old daughter witnessed the arrest of her daddy and the threat against me. My daughter’s church school was also forced to close.
I want to alert the international community to the predicament faced by China’s human rights lawyers and ChangSha3.
Chinese human rights lawyers face increasingly dire circumstances in the practicing process. The following are personal experiences from the lawyers in our families, as well as information we have gathered from other cases.
1. Secret detention, violent disappearances, torture, secret trials, and extended detention as experienced by lawyers such as Gao Zhisheng (高智晟), Wang Quanzhang (王全璋), Yu Wensheng (余文生), and Li Yuhan (李昱函).
2. Illegally prolonged house arrest and denial of freedom of movement, these are examples of “non-release releases” as suffered by lawyers such as Jiang Tianyong (江天勇).
3. Direct prevention of lawyers’ engagement in human rights cases: four lawyers in the Chang Weiping （常玮平）case and two lawyers in the Ding Jiaxi （丁家喜）case were forced to withdraw. As a client, I made phone inquiries to nearly twenty lawyers to ask if they would take on my husband’s case. They either did not respond or told me bluntly that the Justice Bureau did not allow representation in Ding Jiaxi’s case due to its political sensitivity. In the 2020 Hong Kong 12 case, several lawyers were also forced to withdraw after signing contracts.
4. Lawyers are being threatened before taking on and while handling their cases. These threats include failing their annual inspection, revoking or canceling the lawyer’s license, dissolving their firm and restricting lawyers and family members from travelling outside China. In many cases, the above threats have become reality. For example, lawyer Tang Jitian (唐吉田) is still blocked by the Chinese government from visiting his seriously ill daughter Tang Zhengqi (唐正琪) who has been hospitalized in an ICU in Japan for 2 months.
5. Lawyers are prohibited from accepting interviews, posting tweets, and restricted from making statements on the cases and clients the lawyers are representing.
6. The authorities arbitrarily classify case files and force lawyers to sign confidential agreements before they are allowed to read the files. This happened in the cases of Lawyer Qin Yongpei (覃永沛) as well as Ding Jiaxi (丁家喜) and Xu Zhiyong (许志永).
7. Lawyers are not allowed to make copies of the case files. They are only permitted to view and take excerpts, which makes it challenging for lawyers to review the case.
8. Lawyers are prohibited from taking photos or making videos and audio recordings when meeting with the litigant. Meanwhile, meetings with the clients are illegally wiretapped.
9. Interference in lawyers’ case handling as pertains to legal procedures such as, denial of lawyer and client meetings, disallowing lawyers’ appearance in court, restricting or prohibiting speech from lawyers during court sessions, blocking lawyers’ cross-examination efforts during court hearings, denying requests for witness appearances, and prohibition or restriction of family members’ appearance at court hearings.
10. Forcing the client to dismiss lawyers brought in by family despite opposition and protest of family members. Forcibly assigning government-appointed lawyers. The six lawyers involved in the ChangSha3 case were collectively dismissed and replaced with government-appointed lawyers on the day the investigation period expired. In the Duandianxing (端点星) case, Chen Mei and Cai Wei were arrested for backing up information on the spread of the coronavirus. Chen Mei’s lawyer Liang Xiaojun (梁小军) was replaced by government-appointed lawyers. In the HongKong12 case, the defendants were also forcibly assigned government-appointed lawyers.
11. In court, public prosecutors and legal personnel are able to assault and beat lawyers at will; lawyers’ basic right to defense and personal dignity are also disrespected. To cite a few examples in recent years: In 2017, lawyers Lu Tingge (卢庭阁) and Li Xiongbing (黎雄兵) were assaulted by the bailiff when handling a case in Sichuan; In 2015, lawyer Wang Quanzhang (王全璋) was assaulted by the bailiff when he appeared in court in Shandong; lawyer Cheng Hai (程海) was assaulted when taking on cases in Dalian, Beijing, and Tianjin.
12. Assault by unidentified persons: Lawyer Chen Keyun (陈科云) was assaulted by unidentified persons near his home in Guangzhou this April. The police ignored his calls for help, and he found it impossible to file a report later. In 2017, another lawyer, Li Baiguang (李柏光) was abducted and beaten by unidentified individuals when handling a case in Zhejiang.
13. Pressuring human rights lawyers by harassing their family members and close relations. For example, Lawyer Chang Weiping’s parents and siblings were threatened; Lawyer Lu Tingge’s family members were harassed; kidnapping and beating of lawyers’ children, such as the son of lawyer Wang Yu (王宇) who was beaten and placed under house arrest after his parents were arrested; lawyers’ children forcibly kicked out of school, such as the children of lawyers Wang Quanzhang (王全璋), Li Heping (李和平), and Chen Jiangang (陈建刚) who had their enrollment qualifications forcibly revoked by their schools. Pressuring lawyers’ landlords, forcing the lawyers to move out; pressuring employers of the lawyer’s family members, resulting in termination of their employment.
Human rights lawyers in China are a solid line of defense for Chinese human rights. These lawyers are now facing immense pressure and making huge sacrifices, making it increasingly more difficult to defend human rights in China. The plight of Chinese human rights lawyers is in desperate need of international awareness and action.