Free Liu Xiaobo
[Speech delivered in the Australian Parliament]
The winner of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, Liu Xiaobo, is currently serving an 11-year prison sentence for ‘incitement to subvert state power’, having been sentenced on 25 December 2009. The main reason charges were brought against him was his support for Charter 08, a citizens’ manifesto created to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and conceived as a Chinese version of the renowned Czech Charter 77, which was presented by former President Vaclav Havel as a freedom charter for the Czech Republic. Havel’s charter was an emblem, and was instrumental in people in Eastern Europe achieving their freedom.
Charter 08 states:
… the Chinese people, who have endured human rights disasters and uncountable struggles across these years of Communist rule now include many who see clearly that freedom, equality, and human rights are universal values of humankind and that democracy and constitutional government are…
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