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Ni Yulan
Born	(1960-03-24) March 24, 1960 (age 64) Beijing, China
Known for	human rights advocacy
Spouse	Dong Jiqin (Chinese: 董继勤)
Children	Dong Xuan (Chinese: 董璇, daughter)

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Ni Yulan (倪玉兰) born 24 March 1960) is a civil rights lawyer in the People's Republic of China. Ni began practicing law in 1986, and established herself in the field of human rights lawyering by defending persecuted groups such as Falun Gong practitioners and victims of forced eviction.

Ni's human rights activism was first demonstrated in 2001, when her neighborhood in Beijing had been slated for demolition in order to accommodate the 7-year-later 2008 Beijing Olympics. Ni, a forty year-old lawyer at the time, helped her neighbors by either attempting to save their homes from being demolished or by demanding equitable compensation.

However, since 2002, she herself has also became a victim of human rights abuses for defending the rights of others.

Hardships in China

In April 2002, Ni was arrested by the police while filming the forced destruction of a neighbor's home. She was then detained for 75 days. During her detention, she was severely beaten, consequently leaving her maimed and in need of clutches to walk since.

In September 2002, Ni was again arrested while petitioning the Beijing National People's Congress Standing Committee about her having been beaten in police custody. Nonetheless, instead of receiving recompense, she was sentenced to a year in prison for "obstructing official business". Additionally, her lawyer's license was revoked.

From 2003 to 2004, Ni continued to help victims of forced evictions in Beijing to petition to the government despite ongoing official harrassments.

On September 9, 2005, on the eve of her visit to Beijing, Ni co-signed a collective letter to Louise Arbour, the United Nations' High Commissioner on Human Rights, which called for her attention to serious, ongoing human rights violations in China.

In November 2005, before then US president George W. Bush's vist to China, the Chinese regime's police forbade Ni from leaving her home. Two days later, when she was taking a walk in a park near her home, she was assaulted by unidentified men. However, when she reported this attack to the police, she herself was taken into police custody.

In August 2008, Ni was arrested when her own home was forcibly demolished, and was sentenced to two years in prison. According to Ni, during her imprisonment, she was beaten harshly to the point that she could only crawl on the prison floor everyday until U.S. ambassadors visited her and gave her clutches.Upon her release, she had to live in a tent.

On April 7, 2011, Ni and her husband were detained by police as part of a nationwide crackdown on dissent

On December 29, 2011, Chinese authorities put Yulan on trial for alleged "fraud" in Beijing. In April 2012, Ni was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for “causing a disturbance” and "fraud". Her husband, Dong Jiqin, was similarly sentenced to two years for "causing a disturbance". However, rights activists argue that the charges were fabricated in order to stifle dissent.

On October 5, 2013, Ni completed her third sentence.

In 2016, Ni was forbidden by Chinese authorities from leaving China to attend The US Award Ceremony, where she would have received the International Women of Courage Award. According to Ni, the reason for such a ban was that Chinese authorities had, without legal reasons, withheld her passport.

Awards

In 2011, Ni was the recipient of the Human Rights Tulip, an annual award presented by the government of the Netherlands.

In 2016, she received the International Women of Courage Award. During the ceromony, U.S. secretary of State John Kerry commended:

Ni Yulan has paid a steep price for her efforts to assert the legal rights of Chinese citizens. Her outspokenness has led her to imprisonment, during which she was beaten so badly that she became paralyzed from the waist down, but that hasn't stopped her She continues to defend the property rights of Beijing residents whose homes have been slated for demolition.

References

1. ^ "Dutch Government Names Chinese Human Rights Lawyer Ni Yulan As 2011 Tulip Rights Award Winner". eurasiareview.com. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
2. Radio Netherlands Worldwide, Dutch FM "prefers cheese trade to human rights" Archived 2012-02-09 at the Wayback Machine, 31 January 2012.
3. Paul Mooney, "Darkness at Noon" Archived 2012-04-10 at the Wayback Machine South China Morning Post, 30 January 2011.
4. ^ "Case History: Ni Yulan". frontlinedefenders.org. Retrieved 22 July 2020.
5. Human Rights Watch, China's Rights Defenders
6. ^ "China: Beaten Activist to Be Tried on Eve of Olympics". hrw.org. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
7. ^ Wee, Sui-Lee. "China rights lawyer jailed for 2 years, 8 months". reuters.com. Retrieved 4 August 2020.
8. ^ Wong, Edward (15 April 2011). "China: 54 Detained in Crackdown". The New York Times.
9. Peter Ford, "Why Chinese activist Ni Yulan lost nearly everything", Christian Science Monitor, 6 July 2010.
10. "Ni Yulan". lawyersforlawyers.org. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
11. "Rights activist Ni Yulan 'barred from leaving' China". bbc.com. Retrieved 5 July 2020.
12. Ching, Nike. "China Blocks Activist's Trip to US for 'Women of Courage' Award". voanews.com. Retrieved 5 August 2020.

External links

• Urgent action CASE FILE for Ni Yulan (倪玉兰) by CHINESE URGENT ACTION WORKING GROUP
• "China Set to Punish Another Human Rights Activist article by Andrew Jacobs in The New York Times January 2, 2012
• "Ni Yulan Appeals Conviction; U.S. and EU Call for Her Release" case update by Human Rights in China, April 17, 2012
• Ni Yulan Youtube playlist

• Chinese dissidents
• Chinese democracy activists
• Chinese human rights activists
• Human rights
• Prisoners and detainees of the People's Republic of China
• Chinese lawyers
• Weiquan movement
• Living people
• 1960 births
• Women human rights defenders