China's curbs on lawyers could lead to unrest -group

BEIJING, Dec 11 (Reuters) A human rights watchdog urged China today to repeal restrictions on lawyers representing protesters in collective disputes and warned the rules could worsen social unrest.

The report by New York-based Human Rights Watch was a response to a set of ''Guiding Opinions'', released by the government-controlled All-China Lawyers Association in March, that restrict lawyers' ability to handle ''mass cases''.

''These regulations relegate lawyers to the role of government informers and Ministry of Justice subordinates,'' Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Sophie Richardson said in a statement.

Despite the ruling Communist Party's emphasis on maintaining social stability, protests are becoming increasingly common in response to corruption, land grabs, environmental disasters and a growing gap between rich and poor.

Lawyers who represent such protesters have themselves become a target, facing harassment and detention for taking on cases deemed sensitive to China's rulers, who are intent on maintaining the party's grip on power.

Laywers for Chen Guangcheng, a rural activist who campaigned against family planning abuses, were repeatedly harassed ahead of Chen's trial and detained just before the trial, leaving stand-in lawyers who knew little about his case to defend him.

Earlier this year, outspoken human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng was arrested on charges of inciting subversion, an arrest that activists said was another step toward stifling their efforts to expand citizens' rights through courts.

The All-China Lawyers Association said at the time the rules were needed to ensure that sensitive disputes did not threaten social stability.

But the Human Rights Watch report warned that restrictions on lawyers could fuel frustration and magnify tensions rather than curbing unrest.

''Putting a lid on the activities of lawyers may remove a vital pressure release valve for the one-party system,'' it said.

''If legal avenues look futile to protesters, it could intensify increasing levels of social unrest,'' Richardson added.

The Guiding Opinions define mass cases as those involving 10 or more plaintiffs and require at least three partners in a firm to sign off before a lawyer accepts such a case.

They also stipulate that lawyers who handle such cases must ''accept supervision and guidance by judicial administrative departments'' and warn that lawyers ''must not stir up the news'' and should exercise caution in contacts with foreign media.

Human Rights Watch said the government should repeal the rules and release all lawyers arrested, adding that China also needed more fundamental reforms that limit the authority of judicial bureaux over lawyers and make the All-China Lawyers Association fully independent.

Since the 1990s, lawyers have gained a degree of independence and the state has been encouraging the idea that citizens can turn to courts if their basic rights are violated, but the Guiding Opinions are a setback to those advances, the report said.

''Despite this overall improvement for lawyers and their clients, progress remains tenuous and open to reversals,'' it said.

Reuters SP RS0919