MPs Call on Harper to Raise Plight of Chinese Rights Defenders at G-20

Eleven MPs led by Liberal MP Irwin Cotler have called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to work to secure the release of Gao Zhisheng and Liu Xiaobo now imprisoned by the Chinese regime. The MPs want Harper to raise the issue with Chinese leader Hu Jintao at the upcoming G-20 Summit in Seoul, South Korea, this week.

“Regrettably, Mr. Gao and Dr. Liu’s imprisonment reflect the increased assaults on the rule of law and the repression faced by human rights advocates in China,” wrote Cotler, the former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, in a statement released Friday.

Gao’s and Liu’s international legal teams have made similar requests to members of the U.S. Congress to President Barack Obama. Liu Xiaobo is the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate while Gao Zhisheng is a human rights lawyer known as the “conscience of China” who was “disappeared” by the Chinese regime in February 2009.