By Luo Haocai
The Third Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) was a vitally important meeting during the decisive stage of China constructing a well-off society in an all-roundway. It endorsed the CPC Central Committee’s “Decision on Certain Key Issues on Comprehensively Deepening Reform” (hereafter, “the decision.”) The decision condensed the thinking and wisdom of the entire Party and society regarding comprehensively deepening reform and made a series of new breakthroughs in theory and politics related to reform. It was a general deployment and mobilization for comprehensively deepening reform and will play a significant and far-reaching role in pushing forward the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
The decision put its starting and ending points as promoting social fairness and justice as well as enhancing prosperity and benefits for the people. Human rights, which are included in the interests and rights of the people in modern times, should be placed in a fundamental and essential position. The decision reiterated that “the state respects and guarantees human rights,” so that the guarantee of human rights would penetrate all measures for comprehensively deepening reform and help spread the benefits of reform to the whole population in a fairer and more vigorous way. The decision made further stipulations regarding the pledge, made in the report of the 18th CPC National Congress,that human rights should be earnestly respected and ensured. Important explanations and plans regarding judicial protection for human rights were also expressed in the decision.
1. Establishing the rule of law in China and pushing forward human rights progress
The protection and realization of human rights are a comprehensive and systematic project. It cannot be separated from every aspect of social development and the domestic and international environment. Fundamentally, however, it must rely on institutions and the rule of law. We should continue our efforts to establish the rule of law in China and adhere to running the country according to the rule of law. We should jointly promote governance in line with the law and administration in accordance with the law. We should persist in the rule of law for the country, the government and society. We should always safeguard the authority of the constitution, deepen the reform of administrative law enforcement, ensure the independent operation of courts and procuratorates, improve the operational mechanisms of judicial power, improve judicial protection for human rights, and push forward the human rights cause in a legitimate, pragmatic and comprehensive way.[page]
2. Improving standardized systems for human rights protection
It is necessary to build relevant systems toprotectcitizens’ fundamental rights. It is necessary to be concerned about citizens’ right to life. This includes appropriate revision of existing laws, gradual reduction of the number of crimes to which the death penalty is applied, control of the application of the death penalty, and stricter review of death penalty verdicts. It is also necessary to be concerned about citizens’ right to personal liberty. This includes abolishingreform through labor, improvement of laws related to punishment and correction for illegal and criminal behavior, and establishment of community-based correction mechanisms. The current mechanism and system should be improved and a legal resolution system for petition letters, which are related to laws or lawsuits, should be established.
3. Standardizing the operation of judicial power
Judicial power allocation should be optimized and the division of labor, mutual coordination and system of checks and balances should be improved. Legal and social supervision ofthe operation of judicial power should be enhanced and standardized. The rights of criminal suspects and defendants should be protected. Torture or physical abuse must be prohibited in interrogation. Evidence that has been illegally collected must be strictly ruled out, and confessionsby defendants after interrogation methods involvingextreme cold or heat, hunger, exposure to strong light or fatigue must be ruled out. Judicial procedures for seizure, confiscation, freezing or handling lawsuit-related assets or property should be further standardized and the legitimate right to property should be protected.
4. Improving the mechanism for investigating responsibility
The independent operation of courts and procuratorates should be ensured. Verdicts should be made based on facts and in line with laws. Public opinion, the outcry of families related to lawsuits, administrative requeststo solve cases within a certain period of time or the desire to maintain local stability should not be considered in the process of making verdicts or decisions. Scientific and reasonable key performance indicators that comply with rules of justice should be established. Rates forsolving cases, detention, prosecution and conviction should not be pursued one-sidedly. Criteria for wrongly judged cases as well as procedures and subjects for error correction should be clarified. Prevention and correction of wrongly judged cases and investigation of responsibility should be improved. Those who are responsible for torture in interrogations, evidence collection through violence and cover-up or fabrication of evidence should be earnestly punished in accordance with law. A sound case-handling responsibility system that combines power and responsibility should be established. Judges, procuratorators and police officers who violate rules in investigations should be held accountable in accordance with the law.[page]
5.Enhancingthe rights relief system
The essence of rights is relief. Improvement of judicial protection for human rights requires not only prevention of human rights violations, but also timely rights relief after civil rights are infringed. The state legal aid system for protecting the legal rights of victims or the disadvantaged should be improved. A better legal aid system supplies citizens with legal aid from the state. The lawyer system should be improved and protection for lawyers to practice their professionshould be enhanced, in order to ensure the active role of lawyers in safeguarding the legitimate rights of citizens or corporate entities.
Human rights research and human rights protection should be based on the great reality that China has long been in the primary stage of socialism. It is necessary not only to emancipateone’s thinking but also to seek truth from facts. It is necessary to maintain the strategic judgment that development is still the key to solving problems in China. Human rights protection should be integrated into development targets and various human rights should be realized in the process of development. In comprehensively deepening reform of the economy, politics, culture, society and ecological civilization, etc., China should remove abuses of the system and its mechanisms, push forward modernization of the governance system and its capacity, improve and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics and continuously promote the human rights cause.
(This speech was delivered by President LuoHaocai of the China Society of HumanRights Studies at a meeting on studying and implementing the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee.)
