On 9 April 2026, The Rights Practice, and 25 other civil society organisations, issued a joint statement to express deep concern about the wellbeing of human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng. We urge Chinese authorities to ensure that Yu Wensheng is immediately released after serving his sentence and is allowed to reunite with his family in Beijing and to freely exercise his human rights.

Human rights lawyer Yu Wensheng is expected to be released on 13 April 2026 after completing a three-year sentence following his baseless conviction for “inciting subversion of state power”.

Yu Wensheng and his wife Xu Yan are prominent advocates for rule of law and human rights in China. As a result, they have faced government harassment for many years; this is the second time since 2018 that Yu has been arbitrarily deprived of his liberty.

We believe that the authorities’ use of the criminal justice system to harass Yu Wensheng and his family is intended to deter human rights defenders in China and discourage their legal and constructive interactions with civil society groups and diplomatic representatives in the country.

Ahead of Yu’s release date, we call on the Chinese authorities to uphold their international human rights obligations, including under the Convention against Torture and the International Covenant for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

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