Lawyers in Queensland have spoken out against human rights abuses in China and have called for the immediate release from detention of Chinese human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize nominee lawyer Gao Zhisheng.
Speaking at Global Human Rights Torch events in Cairns and the Gold Coast last Saturday November 10, members of the Queensland legal profession said the present disregard for rule of law in China was a serious concern and human rights abuses in the world's most populous country had to stop if it was to be accepted as a member of the civilised world.
Gold Coast lawyer Mick Arcuri read out excerpts from the UN Declaration of Human Rights, telling listeners at a welcome ceremony for the Torch that China had signed a number of international covenants and treaties and in doing so had recognised human rights.
Mr Arcuri, who has been practising law in the popular holiday region south of Brisbane for over 20 years, read excerpts from the Chinese constitution that included a stipulation that all organs of government (including the military), public institutions and enterprises "had a duty to uphold the dignity of the constitution".
He also identified articles in the constitution that referred specifically to human rights, including those that promoted freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of association and freedom of religious belief.
"Article 37 protects people from unlawful detention, deprivation or restriction from their freedom and unlawful search," Mr Arcuri said.
"Clearly, the authorities in China don't comply with China's constitution. Clearly, human rights are very much abused in China."
Mr Arcuri called on Chinese authorities to release lawyer Gao Zhisheng saying the esteemed lawyer had been "assaulted, abused, abducted, imprisoned, tortured, placed under house arrest" and "had an attempt on his life" for trying to uphold the law in China.
Professor Paul Wilson, who holds the Chair of Criminology at Gold Coast's Bond University, said that human rights abuses in China had to stop.
"The crimes perpetrated on the Falun Gong and others in China cannot be tolerated in any society like China that pretends to be civilised," he said.
Professor Wilson, who is also a forensic psychologist, said he was encouraged to see the political and community support on the Gold Coast for the Torch Relay, saying it diminished communities and individuals to ignore reports of human rights abuses, while empowering the perpetrators within China.
"What I think tyrants and abusers of human rights like most is silence and apathy. By being here, you have shown that you are not silent and you are not apathetic," he said.
Rohan Silva, a human rights lawyer in Cairns, held up lawyer Gao's autobiography, A China More Just, as he spoke to a crowd at a Human Rights Torch Relay ceremony on the Esplanade in Cairns on Saturday morning.
Mr Silva contrasted the concepts and experiences of a human rights lawyer in Australia to that of a human rights lawyer in China, surmising that he would be persecuted like lawyer Gao if he were to practise in China.
A former regional director of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Mr Silva raised a number of human rights concerns in China, but focussed particularly on the legal domain. Mr Silva said he had read the report on illegal organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China that had been co-authored by former Secretary of State (Asia-Pacific) David Kilgour and human rights lawyer David Matas, acknowledging the difficulty the authors had in accessing State information in China.
"There is no Freedom of Information Act [in China], which we take for granted here," he told the audience in Cairns. "So it is very difficult to access information for someone to pursue their claim."
Lawyers were not the only members of the Queensland community that stepped up to support the Global Human Rights Torch Relay over the past week.
Legendary Olympian Ron Clarke MBE, who is now Lord Mayor of the Gold Coast, was the first to carry the Torch on the Queensland Coast saying: "I welcome the Torch to the Gold Coast…I've been a member of the Olympics. I believe it's a movement which ensures the brotherhood of man, the equality of man and this also is what this Torch symbolises. So it's my honour to be your first to carry a Torch on the Gold Coast in the spirit for the freedom of people everywhere, every place.
State MP Christine Smith, local Councillor Dawn Crichlow OAM, Aboriginal Elder Graham Dillon and Ewan Ogilvy, from Amnesty International, were among a range of speakers that attended Saturday's Torch ceremony on the Gold Coast.
In Cairns, Indigenous leader and director of the Cape York Institute Noel Pearson lent his support by speaking at the Torch welcome ceremony, as did Cairns' Bishop James Foley, Australian dressage Olympian Christine Doan, Aboriginal Elder Janet Singleton, Alfred Conte from Sierra Leone and Greens candidate Sue Corey.
World Super Heavyweight Powerlifting Champion Katrina Robertson, considered to be the world's strongest woman, told an audience at the Torch welcoming ceremony in Mackay that she had two passions in life – sport and human rights.
Ms Robertson said that for the first time she would not be watching the Olympics when it takes place in Beijing in 2008 because she was horrified by the reports of human rights violations, particularly against practitioners of Falun Gong.
Councillor George Christenson also spoke with horror at what he had discovered after doing his own research on the Internet. Mr Christenson, who was there representing Mayor Julie Boyd of Mackay, read out a letter the Chinese consulate in Brisbane had sent to the Mayor telling members of the Mackay Shire Council not to attend the Torch ceremony.
Mr Christenson said he wanted to send a clear message to the Chinese Consul in Brisbane: "You might be able to suppress what Chinese people have to say in your country, but you are not going to suppress what we have to say in ours," he told the Mackay community.
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