CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- Chinese pro-life activist Chen Guangcheng has announced a new three-year partnership with the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., as well as with two other human rights groups.<\/p>\n\tThe blind human rights advocate will also partner with the Witherspoon Institute, a non-profit organization focused on moral reasoning in a free society, and the Lantos Foundation, a human rights organization which promotes the advance of human rights in American foreign policy.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cI believe that human rights supersedes partisan politics and is greater than national borders as well,\u201d Chen said, adding that he looks forward to a \u201cnew starting point\u201d and working for institutions \u201cthat are not intimidated by the powerful.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe kinds of concerns that he expressed on human life issues are something that Americans really need to hear,\u201d Catholic University of America president John Garvey told CNA.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThe lack of concern for human life or respect that we have seen in the last 40 years in America reaches its highest form in places like where he's lived.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tChen, who has been blind since childhood, became a self-taught human rights lawyer while in China, speaking out in particular against forced abortions and sterilizations under the country's one-child policy.<\/p>\n
\tHis activism attracted the attention of the Chinese government, and Chen spent four years in prison for his advocacy. In September 2010, he was placed under house arrest with no formal charges, and has said that during this time he and his family were treated harshly, beaten and denied proper medical care.<\/p>\n
\tIn April 2012, Chen escaped from house arrest, seeking refuge in the U.S. embassy in Beijing. Attracting growing international attention and voicing concern for the safety of his family, Chen was offered a fellowship at New York University\u2019s law school in May 2012. The Chinese government agreed to allow him to travel with his immediate family to the U.S.<\/p>\n
\tNew York University announced in June that Chen's fellowship was ending, stating that the position was meant to be a temporary post. The pro-life activist claimed in a June 17 statement that the university ended his fellowship following \u201cgreat, unrelenting pressure\u201d from the Chinese government.<\/p>\n
\tAt the Oct. 2 press conference, the Witherspoon Institute and the Catholic University of America announced that Chen would begin this month in three-year prestigious human rights fellowships, and the Lantos Foundation said that the activist will take on the role of senior advisor.<\/p>\n
\tChen commented at the press conference, through a translator, that the opportunity to partner with these groups will \u201cset up a platform from which I am able to speak up about facts and realities of the Chinese Communist Party's violation of human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHe thanked the American people for offering him refuge in the United States and voiced a desire to join with the organizations offering him fellowships and \u201cwork closely for all mankind.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cWe will make concerted efforts to defend all mankind, including the Chinese people,\u201d Chen affirmed, adding that the new opportunity will help to \u201csafeguard human dignity\u201d for the most vulnerable.<\/p>\n
\tMatthew Franck, director of the center at the Witherspoon Institute where Chen will be a senior fellow, told CNA that the organization wants to help Chen \u201cbring visibility and greater public significance to the plight of freedom and democracy in China.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\u201cChen is a truth teller \u2013 it is our wish that he continue to tell the truth about human rights abuses in China.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tFranck added during the press conference that the Witherspoon Institute \u201cis devoted to freedoms, and among them religious freedom,\u201d both domestic and international.<\/p>\n
\tRichard Nelson Swett, treasurer of the Lantos Foundation, remarked that \u201cthe fight for human rights transcends the prosaical political battles,\u201d and that the \u201cspirit of independence\u201d and concern for human rights that Chen embodies is shared with the foundation's namesake, the late congressman Tom Lantos.<\/p>\n
\tThe organization looks forward to collaborating with the \u201cactive leader and voice on the behalf of literally tens of millions\u201d of Chinese citizens, Swett said. He also expressed his pleasure that Chen's experiences would demonstrate that \u201ccare and concern for human rights\u201d spreads beyond the \u201cpolarized politics of this world.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tGarvey praised Chen\u2019s \u201cvalue and advocacy for human rights in China\u201d and his work in exposing the country\u2019s one child policy and forced abortions, and said he was \u201cdelighted to welcome Mr. Chen to our university.\u201d<\/p>\n
\tHe commented that this work of \u201cprotecting the rights of the poor and the vulnerable resonates with the mission of the Catholic University of America\u201d and would benefit academic life at the college.<\/p>\n
\tChen's \u201centhusiastic support for his defense of human rights in China and around the world\u201d will \u201cbe a witness\u201d to the moral foundations that the university seeks to instill in its students as well, Garvey added.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cChen's own witness, which has been very courageous,\u201d he told CNA, \u201cis a wonderful model for our students to learn those virtues that he has exhibited in his fight against the difficulties he has experienced in China.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Washington D.C., Oct 2, 2013 \/ 06:14 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- Chinese pro-life activist Chen Guangcheng has announced a new three-year partnership with the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., as well as with two other human rights groups.<\/p>\n
…<\/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-4420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\n
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