CAT/C/CHN/CO/4
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(b)
The 2007 amended Law on Lawyers, guaranteeing lawyers’ right to meet with
criminal suspects;
(c)
The 2005 Law on Administrative Punishments for Public Order and Security,
which requires inter alia that security organs shall adhere to principles of respect for
human rights guarantees and which, in particular, according to the Representative of the
State party, “has, for the first time established in national law the exclusion rule of illegal
evidence”.
5.
The Committee appreciates the promulgation of the following new regulations:
(a)
The amendment, since 2005, of the Procedural Provisions for the Handling of
Administrative Cases by Public Security Organs and the Procedural Provisions for the
Handling of Criminal Cases by Public Security Organs;
(b)
Issuance by the Ministry of Justice (14 February 2006) of “Six prohibitions on
people’s prison police” and “Six prohibitions for RTL guards”; and by the Supreme
People’s Procuratorate (26 July 2006) of “Regulations on filing cases standard on
infringing rights by dereliction of duty”, focused on preventing abuses in detention and
investigating abuses;
(c)
Reforms of the death penalty system aimed at creating a system of review that
could ensure that wrongful convictions are overturned before executions are carried out;
(d)
The prohibition of corporal punishment of children in schools and judicial
processes.
6.
The Committee welcomes the ongoing efforts made by the State party to combat torture
practices, including the adoption of administrative regulations prohibiting the use of torture to
obtain confessions, the provision of nationwide training of the police and the introduction of
audio and video recording in interrogation rooms, notwithstanding the lack of adequate methods
of enforcement for the administrative regulations and the lack of changes to criminal or criminal
procedure laws.
7.
The Committee welcomes the accession of China to:
(a)
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, in 2001;
(b)
The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of
children, child prostitution and child pornography, in 2002; and
(c)
The Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the
involvement of children in armed conflict, in 2008.
8.
The Committee also notes with interest that China has invited and received a visit from
the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment, which was made in November-December 2005. The Committee further notes that
the Government of China has also received the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention twice.