CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Hollywood actor Christian Bale presented a human rights award to Chinese pro-life advocate Chen Guangcheng for fighting forced abortions in China, praising him as a courageous and inspirational figure.<\/p>\n\tBy exposing \u201ca program of forced abortion and sterilization in Shandong,\u201d Chen exemplified the \u201cvalues that we teach our children every day of helping our fellow man,\u201d Bale said.<\/p>\n
\tChen was the 2012 Human Rights Award Honoree at an Oct. 25 gala in New York City hosted by Human Rights First, an organization that challenges the United States to live up to its ideals.<\/p>\n
\tBale met the blind human rights activist for the first time at the gala. The Batman star had previously attempted to visit Chen during his time in house arrest but was roughed up and turned away by plainclothes guards.<\/p>\n
\tBlinded by a serious illness when he was young, Chen is a self-taught human rights lawyer who spoke out against China\u2019s one-child policy and the coerced abortions and sterilizations that are often used to enforce it. His work attracted the anger of Chinese authorities.<\/p>\n
\tChen spent more than four years in prison and was subsequently placed under house arrest in September 2010. He and his family were held without formal charges, and he said that they were violently assaulted and refused medical treatment.<\/p>\n
\tIn late April, he made international headlines by escaping from house arrest and reaching the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tHe left the embassy for a hospital in Beijing on May 2, after being promised by Chinese authorities that he and his family would be secure. Shortly afterwards, however, he voiced fears for his safety and asked to come to the U.S. with his family for a period of peaceful rest.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\tChen was offered a fellowship to study law and learn English at New York University\u2019s law school and was ultimately allowed to travel to the United States with his family, arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport on May 19.<\/p>\n
\tIn presenting the award, Bale emphasized the blind activist\u2019s work on behalf of women and their unborn children who are subject to the country\u2019s brutal one-child policy.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cA program of forced abortion means that women are being dragged from their homes against their will,\u201d Bale said. \u201cThey are being forced to have abortions, sometimes late-term \u2013 imagine that \u2013 with some women reportedly dying in the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tReferring to these forced abortions as \u201ctrue horror,\u201d the actor stated that in this \u201cinsane world,\u201d Chen stood up for the women of China, living out \u201csimple, brave and universally-admired values.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cFor this, this man was imprisoned and beaten for over four years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\tSpeaking through a translator, Chen said that he was honored to receive the award.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cJust as the name Human Rights First implies, I believe if everyone throughout the world put human rights in first place, we would be living in a very different world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThis is not just an award for me, but I feel I am representing all people who live in non-democratic countries,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cHuman Rights First is proud to honor Chen, whose bravery for risking a dangerous escape from abusive local Chinese authorities is inspiring,\u201d said the organization\u2019s president and CEO, Elisa Massimino. \u201cHis daring defiance of a brutal regime gives courage to those in China and beyond who struggle for human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tReggie Littlejohn, president of Women\u2019s Rights Without Frontiers, a group that works to oppose forced abortions in China, praised both men for their courage. Littlejohn helped lead efforts to bring Chen to safety last spring.<\/p>\n
\t\"Chen Guangcheng is a towering champion of human rights, who with incomparable courage, stood alone against the Chinese totalitarian regime,\u201d she said. \u201cThe women of China and the world will long remember his bravery on their behalf.\"<\/p>\n
\tBale has also \u201cbecome a human rights champion in his own right,\u201d Littlejohn added, observing that the actor risked his own safety in seeking to visit Chen last December, attracting visibility that \u201cgreatly helped the international effort to free Chen.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cAnd Bale is brave to condemn the practice of forced abortion in China,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\n
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New York City, N.Y., Oct 27, 2012 \/ 07:51 am (CNA\/EWTN News).- Hollywood actor Christian Bale presented a human rights award to Chinese pro-life advocate Chen Guangcheng for fighting forced abortions in China, praising him as a courageous and inspirati…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\n
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