Since the early 1990s, many statements, open letters, and appeals demanding the release of political prisoners and respect for human rights have been drafted and circulated among Chinese citizens (see Text 53). In the beginning of 1994, a group of seven influential scientists, intellectuals, poets, and writers published “An Appeal for Human Rights,” which called on the government to respect human rights. In 1995, the UN Year of Tolerance, forty-five Chinese citizens drafted “An Appeal for Tolerance.” China’s signing of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in 1997 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1998 served to further inspire Chinese citizens to push the issue of human rights. In the autumn of 1998, some of those involved in the earlier appeals and statements then drafted two declarations, one dealing with civil and political rights, which we reprint here, and the other discussing social and economic justice. The drafter of these two declarations was Jiang Peikun, a professor of aesthetics at People’s University, and the spokesperson was Jiang Qisheng, former Ph.D. candidate at People’s University. (Jiang Qisheng was arrested in 1999 and, on December 26, 2000, was sentenced to four years in prison.) Jiang Peikun’s wife, Ding Zilin, also signed the Declaration. Their son was among those killed in the suppression of the 1989 Democracy Movement. Ding, an assistant professor at People’s University, has taken the lead in collecting information on those killed and seeking compensation for their relatives. The two remaining signatories were Lin Mu, the former Communist secretary for China’s Northwestern University, and Wei Xiaotao, an engineer and brother of Wei Jingsheng. Although we here reprint the Declaration on Civil Rights and Freedoms, it should be noted that many of the statements and appeals published by Chinese citizens during the 1990s take up economic, social, and environmental rights, addressing many of the social and economic problems with which workers and peasants (among others) are struggling.
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