China reforms rights law amid global heat

Amid global criticism over its rights record, China on Monday announced reforms in laws protecting human rights as well as outlined measures to improve the conditions of prisons and detention centres.

Chinese judicial authorities have introduced reforms in many areas in order to further improve the legal guarantee procedure of human rights, an official white paper issued on Monday said.

Titled “New Progress in the Judicial Protection of Human Rights in China”, the White Paper issued by the central cabinet said China has introduced reforms in the case admitting system by converting the case-filing review system into a case-filing register system.

China has revised the criminal procedure law, and implemented principles of legality, in dubio pro reo, exclusion of unlawful evidence, the white paper said.

The reforms followed criticism over the treatment meted out to dissidents and the human rights lawyers with prison terms.

The country also revises the civil procedure law to effectively settle disputes, revised the administrative procedure law to strengthen the protection of legitimate rights and interests of private parties in administrative lawsuits, the white paper said, adding it enacted the first anti-domestic violence law to strengthen legal protection of the personal rights of victims of domestic violence.

Judicial authorities have “put in place a system to exclude unlawful evidence and protect the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects,” the paper said.

In 2014, the ministry of public security issued more explicit regulations concerning the scope of and interrogation recording requirements for cases subject to audio and video recording.

The paper also outlined measures to improve the conditions of prisons and detention houses and to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of detainees to address criticism over labour camps and poor conditions in jails.

The interrogation rooms of public security organs and detention houses are all equipped with audio and video recording facilities to prevent misconduct in law enforcement such as extorting confessions by torture and obtaining evidence through illegal means. In 2015, the procuratorial organs at all levels demanded the withdrawal of 10,384 cases wrongly filed by investigation bodies and regulated 31,874 cases of illegal conduct involving abuse of compulsory measures and unlawfully obtaining evidence, the white paper said.