Taslima Nasrin (Bangladesh)
Lydia Cacio  (Mexico)
Philo Ikonya (Kenya)
Irina Ratushinskaya (Russia)

Read by Kate Holden, Paddy O’Reilly, Toni Jordan, Judith Rodriguez
Introduction by Cynthia Troup.
While the event is free, bookings are strongly recommended. Bookings can be made through the Wheeler Centre website by clicking on this link.
The reading will be from 2pm to 3pm only, so please arrive on time.

The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) will from this year recognise a reformist in the Arab world whose efforts to advance the rights of people in their societies embody the courageous and non-violent activism epitomized by Dr. King. The first such award has gone to Wajeha Al-Huwaider for her ceaseless efforts on behalf of women in Saudi Arabia. For a full account of the award and of Wajeha’s activities please look at this website.

The Haitian Centre is one of the newest in PEN and we were delighted that a centre had been formed in one of the world’s poorest and harshest countries.

Both Georges Anglade and Mireille Neptune were important to the social and cultural development of Haiti.

The following is from The Wall Street Journal, January 14, 2010, by Stephen Miller:

‘Mr. Anglade, 65, was born in Haiti and emigrated in the 1960s to France, where he studied geography. Active in the exile Haitian democracy movement that opposed the government of François Duvalier, he was imprisoned when he returned to Haiti in 1974, his daughter, Pascale Anglade, said.

Mr. Anglade lived in Montreal and was a professor of geography at the University of Quebec’s Montreal campus. He stayed active in the Haitian exile community.

‘If we can just move Haiti from misery to poverty, we’ll have done a lot,’ Mr. Anglade told the Guardian of London when Jean Bertrand Aristide was first elected president of Haiti, in 1991. A close advisor to the president, Mr. Anglade was appointed Minister of Public Works, Transport and Communication in 1995. He returned to Canada a year later.

Mr. Anglade was author of several books, most recently Haitian Laughter, a book of short stories told in lodyans, an oral narrative genre native to Haiti.

His wife, Mireille Anglade, was a retired economist who had worked for the United Nations.
In 2008, Mr. Anglade founded the Haitian chapter of PEN, the international organization that seeks freedom for writers. Mireille attended the Women Writers’ meetings at the Linz congress, so we got to know her a little. She wrote, among other books, L’Autre Moitié du Developpement, which shed light on the contribution of women to Haitian society.

We strongly condemn this most recent move of Chinese regime to signify its  increasing challenge to the universal values of freedom, democracy and human rights regardless of the widespread international and domestic criticisms of its ruthless violations of Chinese citizens¡¯ rights in general and continuous detention of Dr. Liu Xiaobo in particular.

Dr. Liu Xiaobo, an internationally-recognized literary critic and political commentator as well as the former and Honorary President of Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC), has been detained since 8 December 2008 and was indicted a year later on 11 December 2009 on ‘inciting subversion of state power’ for initiating and drafting Charter 08, a petition for constitutional  reform in China that has been so far cosigned by more than 10,000 Chinese citizens, as well as for criticizing Chinese Communist regime in six articles of his publications since 2005.

It is reported now that Dr. Liu is to be tried by the Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court in a few days.

We believe that to try Dr. Liu Xiaobo is not only to unscrupulously abuse the rule of law, but also to try all of us who share with Dr. Liu the responsibility to exercise the freedom of expression anywhere in the world.

Therefore, we call on all the communities, institutions and individuals in solidarity to press the Chinese authorities for the immediate and unconditional release of Dr. Liu Xiaobo.

Co-signed by:
Independent Chinese PEN Center
PEN American Center
Swiss German PEN
PEN Center USA
Sydney PEN
Melbourne PEN

The statement are also co-signed by several leading officers of the Internatinal PEN, the former and current International Presidents Jirí Grusa and John Ralston Saul, Vice-president Gloria Guardia，International Secretary Eugene Schoulgin, former and current chairpersons of Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) Karin Clark and Marian Botsford Fraser, and WiPC member Edwood Kovac. With a list of several typical cases, its main content is given below.

Dr. Liu Xiaobo, prominent Beijing writer and honorary president of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre, has been formally arrested for four months. He has been detained for eleven months and accused of “inciting subversion of state power” simply because in December last year he took part in drafting Charter 08, which demands that the Chinese government improve its political system and human rights situation, and because he penned several articles critical of government officials. He is one of many writers and human rights defenders to be imprisoned and prosecuted for this offence.

