This is a website dedicated to gathering support for the courageous 300 who signed Charter 08 and published it in China on the 60th anniversary of the UN Human Rights Declaration in December 2008.

Charter 08 is a manifesto drafted and signed by Chinese intellectuals calling for reform of China's human rights. It was issued on 10 December 2008 to mark the 60th anniversary of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is inspired by Charter 77, the Czech manifesto that called for reform in communist Czechoslovakia. When Charter 08 was issued it was signed by 303 Chinese intellectuals and dissidents, and has since been signed by over 8000 people inside and outside China.

This website is sponsored by Edward McMillan-Scott, a Vice-President of the European Parliament.  McMillan-Scott’s campaign for a political boycott of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was backed by the Presidents of the European Commission and Parliament, as well as the EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner. After his last visit to Beijing in 2006, all the Chinese with whom he had contact - reformists, ex-prisoners of conscience - were arrested, imprisoned and in some cases tortured.  Among them were noted Christian human rights attorney Mr Gao Zhisheng and Mr Hu Jia.

Beijing walked out of an EU/China summit in December after McMillan-Scott’s nominee for the European Parliament’s annual Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Expression went to his imprisoned Beijing contact, green campaigner Mr Hu Jia (right)

"It is vital that European and worldwide pressure is maintained on this tyrannous regime.  The heroic authors and signatories of Charter 08 deserve the most widespread support."