 Xu
Wenli and Xu Jin Remarks
Xu Wenli (in Chinese): I am honored to be here tonight to accept this
award with my daughter. She will read some remarks on my behalf. Thank
you all for coming tonight. It’s a pleasure to see you here.
Xu Jin: Good evening, my father just said: [translated the above]
***
Xu Jin (in English): Here are my father’s remarks: I want to
talk tonight about fatherhood and human rights.
I wrote a book in 1984 that later was published in the U.S. because
of this, I was locked in solitary confinement for 5 years in a 4’
by 5’ cell. For more then 3 years I was not permitted any family
visits.
In my secretly compiled Handwritten Notes in Prison, I wrote
the following entry:
“It has been four years since
I came here. Last New Year’s Day my daughter wrote to me that
she was watching a Japanese TV show about a boy who travels with a
goose. It’s adapted from a story written by a Swedish Nobel
prize winning author. My daughter enjoyed the show very much. She
said in her letter: ’I have watched a few of the 52 episodes
and how I wish I could sit on your lap and watch it together with
you. I miss you, dad.’
In my notes, I also remembered words from another of my daughter’s
letters written when she was 10:
“It is New Year’s
Eve today (China’s most important holiday) and I wonder how
come we are separated when every other family is whole and united.
Alas! There seems to be no hope, but I still look forward to the day
when we will be together forever.’
These words, every word and every phrase from a 10-year old, touched
my heart. That was the best reward a prisoner could have ever expected
- deep love from his wife and daughter. That is an award that
anybody would be eager to accept.”
Now I am here to accept this award from you - which not only
recognizes my fight for democracy, freedom, and human rights in China,
but also recognizes the love and support of my wife and daughter.
Had it not been for their love, I would not have survived prison and
would not be standing here today.
It is my daughter who most deserves this great honor. In her early
life she carried the burden and discrimination that was not supposed
to be forced onto a child. To free her father and let the world know
what is happening in China, over the years she has cried for justice
and advocated for freedom. As a father, I am very proud to say that
it is the greatest honor in my life to share this award with my daughter.
Xu Jin: My father has said his greatest honor is to receive this award
with me. I want to say, that the greatest honor of my life was to
see him that day and embrace him. I had not seen my father in five
years, and that day, I saw not just my father, but my hero, and a
free man. This was the greatest moment of my life.
We feel privileged to be honored tonight. Thank you Lawyers Committee.
Thank you Foley Hoag, whose volunteer lawyers helped us win asylum.
And to all of you here tonight, thank you for supporting these fighters
for human rights.
Good night!
| Archbishop
Pius Ncube
Archbishop Pius Ncube was interviewed at the dinner by Tom
Brokaw, the anchor of NBC Nightly News.
Listen to an interview with Archbishop Pius Ncube on Chicago
Public Radio. Audio» |
 |
Honored for Extraordinary
Leadership
 Tom
A. Bernstein Remarks
Thank you, Mike. I’m glad Bernsteins of all generations
are here tonight to listen to those kind words. They should give me
a little boost at home, where I’m better known for my work as
dishwasher or as golf caddy.
I want to thank you all for being here tonight. I especially want
to thank Jane Hartley and Ralph Schlosstein, two great friends,
who as tonight’s co-chairs, worked hard to make our dinner
such a success.
I also want to congratulate my friend and partner Bill Zabel for
his extraordinary leadership.
And, as always, and for everything, I want to thank my wife Andi.
I was 25 when I first met up with the Lawyers Committee -- and
that was 25 years ago. I have spent half of my life -- and all of
my adult life -- with this organization, and in particular with
Mike Posner, who has led it from the start.
When you spend 25 years with a group, you are shaped by its work,
and by the people who do that work. I want to thank the remarkable
people at the Lawyers Committee for the opportunity they have given
me -- and so many like me. It is these people who should be honored
and I accept this award on their behalf.
Mike Posner was hired to lead the Lawyers Committee at the tender
age of 27, only a few years out of law school. One of his first
moves was to recruit young volunteer lawyers at leading law firms
to take on political asylum cases. I was one of those lawyers.
In fact, it was at this time that my father, Bob Bernstein, was
busy founding Human Rights Watch. So I knew a bit about human rights
-- and wanted to be directly involved.
When I got started, the Lawyers Committee consisted of Mike, a
tiny office and a budget of $50,000. Over the past quarter century,
I have watched Mike build the organization into one of the leading
human rights groups in the world.
The Lawyers Committee has always had an extraordinary staff and
a deep bench. Tonight, I want to single out three of our leaders
who have guided our work in the last ten years.
The first person is Eleanor Acer, who runs our political asylum
program. Asylum seekers have no truer friends than Eleanor and her
team.
I also want to thank Elisa Massimino who runs our Washington office.
Elisa is a force of nature and she and her crew are incredibly effective
in advancing our human rights agenda in Washington.
And then there’s Neil Hicks. Neil and his team lead our efforts
to make sure human rights advocates, like those we honor tonight,
can operate in safety.
Eleanor, Elisa and Neil are backed up by many others who play leading
roles at the Lawyers Committee. And speaking of leading roles …
I always wondered who would play Mike Posner in the movie of his
life’s work. And now we know. Court TV is making a movie inspired
by one of our asylum cases and our dedicated volunteer lawyers.
It will air in January. Henry Schlieff, the head of court TV is
here with us tonight, and was kind enough to lend us a clip.
Roll clip.
So what do you think, Mike? I’m not sure you talk quite like
that. And I know you have more hair. But it makes the point pretty
well.
Over the years, Mike and I have been through a lot together. I
want to tell you about one recent experience we had with Xu Wenli
and his daughter Jing Jing --two of tonight’s honorees.
