Cao Shunli was arrested on 14 September 2013 at Beijing International Airport. Her whereabouts were unknown for five weeks before she reappeared in custody, charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”. Shunli was kept in detention despite a serious deterioration in her health, allegedly due to torture, ill-treatment and failure by authorities to provide timely and adequate access to medical care. She was hospitalised on 19 February 2014, where she died on 14 March 2014.
The UN experts previously raised Cao Shunli’s case with Chinese authorities in several letters and issued three public statements.
Cao Shunli was part of a group of human rights defenders who, from December 2008, advocated for and requested to participate in the preparation of China’s national report for its Universal Periodic Reviews (UPR) in 2009 and 2013.
“Rather than using Cao Shunli’s death as a wake-up call and a moment to reform engagement with civil society, Chinese authorities have regrettably intensified their persecution of human rights defenders and others who seek to work with the UN in the field of human rights” the experts said.