5 May 2005

Han Dongfang, veteran Chinese labour activist and director of the Hong Kong-based group China Labour Bulletin (CLB), will receive the 2005 International Activist Award presented by the US-based Gleitsman Foundation on 5 May at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Central, Hong Kong.

The biennial award, which Han will share with the founders of the UK-based group Global Witness, is given by the Gleitsman Foundation of Los Angeles. The foundation, established by Alan Gleitsman in 1989, seeks to recognize and encourage leadership in social activism worldwide. Former recipients of the award include such world figures as then-African National Congress president Nelson Mandela and 1996 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jose Ramos-Horta.

The judges of this year's International Activist Award include former United Nations Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar, physicist and human rights activist Fang Lizhi, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Shimon Peres, Mairead Maguire, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Adolfo Perez Esquivel.

Describing Han as "an unrivalled leader of the workers' movement in China" and explaining the choices for the 2005 International Activist Award, Alan Gleitsman stated: "In a world beset by ethnic strife, poverty and corruption, our Honorees are beacons of hope to those striving to better their lives. By recognizing such exemplary activism, we hope to inspire others to follow in their footsteps and correct other injustices."

Han will equally share an award of US$100,000 with the founders of Global Witness – Patrick Alley, Charmian Gooch and Simon Taylor – who have led campaigns to stop the abusive way that natural resources have been used to fund wars, corrupt regimes and human rights violations in many parts of the world. The honourees will also receive a sculpture designed by Maya Lin, the creator of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC.

"I feel deeply honoured to have received such a prestigious international award," said Han. "China's economic reforms have achieved many things, but social and economic justice for ordinary Chinese working people is not yet one of them – in fact the lack of worker representation is probably the main source of instability in China today." Han added: "I hope Chinese workers will see this award as a clear sign that the international community supports the growth of real civil society in China – and in particular the emergence of an organized and responsible labour movement."

Han will be donating his share of the Gleitsman award money to CLB's Legal Defence Fund, which supports the organization's workers' rights litigation program in China.

Background

Han Dongfang is a leading advocate for workers' rights and independent trade unions in mainland China. He began his activist career in Tiananmen Square in May 1989 as co-founder and spokesperson for the short-lived Beijing Workers Autonomous Federation, the first independent labour organisation since the founding of the PRC. He was jailed for two years after the Tiananmen crackdown and was later granted a year's medical parole in the United States for treatment to cure his prison-contracted tuberculosis. But he has been denied re-entry to his homeland since 1993.

In 1994, Han founded China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based group whose main work now includes supporting mainland Chinese workers in labour-related lawsuits against employers and local authorities; providing legal defence for arrested Chinese worker activists; conducting trade union education and organizing work among Chinese workers; and producing research reports on labour issues and worker's struggles in China. Since 2003, CLB has assisted worker activists and their families in 19 labour dispute cases in China, including fighting for decent compensation for the bereaved families of the 166 coalminers killed at the Chenjiashan Coalmine explosion in Tungchuan city, Shaanxi Province, in November 2004; and providing criminal defence services to six of the ten workers who were charged and convicted of staging strike protests at the Xing Ang and Xing Xiong shoe factories in Dongguan owned by Taiwanese-owned Stella International in April 2004.

In 1997, Han began producing regular radio broadcasts for Radio Free Asia on the topic of workers rights and labour relations in China. Today, his thrice-weekly radio show – in which he interviews workers and local government officials on issues ranging from strikes and protests to the continuing carnage in China's coalmining industry – is heard by many millions of listeners across mainland China.

For further information please call:

Robin Munro, CLB Research Director:

Tel: +852 2780 2187