More than 300 Chinese Activists Call for Democracy in ChinaThursday, 11 December 2008, 4:53 p.m.

Dharamshala:  More than 300 Chinese activists, including lawyers, writers, scholars and artists, issued an online statement on Tuesday calling for greater freedoms and anend to China’s one-party rule, the Associated Press reported.The online statement – ’08 Charter – proposed 19 measures to improve rights in China, including promoting an independent legal system, calling for freedom of association, and ending the monopoly of China’s one party rule. It coincided with Wednesday’s 60th anniversary of the U.N. General Assembly’s adoption of the Universal declaration of Human Rights, a document that inspired many later human rights treaties.“This charter promotes the same ideas and values that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights asserts, such as freedom of the press, freedom of association, independent justice, freedom of religion and environmental protection,” said lawyer Mo Shaoping, who signed the statement.“It has nothing that goes against China’s constitution,” he said.The police detained two of the signatories, Zhang Zhuhua and Liu Xiaobo, an outspoken writer and political critic who had previously been jailed for his role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.On Tibet, Chinese intellectuals and lawyers have expressed similar sentiments, calling for fair trial and offering free legal assistance to all those Tibetans arrested by the Chinese government for taking part in peaceful protests in Tibet this year.Leading Chinese lawyers, including Zhu Jiuhu, a Beijing-based attorney, supported genuine autonomy for Tibet and asked the Chinese government to resolve the issue of Tibet through meaningful dialogue. Chinese dissident writer Zhao Dagong praised Zhu’s willingness and courage to openly advocate the His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s positions.(Click here for Charter 08)