Swedish Media Report: United Nations Special Rapporteurs Say Torture is Still Prevalent in China

On December 2nd 2005, several Swedish news networks carried a report by Reuters and the BBC saying that torture is still prevalent in China. The report said that according to Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on torture, torture is prevalent in China and only when China undertakes major reform of its judicial system and achieves judicial independence will the situation of torture be controlled.

Nowak was the first UN Special Rapporteur on torture to be invited to conduct an investigation of the issue of torture in China in ten years, since the United Nations made the first demand to visit China in 1995. At the end of the thirteen day-visit, Nowak held a press conference and said that he expected to enter into a long-term cooperation with the Chinese government in order to root out torture and abuse.

While meeting with the media in the afternoon of the 2nd, Nowak said that he was monitored and hindered during his visit in China. Different from other countries, he has not obtained an authorisation to visit the detention places by himself and that he could easily observe apparent fear and self-constraints in the detainees.

Nowak said that some departments of the Chinese government, especially the department of Public Security and the National Security Department had attempted many times to hinder him and restraining him from finding some situations. He was often monitored by intelligence agents in the hotel and surrounding area. A lot of the victims of torture and their relatives that he wanted to meet were intimidated and watched by the police or were prevented from meeting him or ordered not to meet with him.

Different from other countries that he has visited, Nowak could not go to the detention places by himself for a visit. He had to be accompanied by Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials and provide notice one hour ahead of time in order to visit the detention place. Additionally, he was not allowed to carry a camcorder or other electronic devices.

He particularly pointed out that during the process of talking to the persons under detention he could easily detect fear and self-constraint, which he never encountered before. Quite a lot of persons under detention were unwilling to talk to him or demanded that their conversation be kept secret.

Given the constraints and limited time and the vastness of China, Nowak admitted that there is a limitation in reaching a whole set of study results and conclusions about torture and maltreatment in China.

He said that although China was one of the countries that first signed the convention against torture, China's definition of torture does not comply with international standards. In particular, physical or psychological torture that does not leave marks or evidence was difficult to be observed and will not be punished accordingly in China.

In addition, China lacked basic formula guarantees to effectively ban torture, an independent supervisory mechanism and effective appeal mechanism regarding detention places. Nowak especially noticed during the visit that under the low efficiency of the appeal mechanism, the public procurator of the fourth prison of Dihwa had not received a complaint about torture in the past ten years.

Nowak especially raised criticisms against China's re-education through labour system. He said, forced education is inhumane and insulting. The purpose of the system of re-education through labour is to crush the will of the persons under detention and change their personality, yet these measures have involved serious infringement of human rights, even tantamount to torture.

Nowak pointed out that in a democratic society, the purpose of legislation related to freedom and rights is not to protect submissive behaviour, but non-submissive behaviour. According to the international convention on human rights, governments can intervene in the expression of political views, religious beliefs, moral values or minority opinions only when they constitute instigation of hatred and violence or threaten the country or public safety directly.

He said that a system that applied state surveillance to those citizens who do not have submissive opinions and punish deviant behaviour with such severe systems as re-education through labour seemed to be contrary to core social values on the basis of human rights culture and resulted in a culture of fear and intimidation, submission and self-examination and thus violated the right to be free from inhuman and insulting treatment or punishment.

While meeting with prisoners waiting to appeal their death sentence in a detention centre in Beijing Nowak found that the prisoners were forced to wear handcuffs and fetters weighing three kilogrammes twenty four hours including having a meal or going to the toilet. In Nowak's view, such inhumane and insulting treatment has become another way of punishment for persons who were under tension because of the death sentence. Thus, he suggested that the Chinese government treat prisoners on the death roll the same as those under detention and give them humane treatment and dignity.