Responsive Image

2010 Nobel Peace Prize will affect human rights in China

The New Straits Times, 27 November 2010

STRASBOURG: Honouring a jailed Chinese dissident with the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize could help improve the human rights situation in the country, the Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman said Thursday, emphasizing that the bestowal is “a peaceful demonstration”, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported.

This year’s awarding of the prize to Chinese pro-democracy activist Liu Xiaobo is “one of the most important” of the committee’s 100-year history,

Thorbjorn Jagland said in an interview with Kyodo News here.

“I think it will have some influence” on China’s human rights development, he added.

Liu, 54, the first Chinese citizen to win the prize, is a key author of

Charter 08, a democratic manifesto that calls for sweeping political change in
China.

He is currently serving an 11-year prison term for subversion, while his wife has been under house arrest in China since the announcement of the award.

China regards Liu as “a criminal” and has called on many countries not to

take part in the award ceremony.

Organizers of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony are now preparing this year’s event on the premise that neither Liu nor a proxy will be present to receive the award in Oslo on Dec 10.

Jagland, a former Norwegian prime minister who currently heads the Council of Europe, said the absence of Liu and his family could raise awareness in the international community of the seriousness of China’s human rights situation.

If his chair remains empty, it would “show the fact that he was sentenced and he was not allowed to come to receive the prize. It is underling that there are deep human rights problems in China,” the chairman said.

While Beijing has expressed dissatisfaction about the awarding of the prize to Liu, Jagland expressed optimism regarding the China-Norway relationship, noting that Chinese leaders are “pragmatic”.

“I think they will realise it is not for the interest of China” for the two countries’ diplomatic relations to remain unstable, he said, adding relations between China and Norway will “normalize quite soon”.

BERNAMA

http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/2010NobelPeacePrizewillaffecthumanrightsinChina/Article/