Disappeared

Gao Zhisheng, once recognized by the Ministry of Justice as “one of the country’s 10 best lawyers," has paid a high price for activism. Mr. Gao has been repeatedly been "disappeared," surfacing first to describe being tortured, and then again to announce he would no longer pursue rights advocacy. In April 2010, he once again went missing; authorities deny he is in custody.

Gao Zhisheng’s case encompasses the most abusive treatments meted out by Chinese authorities to any defense lawyer, ranging from professional sanctions, including personal disbarment and the closure of the firm he founded, to torture and disappearance. His current whereabouts and status are unknown.

Mr. Gao, born in 1966 in Shanxi Province, is a Chinese Army veteran and a self-trained legal professional. Mr. Gao passed the bar in 1995, and founded the Beijing-based Shengzhi Law Office in 2000. In 2001, he was recognized by China’s Ministry of Justice as “one of the country’s 10 best lawyers.” In June of 2007, Mr. Gao received the Courageous Advocacy Award of the American Board of Trial Advocates. His memoirs, A China More Just, were translated into English the same year. In 2011, Mr. Gao was the recipient of the Bindmans Law and Campaigning Award, which recognises lawyers who have used legal means to fight injustice in the field of freedom of expression.

Mr. Gao has been a vigorous and outspoken advocate for his clients, who have included dispossessed landowners, victims of government corruption, medical malpractice victims, underground Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, dissidents, and other detained lawyers. As he took on more politically sensitive clients in the early 2000s, the Chinese courts began to systematically refuse to hear his cases. Mr. Gao became increasingly outspoken, publishing open letters to the leadership of the Communist Party detailing human rights abuses.

In 2005, Mr. Gao began to receive threats aimed at himself and his family, including his 12-year-old daughter. In 2006, the authorities escalated their attacks: Mr. Gao suffered surveillance, detention, and beatings. On August 15, Mr. Gao disappeared while visiting his sister’s home in Dongying, Shandong Province. His family was not informed until Sept. 21 that he was being held for suspected criminal acts. He was detained for over six months, during which police harassed his family, threatened them with retaliation if they spoke to the press, and attempted to kidnap his children.

On Dec. 22, 2006, Mr. Gao was sentenced to four years for subversion, with a five year reprieve and an additional year of deprivation of political rights. His law license was revoked and his firm was closed. Over the following year, though under heavy surveillance, Mr. Gao remained politically outspoken: in April of 2007 he publicly described the torture he suffered while in custody, and on Sept. 13, he published an open letter to the U.S. Congress drawing attention to the deteriorating human rights situation in China.

On Sept. 22, 2007, Mr. Gao was kidnapped by unidentified men, who held him for two months, subjecting him to severe beatings which included electric shocks, genital mutilation, and lit cigarettes held to his eyes.

After his release, Mr. Gao returned to live with his family under constant police surveillance. On Jan. 9, 2009, Mr. Gao left their home to run errands; while he was gone, his wife and two children escaped overland to Thailand. His family made their way to the United States, where they were granted asylum.

On Feb. 4, 2009, Shaanxi public security officers once again took Mr. Gao into secret detention. For over a year, no information was provided about his status or whereabouts. On March 18, 2010, Mr. Gao briefly resurfaced, telling reporters that he would no longer undertake human rights activism. He spent April 15, 2010, with his father-in-law in Urumqi, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region; after leaving for a flight back to Beijing on April 20, he once again disappeared.

In January of 2011, the Associated Press released an interview conducted during Mr. Gao’s brief resurfacing in April, which Mr. Gao had requested not be published unless he either went missing again or succeeded in leaving China. In the interview, Mr. Gao detailed the extreme abuse, torture, and continual movement between illegal detention centers he experienced during his prior detention.

Last updated March 28, 2011

Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the on the situation of human rights defenders, Margaret Sekaggya, Addendum, Summary of cases transmitted to Governments and replies received, ¶310-14, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/13/22/Add.1 (Feb. 24, 2010), available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/13session/reports.htm.

Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Leandro Despouy, Addendum, Situations in specific countries or territories, ¶80 & 82, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/11/41/Add.1 (May 19, 2009), available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/11session/reports.htm.

Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Leandro Despouy, Addendum, Situations in specific countries or territories, ¶73, 77, 84, 91, & 96, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/8/4/Add.1 (May 28, 2008), available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/8session/reports.htm.

Human Rights Council, Report of the Special Rapporteur of the Secretary-General on the situation of human rights defenders, Hina Jilani , Addendum, Summary of cases transmitted to Governments and replies received, ¶428-30, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/7/28/Add.1 (March 5, 2008), available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/7session/reports.htm.