Human Rights Watch [advocacy website] urged China Monday to "repeal restrictions on lawyers handling collective disputes and representing protesters." In a new report [text; press release], HRW slammed rules adopted by the government-controlled All China Lawyers Association [group website, in Chinese; English backgrounder] in March, which place restrictions on lawyers representing plaintiffs in cases brought by 10 or more people. The Guiding Opinions on Lawyers Handling Mass Cases [text] require lawyers to "accept guidance" from the government. HRW said: "The new restrictions signal an end to a potentially promising era of legal reform and may even exacerbate widespread social unrest as citizens are denied meaningful legal avenues to solve disputes often caused by local officials’ abuses of power."
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