Extracted from Xinhua: “China’s legislature has underlined the principle of “respecting and safeguarding human rights” by explicitly writing it into a draft amendment to the nation’s Criminal Procedure Law.
The draft was submitted Thursday to the ongoing 5th session of the 11th National People’s Congress (NPC) for third reading. …
Since China is in a transition period with prominent incidence of conflicts, the number of criminal cases remains large and severe violent crimes are on increase, Wang Zhaoguo, vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), said. …
China’s criminal justice system should be improved step by step based on the country’s reality, he said, summarizing, “Improvements should be made to keep up with the times without surpassing the present realities or blindly copying any foreign judicial and litigation systems.”
PREVENTING TORTURE OF SUSPECTS
… The draft amendment, for the first time, has made clear that confessions extorted through illegal means, such as torture, and witness testimony and depositions of victims obtained illegally, such as by violence or threats, should be excluded during the trials.
To institutionally prevent extortion of confession by torture, the draft has regulated that suspects be sent to a detention facility for custody after being detained or arrested and be interrogated there. The process of interrogation shall be audio or video-taped. …
“The revisions on ruling out illegal evidence and strictly regulating the procedure of collecting evidence will effectively curb torturing practices,” he went on.
REVIEWING DEATH PENALTY
The draft amendment also specifies the procedures for the Supreme People’s Court to review death penalty cases in order that such cases will be handled “with sufficient care” and “legal oversight” will be strengthened. According to the draft, the supreme court shall issue an order approving or disapproving a death sentence after reviewing it. If the supreme court overrules the death sentence, it may remand the case for retrial or revise the judgement thereof. …
“The proposed revisions will improve the procedure and guarantee the legal oversight necessary before taking somebody’s life,” he said.
LAWYERED UP
A proposed revision allowing the criminal suspect to engage a lawyer as his defense counsel when the police first interrogate him has been widely welcomed by lawyers. Under the current law, a suspect can only have a defense counsel when the case is handed over to prosecutors. Lawyers can only provide legal help for suspects under police investigation. …
DEFINING HOUSE SURVEILLANCE
The draft amendment defines the measure of house surveillance and stipulates the conditions for its application. …
NOTIFYING FAMILY
The draft amendment also strictly limits exceptions to the provisions of notifying family members of the suspect after a coercive measure is adopted.
The current law, while providing that a person’s family be notified within 24 hours of their detention or arrest, also gives two exceptions — one is under the circumstance where the notification may obstruct investigation, and the other is if his or her family can not be reached.
Under the proposed revision, for a person under arrest, the first exception is deleted since “obstruct investigation” is ambiguous.
In cases of detention, the draft amendment regulates that, only when he is involved in crimes of endangering national security and terrorism, the police may not inform his family for fear of hindering investigation.
It also stipulates that, for people under house surveillance in a designated place, their families should be informed within 24 hours after the coercive measure is taken, unless they can not be reached.”
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-03/08/c_131453966.htm
Although some Western human rights campaigners are bound to assert: “not far enough”, the very fact that this issue is being taken into account in the new criminal procedure law revision must be a step in the right direction. In many ways, the Communist Party is demonstrating that it is maturing and slowly but surely getting less fraught about subversion. It is realising that most of the protests are about tangible problems often caused by over zealous or, worse, corrupt local officials and not about challenging the power or authority of the Party.
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