A little background: I first met Xu Wenli on December 25th of last
year -- his first day as a free man in the United States. In our
conversation that night, he told me he’d love to see an American
baseball game. So last May I took him to a Mets game. There were
nine of us -- Mike, me, our kids, and, most important, Xu Wenli
and his wife and daughter.
It’s the 7th inning stretch and Xu Wenli excuses himself
(in Chinese) to visit the men’s room. I ask his daughter Jing
Jing if it’s o.k. -- does he need a guide? She assures me
that her dad has a fine sense of direction and will not get lost.
Ten minutes later, there’s no sign of Xu. Mike volunteers
to go look for him. Ten minutes later, there’s no Xu and no
Mike. I spring into action. I find Mike guarding the aisle, looking
everywhere for Xu. Mike is calm. I’m not. He stays put. I
check everywhere. No Xu. When I get back, Mike, who hasn’t
moved, agrees with me --this doesn’t look good.
We’ve lost the leading democracy advocate in China -- one
of the great men of the world -- on his way to the men’s room
at Shea stadium.
And then, lo and behold, who appears before us but Xu Wenli. And,
he’s got nine big cups of vanilla ice cream -- all covered
with sprinkles.
Mike and I can’t stop grinning. When we get back to our seats,
Xu’s daughter Jing Jing translates. There was a long line
at the Carvel stand. It took forever. The ice cream was Xu’s
way of saying thanks.
For me and Mike, a light, but touching moment with a brave and
gentle man.
And now for the more serious part. Mike inspires all of us. For
the past 25 years, he has been one of a small handful of individuals
who have made human rights a permanent part of the world’s
vocabulary. He has done this with exceptional creativity, persistence
and modesty. He leads by example and his dedication and good judgment
are legendary. He is in this for the long haul. It’s no mistake
that he runs marathons in his spare time.
Mike, you have led us through the first 25 years and we’re
counting on you for the next 25. Thank you Mike and thank you the
Lawyers Committee.
William D. Zabel Remarks
Mike, thank you for that extravagant introduction.
I wish my mother were still alive as she would actually believe
it, although knowing my inimitable mother she would have wanted
to make a few corrections or additions.
I am very flattered to be honored this evening especially with
my good friend and colleague, Tom Bernstein, and I also feel privileged
to serve on such a distinguished board at The Lawyers Committee—all
of whom deserve to be honored for the many things they do.
Nevertheless, I must say the most deserving honorees are those
who toil every day for the cause of human rights, three special
ones whom we are honoring tonight, and a fourth, Mike Posner, our
own executive director.
One such hero, Arthur Helton, will not be with us tonight. Arthur,
a respected lawyer and human rights activist, devoted his professional
life to improving the lives of refugees and finding ways to ease
their plight. The Lawyers Committee was fortunate to have him with
us for twelve years. In those years he crafted and nurtured our
refugee project and built our legal program of representing asylum
seekers. In August while on a humanitarian mission in Iraq, Arthur
was killed in the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad.
The words of the poet Stephen Spender say it best about him:
I think continually of those who were truly great
The names of those who in their lives fought for life
Who wore at their hearts the fire's center?
Born of the sun, they traveled for too short a while towards
The sun and left the vivid air signed with their honor.
For those of you who did not know Arthur, yours is a great loss;
for those of us who did, our loss is even greater.
Arthur's life and works proved that the law can be a great force
for social justice. No free society flourishes or even exists where
the rule of law is not respected and enforced. Every thoughtful
person recognizes the need to establish the rule of law and a workable
constitution in Iraq and Afghanistan and other such countries throughout
the world.
In my more limited way, I’ve tried personally to use the
law as a force for social justice, most clearly in the fields of
civil liberties and human rights. For me, it began as a volunteer
lawyer in Mississippi in the summer of 1965 where I was the object
of Molotov cocktails being thrown at us in a Congress for Racial
Equality shack in Canton, Mississippi by Klu Klux Klanners.
Later, I was privileged to represent The Lawyers Committee in Chile
during the darkest days under Pinochet and in the chaotic days in
the Philippines after the overthrow of President Marcos, where my
Filippino colleague, Al Suriago, was brutally murdered only a few
days after I left him in Manila. There have been other missions
to Russia, Romania, China and elsewhere. I have seen people treated
in unimaginable ways. And I also saw others risking their lives
to defend human rights.
Some of you here tonight have already demonstrated your own commitment
to human rights by serving as volunteer lawyers in our asylum cases.
[Last year our volunteer lawyers represented over 1,000 applicants
for political asylum, winning over 90% of the cases and contributing
over 65,000 hours of legal time, valued at more than $17 million.]
But one need not be a lawyer. Our recent honorees include a laborer,
a professor of sociology, a physician and an archbishop. I urge
more of you to get involved in our work here and in Washington.
It consists of many efforts to protect liberty, for example, our
important study, Fire
and Broken Glass, which focused on the alarming rise
of anti-Semitism in Europe. Try to find a way to promote human rights!
Remember the words of Winston Churchill: "We make a living
by what we get. We make a life by what we give."
I want to thank my friends, Roger Altman and Jurate Kazickas, for
their extraordinary efforts in co-chairing this dinner. I want to
thank my firm Schulte Roth & Zabel for its generous support
of my work at The Lawyers Committee, and I’m very pleased
that so many of my partners and colleagues are here tonight. Special
kudos to my able assistant, Lynn Witkowski who yearly, toils tirelessly
for this dinner; and of course to my family--my greatest supporter
and life partner, Deborah Miller, and our three sons Richard, David
and Gregory who are here with their lovely and talented wives, Lisa,
Erin and Cindy.
Finally, thanks to all of you for coming. Your presence here and
your generosity is for me the highest honor.
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