China Gets Spanked Because of Its Torture Record

This is yet another example of "you can run all you want but you cannot hide."

China's shameful record as a torturing regime is well documented, especially when it comes to extracting information from suspects that can be used against other suspects. You know, old dictatorship ways die hard, in more ways than one.

So we welcome with open arms the UN Committee against Torture's study, concluding that it "remains deeply concerned about the continued allegations, corroborated by numerous Chinese legal sources, of routine and widespread use of torture and ill-treatment of suspects in police custody, especially to extract confessions or information to be used in criminal proceedings."

We hear a lot of noise coming from Beijing about how committed the regime is to improving its dismal human rights record. And we all are used to being disappointed in how little progress those promises ever achieve.

But this time around, the UN commission gives a detailed recipe for the Chinese bosses to follow if they are actually willing to mend their ways.

Here is from Human Rights in China (HRIC):

The report describes a criminal justice system that allows "prolonged police detention without charge," uses "black jails" - secret detention facilities - to hold suspects, routinely deprives detainees of the right to counsel, and in which justice is severely hampered by conflicting laws and laws providing inadequate safeguards against police abuses.

The Committee recommended: "As a matter of urgency, [China] should take immediate steps to prevent acts of torture and ill-treatment throughout the country."

"The Committee against Torture's findings are a critical and much-needed reminder of the pervasive and ongoing human rights abuses in China," said Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China (HRIC). "These abuses, which were overshadowed by the spectacle of the Beijing Olympics, victimize millions in China and need urgent remedy."

For a while we thought China would abide by its human rights commitments as stated by the regime when it was bestowed the organizing of the Games. And we all know how that went. But now China is again given specific steps as to how to move forward in this very sad situation.

Again, HRIC:

In particular, the Committee identified "three over-arching problems": the 1988 State Secrets Law, which "severely undermines the availability of information about torture"; the reported harassment of lawyers and human rights defenders; and the physical violence against rights defenders carried out by unaccountable "thugs" who enjoy de facto immunity. The Committee highlighted the cases of many rights defenders, including Teng Biao, Gao Zhisheng, Chen Guangcheng, Hu Jia, and Li Heping. It also expressed grave concern about "the allegations of targeted torture, ill-treatment, and disappearances directed against national, ethnic, religious minorities and other vulnerable groups in China, among them Tibetans, Uighurs, and Falun Gong practitioners."

There is more here.