CHINA:The infamous system of allowing police to jail people for up to four years without trial is being re-examined, writes Clifford Coonanin Beijing
China's infamous "re-education through labour" system, which allows the police to jail everyone from political dissidents to drug addicts and prostitutes without going through the courts, may be abolished as part of the country's efforts to reform its legal system.
"Initially a relatively mild suppression of counter-revolutionary activities, laojiao [ re-education through labour] served as a useful way to punish dissent," the China Daily reported.
The system gives the police the power to sentence a person guilty of minor offences to up to four years in jail without trial.
There are 310 "re-education centres" around the country and about 400,000 people have been imprisoned in the 50 years since the rules were introduced, according to government data. Human rights groups believe the figure is higher, however.
Sentences are typically for one or two years and detainees are required to carry out penal labour.
The proposal is the latest in a series of efforts to reform China's legal system. China is aware that next year's Olympic Games will focus international attention on its human rights record and some reforms are being made within this context.
However, the changing legal system also reflects a growing openness in Chinese society and efforts to stop the potentially destabilising effects of calls for judicial reform.
The reform is a limited one, however. While Beijing may abolish re-education through labour, it retains a labour camp system known as "reform through labour", or laogai, where political activists have also been imprisoned.
The proposal is one of 20 laws and amendments to be discussed at China's annual parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC), which starts its meeting next week, the China Daily reported. Central to the debate is the issue of who decides on China's judicial system - the courts or the public security apparatus.
Under the current laojiao system, there is no judicial review until the punishment has been imposed. The police say it is a useful way of controlling petty crime and rehabilitating drug addicts, while also simplifying the process of investigative detention.
Critics within China say the system undermines the rule of law. Human rights campaigners, including the UN special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, and Amnesty International, have argued that re-education through labour should be abolished, saying it targets political activists, ethnic minorities and religious believers, and allows for the inhuman and degrading treatment of political prisoners.
Others say dissidents are much less harshly treated in the re-education through labour centres than in full prisons, and sentences are generally shorter.
The plan would rename the centres as correctional centres, and bars and gates would be taken away. The new centres would be more school-like, the reformers say, and the incarceration period would be shortened to less than 18 months, depending on the offence.
Wang Gongyi, vice-director of a judicial research institute attached to the ministry of justice, is one of the legal experts attempting to draft the new law abolishing re-education through labour. He said the practice contradicted aspects of the Chinese constitution and criminal law, as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, a UN human rights treaty which China signed in 1998.
Wang said the debate was still about whether detention of minor offenders should be decided by the court or left in police hands as an administrative procedure. Any changes would require that decisions to detain someone go through the judicial system first.
China's Supreme People's Court backs making detention decisions a matter for the courts, and legal experts describe the proposed rule change as "a concrete step to protect human rights as endowed by the constitution".
However, the ministry of public security, charged with maintaining stability, wants to maintain the current practice, with a judicial review coming after the administrative enforcement.
Earlier this year, China's most senior security official, Luo Gan, wrote in the Communist Party's leading journal that the system should be advanced, not abolished.
Proposals to change the system have been listed in the legislative plan for the annual NPC session since 2005, but have been pushed aside because of disagreements.
The China Daily wrote in an editorial that it was time to stop "foot-dragging" on the issue. "The system's inadequate concern for civil rights as well as lack of jurisprudence protection have made it increasingly out of step with the country's progress in protecting human rights," it said.