Press Releases

The National People’s Congress Standing Committee, China’s highest legislative body, has passed a new national security law for Hong Kong amid grave human rights concerns raised by activists and residents. Religious communities in the city, as well as the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, have also expressed concerns about the potential threat to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB).

CSW has welcomed a joint statement signed by 50 United Nations (UN) Independent Experts calling on the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) to take urgent action to monitor human rights violations in China. In the statement, issued on 26 June, the experts claim “it is time for renewed attention on the human rights situation in

A new report by CSW on the situation of oppressed religious communities in China is released today amid concerns that some of these groups are especially vulnerable to the spread of the coronavirus and its wider impact on freedoms in China. The report, entitled ‘Repressed, Removed, Re-Educated: The stranglehold on religious life in China,’ contends

On 1 February new administrative regulations came into effect in China, which set out measures on the structure and function of religious organisations, as well as supervision and administration by the authorities. According to a translation by Bitter Winter, Article 5 states that “Religious organizations must support the leadership of the Communist Party of China”

The period between Christmas and New Year saw further human rights violations against religious communities, activists and lawyers in China, including arbitrary detention, harassment and restrictions on religious activities. On 26 December, Pastor Wang Yi, who leads the Early Rain Church in Chengdu, Sichuan province, China, was sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of