Chinese human rights activists and their family members have been put under close watch ahead of the International Human Rights Day on Thursday, with some people reporting difficulties in leaving their residences.

A number of people on Wednesday morning blocked the entrances to the homes of high-profile human rights lawyers Wang Quanzhang, Li Heping and Yu Wensheng but refused to give their identities, the attorneys’ wives said in separate posts on Twitter.

Wang’s wife Li Wenzu said a group turned up at their doorstep before 6 a.m. and would not let any of the family go out when she tried to take her father to hospital for consultation.

There were six or seven people, Wang told Apple Daily. They taped the peephole of the door to prevent the family from seeing and recording what was happening outside, he said.

He recognized one of them as a police officer who escorted him to Beijing from Jinan after his release from jail in April.

No reason was given for the restrictions on their physical movements, but Wang speculated that authorities did not want them to take part in Human Rights Day activities organized by foreign embassies.

After some negotiation, Wang was able to take his son to school and Li could go with her father to hospital, he said. But the group followed them around and required them to return home as soon as possible.

Yu’s wife, Xu Yan, told of a similar experience. Seven people blocked the way out at around 6 a.m. when she was sending her son to school, she tweeted. They told her that she would not be allowed to leave the house on Thursday or Friday either, she said.

They explicitly stated that the curb was meant to stop her from visiting the European Union Delegation office in Beijing or the United States Embassy to participate in Human Rights Day activities.

Xu, whose husband is being incarcerated for subversion, told Apple Daily that she did not understand the authorities’ restrictions on her movement, which she said were against the law.

Meanwhile, Li’s wife Wang Qiaoling said about 10 people appeared in front of her home at around 7 a.m. She was not permitted to walk the dog or take her daughter to school.

She later went onto a sloped roof at the balcony and shouted at the group, saying their acts were against human rights. After some negotiation, they allowed her to take the child to school but accompanied the pair all the way.

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