Geneva: A UN human rights panel has told China that it wrongfully arrested three prominent human rights activists accused of subversion and called on the government to release and compensate them.

The men were arrested as part of a widespread crackdown on human rights activists -- and the lawyers representing them -- that President Xi Jinping unleashed in 2015.

Hu Shigen in the dock. He was jailed for seven-and-a-half years. Credit:Weibo

The UN panel, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, made up of five independent experts, said Hu Shigen, Zhou Shifeng and Xie Yang had been punished for promoting human rights.

It said their treatment did not conform with China's obligations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and urged Beijing to consider amending its laws to bring them into conformity with international norms.