SURREY, ENGLAND – (ANS)- At an official ceremony
to award the Dutch Government’s Human Rights Defenders Tulip Prize for 2011 to
Chinese legal activist Ni Yulan, the chair of the jury stressed the importance
of highlighting China’s human rights record in spite of economic
considerations.

According to a news release from Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), Cisca
Dresselhuys, Chair of the Human Rights Defenders Tulip Award 2011 Jury said,
“Economic interests must never be a reason to close our mouths on human
rights. We should rather have one Human Rights Tulip Award than one exported
tulip to China.”

CSW said that Ni Yulan was unable to attend the ceremony due to her
detention in Beijing, and her daughter, Dong Xuan, was recently banned from
leaving China to accept the prize on her mother’s behalf. Ni Yulan was
nominated for the Tulip Award by CSW and China Aid.

Her work as a housing rights activist, defending Beijing residents whose
homes were demolished to make way for the 2008 Olympics, resulted in her being
imprisoned on several occasions.

CSW said she has also worked on a number of high-profile religious freedom
cases. Ni Yulan is in a wheelchair due to beatings received in prison, which
left her unable to walk and in poor health.

She was put on trial with her husband in Beijing in Dec. 2011 for
“creating a disturbance,” and testified evidence from a hospital bed
while on oxygen. The trial did not reach a verdict and the couple remain
detained in Beijing.

The Dutch Government’s Tulip Prize is awarded to an individual who has done
“exceptional human rights work”, in recognition of their commitment
to the work and the personal cost to themselves. The award “consists of a
statue and 100,000 Euros in funding for a project”. Ni Yulan is the first
human rights defender from Asia to be given the award.

CSW said Dresselhuys added, “We give the award with pleasure, reverence
and joy, but with immense pain in our hearts because she cannot be here.”

A video of Ni Yulan’s life and work was shown at the ceremony, in which she is
seen in her wheelchair living in a tent in a park. She says, “In this
difficult time the support from others really encourages us. It keeps us alive.
I will continue to defend others’ rights. We cannot give up.”

CSW’s Advocacy Director Andrew Johnston said in the news releqase, “CSW
would like to congratulate Ni Yulan on being awarded the prestigious Tulip
Prize. Lawyer Ni has suffered immensely at the hands of the Chinese government
for defending basic human rights. We hope that the award will send a message of
encouragement to all human rights defenders in China, whose work often carries
a high level of personal risk.”

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is a Christian organisation working for
religious freedom through advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice.

For further information, go to www.csw.org.uk.

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About Jeremy Reynalds

Jeremy Reynalds is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, a freelance writer and also the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico’s largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org

He has a master’s degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is “Homeless in the City.”

Additional details on “Homeless in the City” are available at http://www.homelessinthecity.com. Reynalds lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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