By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

NEW YORK, United States – China’s leading independent women’s rights organization, which was affiliated with Beijing University, was notified last month that its affiliation with the University has been terminated.

Under Chinese law, nonprofit organizations must be affiliated and sponsored by a government unit. 

The organization, Women’s Legal Research and Services Center, received numerous domestic and international accolades over the year for its work with the Chinese government on legislation concerning women and for bringing public interest lawsuits highlighting women’s issues like domestic violence and discrimination. 

The Center’s founder and China’s leading women’s rights activist, Guo Jianmei, expressed her concerns regarding the lack of justification for closing the Center as well as the message the government is sending to the public by shutting down an organization that has dedicated years to fighting discrimination against women, promoting the rule of law, and in aiding vulnerable members of the society.

In a recently released statement, the Center said its closing “was only the last one in the long series of difficulties faced by the center in its 15-year existence.”  The statement also described the hardship the Center faced, such as barriers in raising charitable funds and the Chinese authorities’ hostility regarding public interest litigation.  For example, just last month, Chinese government implemented new laws that place addition hurdles on domestic NGO’s raising funds from international donors.

Sophie Richardson of Human Rights Watch said, “The Chinese government should recognize that civil society groups play an essential role in remedying social problems and easing social tensions . . . Instead, it is . . . making China’s most vulnerable populations pay the price.”

Some of Beijing University alumni have written a public letter to the university and its president protesting the decision to end its ties with the Center but to no avail, and the domestic media has not been allowed to report on this matter.

Richardson added, “The closure of the Women’s Center is a serious setback for women’s rights and civil society in China.  The government’s general hostility towards civil society is starting to impact mainstream organizations . . . .”

For more information, please see:

All-China Women’s Federation – Beijing University Women’s Legal Aid Center – 25 March 2009

Human Rights Watch – China: Chokehold on Civil Society Intensifies – 12 April 2010

NGOs in China – Peking University Women’s Legal Aid Center loses its affiliation – 14 April 2010