Liu Xiaobo's Nobel Peace Prize Win Puts Spotlight on China Rights Violations
October 8, 2010 •We are thrilled that Liu Xiaobo was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize today and hope his win will shine a spotlight on the struggle for fundamental freedoms and protection of human rights in China.
Liu Xiaobo has repeatedly called for political accountability in China. © Private
Liu, a 54-year-old scholar and author, who won the prize for his outstanding contribution to human rights, is currently serving an 11-year sentence on charges of “inciting subversion of state power” imposed after an unfair trial.
Amnesty International has long called for Liu’s release and is calling on the Chinese authorities to release him and all prisoners of conscience detained in the country immediately.
Liu is a prominent government critic who has repeatedly called for human rights protections, political accountability and democratization in China.
This award can only make a real difference if it prompts more international pressure on China to release Liu, along with the numerous other prisoners of conscience languishing in Chinese jails for exercising their right to freedom of expression.
As last year’s Nobel Peace Prize recipient, President Obama should publicly congratulate Liu to highlight the dire state of human rights in China and call upon Chinese President Hu Jintao to release Liu immediately and unconditionally. Former president of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate the Dalai Lama were among those who supported the nomination of Liu for the 2010 award.
Congratulations Liu Xiaobo! We hope your award will bring you one step closer to freedom.
It is so great that finally someone was awarded who actually deserves it. I hope Liu Xiaobo can be discharged out of jail soon. He hasn’t done anything wrong, he embodies the best of China.
It is an inspiration that someone of the moral courage and accomplishment of Liu Xiaobo is the recipient of the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize. I urge that the government of the People’s Republic of China release this inspired champion of human rights and democracy from imprisonment.
Sincerely, Ben Bortin
Hope this brings more of their human rights violations to light.
Hope this brings more of their human rights violations to light.
He absolutely deserves it, and should be released immediately. It would be nice if the Chinese admin would take some direction from the awarding of this Nobel medal, although after the award to Obama last year has probably taken some of the power out of this award. They may think that the West does not take the Nobel Committee seriously after that fiasco, and probably rightly so! Obama has done nothing in the past 12 months to make that stupid move seem worthwhile. I wonder if the award will ever recover… t’will take a few years atleast, and the likes of Liu Xiaobo may suffer indirectly due to that. What a waste & shame 🙁