China’s cabinet released on Monday what it called a human rights action plan, a lengthy document promising to improve the protection of civil liberties, which are often neglected and sometimes systematically violated in China.
Under the two-year plan, China promised to protect the rights to a fair trial, to participate in government decisions and to learn about and question government policies. It calls for measures to discourage torture, such as requiring interrogation rooms to have designs that physically separate interrogators from the accused.
The civil liberties mentioned in the action plan are already guaranteed by Chinese laws or the country’s Constitution. Human rights groups say many are nonetheless ignored or suppressed by the authorities at their own discretion, without any practicable grounds for appeal through the Communist Party-controlled judiciary.
The document does not propose any fundamental reforms of the country’s one-party system, such as making the courts independent of party control or allowing other parties or political groups to hold power. Instead, it focuses on trying to advance respect for human rights within the existing government, police and judicial bureaucracies.
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[T]he document fails to address some of the most glaring abuses for people who challenge the authorities in China. It does not propose phasing out the system of administrative detention, which gives broad powers to local law enforcement officials, including the ability to send people to prison camps for “re-education through labor” without a trial.
There is also no promise to close the unregistered jails that municipal and provincial governments have set up in Beijing and elsewhere to detain petitioners who want to present their grievances to higher levels of government.
The “National Human Rights Action Plan of China 2009-2010” emphasizes economic and social rights instead, such as a “right of urban and rural residents to a basic standard of living.”
Is it possible to do what the Chinese are saying they want to do, i.e., protect these rights without reforming the political system in any substantive way? Why or why not?
(cross-posted)
How can the Chinese effectively protect civil liberties of participation in government decisions and questioning government policies when the one party system isn't adjusted?
ReplyDeleteIt seems that theoretically this document is an acknowledgment of external pressure but cannot practically enforced. If those liberties and rights are already outlined in the Constitution and laws, how is the Action Plan expected to change the culture relating to the one party system without the means eg. reforms to the government system, opening up to competition.
Is it possible for the government, police and judiciary to be impartial and accepting of opposition views if they are still dominated by the Communist Party?
If many of these civil liberties etc are already enshrined in the Constitution and then subsequently ignored what is the point of this Action Plan? It seems to me it may just be a facade, something to make China look good on the international stage.
ReplyDeleteEven if the govt sincerely wants to improve its human rights I cannot see how it can occur without any institutional change.
If freedom of speech is suddenly allowed technically there is nothing stopping somebody standing on the street and denouncing the government. But I cannot see this going down too well with the Communist Party due to the authoritarian one-party nature of the state. If they decided to charge him (for reasons I am sure they could dream up) will he really get a fair trial in the govt-controlled judiciary? I think not.