Missing human rights lawyer, Gao Zhisheng. (The Epoch Times)

The one-year anniversary of the disappearance of renowned Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng was marked on Feb. 5 by the filing of a petition with the United Nations (UN) Working Group on Involuntary Disappearances. And it received strong support from big names in international human rights. Filed by Freedom Now, a panel of international human rights experts put their names behind it, including Jerome A. Cohen, Irwin Cotler MP, David Matas and David Kilgour.

The petition requests the UN’s assistance in demanding that the Chinese communist regime, in accordance with Chinese law, provide information regarding the whereabouts and physical condition of Gao Zhisheng. It also requests that Gao be granted access to a lawyer, with the opportunity to challenge his internment.

Sound of Hope Radio (SOH) interviewed Jerome A. Cohen, a member of the newly formed legal counsel working group that contributed to the petition.

Dr. Cohen is a professor of law at New York University School of Law, an expert in Chinese law, a senior fellow for Asia Studies for the Council on Foreign Relations, and is of counsel with the international law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP.

Speaking Mandarin, he explained that the petition's main focus is about requiring the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to address the world about Gao’s condition, and what the CCP has done to him.

“They [CCP] should tell us what punishment they’ve inflicted on Gao: have they tortured him? They have brutally punished him before … They must tell us: what’s his condition now? But until now, they haven’t given us a response … ”

Cohen told SOH the petition calls on the UN to exert its power, by requesting that the Chinese Communist regime provide details about Gao’s fate: “Where is he now? Why won’t the CCP explain to us where he is? Why did they arrest him? Why is he missing? Is there any reason that for one year, Gao’s circumstances have been kept a secret—the nation’s biggest secret? Now the world is starting to demand an explanation about Gao’s situation.”

He continued, “It is the worst thing. I hope they [UN] can deliver the message to the Chinese Communist regime, and ask them to correct the matter and obey the law.

“The CCP should know that we all want to be reassured about Attorney Gao’s status. It harms China’s reputation. They should know that if someone has made mistakes, they should admit it and tell the world that they are trying to correct the mistakes.

“However, they are afraid of answering the questions of reporters and other governments. This influences the attitude of the world and the opinions of other countries. It spoils the relationship between China and the U.S.–-it’s bad.”

Cohen personally knows Gao. “He supports democracy and opposes dictatorship. He defended many people and organizations that should be defended. All other human rights lawyers and rights-defending lawyers respect him. His situation earns much sympathy from many foreign legal organizations and other governments. They support his stance on democracy.”

Cohen says that whatever the CCP does to Gao not only tramples its own constitution and laws, but as a member of international human rights constituencies, it also tramples international human rights law.

“First, the CCP violates its own country’s law. In principal, it supports rule of law, but in practice, it actually violates the law. Second, the Chinese communist regime has signed on to more than 20 international human rights treaties, while it violates the law in the most basic standards of international human rights. From the perspective of national or international law, the way it deals with Gao’s case is illegal. It should be corrected.” Cohen said.

He expressed what he thinks is the main reason that the CCP avoids publicizing Gao’s situation. “It [CCP] violates the Constitution of China and China's criminal law. It is clear. That’s why the Chinese Communist regime can’t face it.”

Gao Zhisheng, born in Shaanxi Province, is one of China's top ten well-known human rights lawyers. During 2004 to 2005, he wrote three open letters to the National People's Congress, regime leader Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, to contest the CCP’s inhuman persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and other groups in China. He was subsequently taken into custody, brutally tortured by the CCP and released. He disappeared a year ago and has not been heard from since.

Read the original Chinese article.