TY - JOUR
T1 - Political opportunities in non-democracies
T2 - The case of Chinese weiquan lawyers
AU - Nesossi, Elisa
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, Taylor & Francis.
PY - 2015/10/3
Y1 - 2015/10/3
N2 - The present article examines human rights practice by China’s weiquan (‘rights-defence’) lawyers in the years 2003–2014. Notwithstanding the Chinese authorities’ hostility and overt repression towards rights defenders, the number of weiquan lawyers has increased over the past decade. Most of them are able to bring cases to court, publish in foreign media and cooperate with foreign donors. This article is an attempt to examine why and how this has been possible. It does so by relying on the theoretical framework of the political opportunity structure applied to non-democratic contexts.
AB - The present article examines human rights practice by China’s weiquan (‘rights-defence’) lawyers in the years 2003–2014. Notwithstanding the Chinese authorities’ hostility and overt repression towards rights defenders, the number of weiquan lawyers has increased over the past decade. Most of them are able to bring cases to court, publish in foreign media and cooperate with foreign donors. This article is an attempt to examine why and how this has been possible. It does so by relying on the theoretical framework of the political opportunity structure applied to non-democratic contexts.
KW - China
KW - Human rights lawyers
KW - Nondemocracies
KW - Political opportunities
KW - Repression
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84943351453&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13642987.2015.1075305
DO - 10.1080/13642987.2015.1075305
M3 - Article
SN - 1364-2987
VL - 19
SP - 961
EP - 978
JO - International Journal of Human Rights
JF - International Journal of Human Rights
IS - 7
ER -