US President Obama received this year’s Nobel Peace Prize on 9 October. He will visit Beijing and Shanghai on 15-18 November to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao. The US House of Representatives had already passed resolutions to demand for the immediate release of Liu Xiaobo and Sichuan human rights defenders Tan Zuoran and Huang Qi who investigated the Sichuan earthquake last year. The House of Representatives also demanded that President Obama discuss the cases of Tan and Huang during his visit to China. Again, we call on President Obama to live up to the objective of the Nobel Peace Prize and the duties it entails. When he meets with Chinese leaders, he should ask the Chinese government to release all prisoners of conscience, including Liu Xiaobo, Tan Zuoren, Huang Qi, Guo Quan, Xie Changfa, Gao Zhisheng, Hu Jia, Shi Tao, Chen Guangcheng, Guo Feixiong, Jin Haike, Lu Gengsong, Yang Tongyan and Zheng Yichun.

We, therefore, demand that President Obama:

1) Realize the mission of the Nobel Peace Prize and demand the Chinese
Government release all imprisoned writers and prisoners of conscience

2) Respond to the resolutions passed by the US House of Representatives
demanding the immediate release of Liu Xiaobo, Tan Zuoren and Huang Qi

We also call on all other heads of state to use their influence to persuade
the Chinese government to release Liu Xiaobo and all imprisoned writers and
prisoners of conscience.

Co-signed by:

Independent Chinese PEN Centre
Jirí Grusa，former international president of the International PEN
John Ralston Saul, current international president of the International PEN

Gloria Guardia，vice-president of the International PEN
Eugene Schoulgin, international secretary of the International PEN

Karin Clark, former chairperson of Writers-in-Prison Committee of the International PEN
Marian Botsford Fraser, current chairperson of Writers-in-Prison Committee of the International PEN
Edwood Kovac, Committee member of Writers-in-Prison Committee of the International PEN
PEN American Center
Austrian PEN
PEN Canada
German PEN
French PEN

Justice and Peace Commission of the Hong Kong Catholic Diocese
China Human Rights Lawyers Concern Group
Scottish PEN
German Writers Abroad PEN
Pakistani PEN
Serbian PEN
Slovenian PEN
Russian PEN
Vietnamese Writers’ Abroad PEN
Uighur PEN
Tartar PEN
Hungarian PEN
Taipei Chinese PEN
Swiss Romand PEN
Tibetan Writers’ Abroad PEN
Zambian PEN
Basque PEN
Dutch PEN
Turkish PEN
Mongolian PEN
Swiss Italian PEN
Italian Trieste PEN
Swiss German PEN
Swedish PEN
Polish PEN
Portuguese PEN
Slovakian PEN
New Zealand PEN
Norwegian PEN
Kurdish PEN
Kazakh PEN
Egyptian PEN
Moroccan PEN
Japanese PEN
Korean PEN
Belarus PEN
Haitian PEN
Galician PEN
Italian PEN
Lithuanian PEN
Belgian PEN
Algerian PEN
Croatian PEN
Sierra Leone PEN
Danish PEN
Czech PEN
Nepal PEN
Sydney PEN
Melbourne PEN
Bulgarian PEN
Colombian PEN
Cuban PEN
English PEN
Iran PEN
Malawi PEN
Palestinian PEN
South African PEN
Finlish PEN
Icelandic PEN
Hong Kong Journalist Association
Hong Kong Christian Institute
Beijing Spring
Qi’s Cultural Foundation
Princeton China Initiative
Christians For Hong Kong Society
Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee
Laogai Research Foundation
Deng Liberty Foundation
Taipei Society
———————–

International PEN is the oldest human rights organization and international literary organization. The Independent Chinese PEN Center is among its 145 member centers and aims to protect Chinese writers’ freedom of expression and freedom to write worldwide and advocates for the rights of Chinese writers and journalists who are imprisoned, threatened, persecuted or harassed.

John Ralston Saul is a celebrated Canadian novelist and essayist and former President of Canadian PEN. He has been awarded, among others, Chile’s Pablo Neruda medal, Italy’s Premio Letterario Internazionale and the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres de France.

‘International PEN is the world’s most important and oldest freedom of speech and literary organisation. Almost 1000 writers in prison or in danger around the world look to us for help. We have to invent new ways of turning back the rise of authoritarian controls. Threats to freedom of speech are expanding in new directions, especially with the rise of populism in the post 9/11 world.
In addition, hundreds of minority and indigenous languages and cultures are in danger of extinction. This is the ultimate denial of freedom of speech.’ says Saul.