Charter 08

We are grateful to People in Need for giving the 2008 Homo Homini award to the signatories of Charter 08. To those who have been oppressed for signing the Charter, to the Chinese who uphold their legal rights, and to Dr. Liu Xiaobo who is still in detention for gathering signatories, this is indeed an encouragement. Dr. Liu Xiaobo has always adhered to his belief in human rights and democracy, and has been repeatedly imprisoned because of his persistence. To accept this award on his behalf is not only our duty, but also our honor.

The document below, signed by more than two thousand Chinese citizens, was conceived and written in conscious admiration of the founding of Charter 77 in Czechoslovakia, where, in January 1977, more than two hundred Czech and Slovak intellectuals formed a loose, informal, and open association of people...united by the will to strive individually and collectively for respect for human and civil rights in our country and throughout the world.

Anybody who claims to be a defender of civil rights should protest against the arrest, since no one should be treated as a criminal simply for what they have spoken or written. We have reservation about parts of the Charter, but we condemn Liu’s arrest by the authorities and their repression of the document. It is sad to see that Chinese writers associated with the well known ‘new left’ website Utopia have criticised the position of the Charter, but remain silent on the arrest, even implicitly applauding it. This is especially troubling as individual new leftists and their publications have faced the same kind of suppression in recent years.