Chinese Christian expatriates have asked the United Nations to investigate the disappearance of\u00a0human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng.<\/p>\n
The U.S.-based China Aid Association,\u00a0formally requested a special U.N. investigation into Gao’s whereabouts as well as\u00a0the torture he underwent in previous police detention.<\/p>\n
The request came on the five-year anniversary of his first\u00a0arrest by Chinese police.<\/p>\n
The request was submitted in Geneva, Switzerland by\u00a0China Aid’s\u00a0legal counsel, filed with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture.<\/p>\n
Gao was first\u00a0taken by police on Aug. 15, 2006. from his sister\u2019s home and held incommunicado until the Chinese government announced on Sept. 21, 2006 that he was being charged with inciting subversion.<\/p>\n
In March 2010, the\u00a0non-governmental organization\u00a0Freedom Now partnered with human rights specialists Jerome A. Cohen, Irwin Cotler, Albert Ho, David Kilgour, David Matas, and Beth Schwanke and Keane Shum in filing a petition before the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention that resulted in a U.N. finding of serious wrongdoing by the Chinese government, which had failed to even reply to the U.N. inquiry.<\/p>\n
China basically told the U.N. and the rest of the world to \u201cmind its own business\u201d because Gao\u2019s case was a matter of China\u2019s internal affairs.<\/p>\n
China Aid President Bob Fu and legal counsel David E. Taylor said they expect China will respond similarly to this request for a special U.N. investigation.<\/p>\n
\u201cNonetheless, we believe it is important for the international community to see again how the Chinese Communist Party responds with arrogance and recalcitrance to the U.N., and to show the world, especially Gao\u2019s family and the Chinese government, that Gao has not been forgotten for even one second and never will be,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n