By Shannon Tiezzi
A UN report finds that torture remains “deeply entrenched” in China’s criminal justice system.
A UN body responsible for monitoring compliance with the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment expressed serious concerns over China’s use of torture, prolonged detention, and treatment of lawyers in its latest report. China was one of six countries whose state reports were considered by the UN Committee Against Torture (CAT) this session (Liechtenstein, Azerbaijan, Austria, Denmark, and Jordan were the other five).
After going over China’s report and raising questions and concerns to a Chinese delegation, the CAT issued its concluding observations on China. First, the committee noted some positive advances since the last periodic review was conducted in 2008. In 2012, amendments to China’s Criminal Procedure Law banned the use of confessions obtained through torture and called for audio and video recordings of interrogations in major criminal cases. The 2012 revisions also specified that suspects are entitled to meet with a defense lawyer within 48 hours of making a request. CAT also approved of China’s move to abolish the “reeducation through labor” system in 2014.
Yet despite that progress, there were loopholes and problems with the implementation of these advances. On the ban on confessions obtained through torture, the committee noted that the torture prohibition “may not cover all public officials and persons acting in an official capacity.” It also noted that the ban doesn’t apply to torture when it is used “for purposes other than extracting confessions from defendants or criminal suspects” – for example, beatings or mistreatment designed to intimidate already-convicted prisoners.
Also, when a defendant claims a confession was obtained under torture, the burden of proof is on the suspect, not the procuratorate and the courts, where the CAT recommends it should rest. The CAT concluded that there is no effective oversight or accountability for investigators – particularly public security officials – who are involved in allegations of torture, even when a prisoner dies in custody. The CAT called on China to make sure that all public officials “can be prosecuted for torture,” noting that China’s current laws and enforcement mechanisms “create actual or potential loopholes for impunity.”
Overall, the CAT said in its concluding observations that it “remains seriously concerned over consistent reports indicating that the practice of torture and ill-treatment is still deeply entrenched in the criminal justice system, which overly relies on confessions as the basis for convictions.”
Read the full story at The Diplomat