The Defenders: Twenty Years of China’s Human Rights Lawyers

A group of “rights defence lawyers” emerged in China in the early 2000s. From their first appearance, through the globally reported “709 crackdown” of 2015, and up to the present day, the Chinese government has disregarded the UN Basic Principles on the Role of Lawyers and treated human rights lawyers as enemies. Disappearances, torture, imprisonment, the cancellation or revocation of licences — the pressure has never stopped. This 68-minute documentary looks back over twenty years of China’s human rights lawyers and what they have endured and resisted.

Thirty-three lawyers appear on camera in video or audio, and many more are present in photographs, forming a collective portrait. Because of the limits on available material and the difficulty and risk of filming anew, many lawyers could not be included.