One Humanity Award

Liu Xiaobo wins 2012 One Humanity Award

Oct 8, 2012 — The 2010 Nobel Peace Laureate, Liu Xiaobo, is a prominent dissident who first received support from PEN in 1989, when he was one of a group of writers and intellectuals dubbed “Black Hands of Beijing” by the government, and arrested for their part in the Tiananmen Square protests. Liu has since spent a total of five years in prison, including a three-year sentence passed in 1996, and has suffered frequent short arrests, harassment and censorship.

Liu was arrested for signing Charter 08, a declaration calling for political reforms and human rights, and kept under Residential Surveillance, a form of pre-trial detention, at an undisclosed location in Beijing, until he was formally charged on June 23, 2009 with “spreading rumours and defaming the government, aimed at subversion of the state and overthrowing the socialism system in recent years.” The charge is said to be based on his endorsement of Charter 08 and over 20 articles published between 2001 and 2008. Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison on December 25, 2009.

At an awards ceremony previous PEN Canada president Charles Foran presented the award to Liu Xiaobo in absentia. We had hoped to get his reaction but we were unable to make contact with him in prison. Activist and former national president of the Chinese Canadian National Council Gloria Fung accepted the award on his behalf and gave this speech:

Dear friends of Pen Canada,

I would like to thank PEN Canada for giving me this opportunity to receive this award on behalf of Liu Xiaobo who cannot be here tonight as he’s serving an 11-year prison sentence in China. Liu Xiaobo has been in prison for exercising freedom of expression and launching Charter 08 calling for peaceful political reform, human rights and democracy in China.

This One Humanity Award not only honours his contribution in transcending the boundaries of national divide and inspiring connections across cultures, it also recognizes the great efforts of people around the world in the struggle to maintain the spirit of freedom of expression.

Liu Xiaobo is a writer, a social activist and also the 2010 Nobel peace prizewinner. He peers us through the hypocrisy of the Chinese communist party. In his writing and social activism he points out that there are two kinds of prisons in China. He lives in a small prison while all Chinese live in a bigger prison without walls, in a society where computers, phones and all whereabouts are under the constant surveillance of the public security bureau. It takes tremendous courage and strength of character to oppose this oppression that is why Liu has been such an inspiring example to all freedom-loving people around the world.

Writing freely and publishing without censorship is crucial to social development. Without these freedoms, China cannot progress and the world will not be so great as it is now without the contribution that free Chinese people can make to humanity. For this Liu Xiaobo calls upon all writers, governments and NGO’s all over the world to continue to support the Chinese people in the struggle for freedom of expression, democracy and human rights in China.

Thank you very much.