Unable to walk, in detention, facing criminal charges

Ni Yulan is a Beijing-based tenant-rights legal activist who has spent over a decade defending the rights of clients subjected to forced evictions. In the process, she has been arrested, convicted, crippled, disbarred, and left homeless herself after the unlawful destruction of her home. Ms. Ni and her husband were seized by police in April of 2011.

Ni Yulan, born in 1961, is a Beijing-based tenant-rights legal activist who has spent over a decade defending the rights of clients subjected to forced evictions. In the process, she has been arrested, convicted, crippled, disbarred, and left homeless herself after the unlawful destruction of her home.

After Beijing won the bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games, the city underwent extensive remodelling that entailed the eviction of hundreds of thousands of residents and their relocation in peripheral suburbs. Ni took on many cases for dispossessed tenants. On April 27, 2002, the police took Ni into custody for filming the forced demolition of a client’s home. Ni was detained for 75 days, and so badly beaten that she has never recovered the ability to walk without a cane or crutches.

Upon her release, on Sept. 27, 2002, Ni petitioned the Beijing National People’s Congress Standing Committee for redress for the unlawful beatings. Instead, she was again arrested and charged with “obstructing public duty.” Her criminal conviction on this charge resulted in a one year prison sentence and the permanent revocation of her professional lawyer’s license.

After her release, Ni was subject to continuing harassment by the police. In August of 2004, after Ni and housing activist Ye Guozhu filed an application to hold a tenant-rights demonstrations, they were detained by police. On Nov.15, 2005, police warned her not to leave her home during President Bush’s visit to China; two days later, she was attacked while walking in a nearby park. Upon reporting the attack to police, she was once again arrested. In March 2007, Ni was placed under house arrest for the duration of the National People’s Congress.

On April 15, 2008, a police-directed demolition crew knocked down a wall surrounding Ni’s home. She was hit in the head with a brick and dragged away; she was then arrested for filing a “false report” about the previous assault and she and her husband were both detained. While her husband was released after several days, Ni was formally charged and convicted of “obstructing public duty,” this time receiving a sentence of two years. Her home was completely demolished in November of 2008. For a year of her sentence, she was denied the use of crutches and forced to crawl within the prison facility.

Ni was released in April of 2010. During the following summer, fellow activists helped Ni and her husband move into the Yuxingong Guesthouse. During December of 2010 and January of 2011, their electricity, water, phone, and internet service were repeatedly cut off as police pressured them to leave.

In April of 2011, Ni and her husband were seized by police in the middle of the night. They currently face  charges of "creating a disturbance."

Last updated November 4, 2011

China Human Rights Defenders, “Emergency Shelter - A Documentary about Ni Yulan,” available at http://chrdnet.org/2010/06/21/emergency-shelter-a-documentary-about-ni-yulan/ (video in Chinese).

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, ¶609-11, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/10/12/Add.1 (March 4, 2009), available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/10session/reports.htm.