On Human Rights Day: Stand with Liu Xiaobo

by Matt Kelley · 2010-12-10 10:49:00 UTC
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Today is International Human Rights Day, and an empty chair on an Oslo stage served as a stark reminder of this day's importance.

The Nobel Peace Prize, awarded this year to Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo, was laid on an empty chair at the ceremony this morning because Xiaobo couldn't attend, as he's being held in isolation in a Chinese prison. (Watch a video of the stark and moving ceremony after the jump.)

Liu has been a prominent voice for individual rights in China since his role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, and has been jailed several times in the two decades since for his outspoken advocacy. He was arrested most recently in apparent connection with a major reformist petition he helped to draft, and was sentenced to 11 years in prison for "inciting subversion of state power."

Chinese officials have responded angrily to the Peace Prize and today cut off foreign media before the ceremony began. Amnesty International has given Chinese Twitter users a voice to speak out in support of Liu through the twitter account @NobelPeace2010 and has a petition urging China to end the "repression of expression." Join more than 100,000 people around the world and sign here. See John Kennedy's post on Global Voices for more on the Twitter messages from inside and outside of China.

Liu is the fourth person to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize while incarcerated; one of the others was Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese leader who was freed just last month after being under house arrest for 15 of the last 21 years. The struggles of leaders and activists like Liu Xiaobo and Aung San Suu Kyi are superhuman, and inspiring -- and necessary to bring about change. If Liu kept quiet about China's oppression, he'd be free today. By speaking, he put himself in danger. But he also opened the door for other activists in China and around the world to fight for human rights.

Watch today's ceremony below and send Liu a message on Twitter here.

Photo Credit: Voice of America

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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