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CHINA’S PARALLEL JUSTICE system for Communist Party members relies heavily on torture and is “abusive and illegal”, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said this week, calling for it to be abolished.
The 88 million members of the country’s ruling party are subject to an internal justice system known as “shuanggui”, which operates without oversight from judicial authorities and has been increasingly criticised by China’s legal community.
More than 15 officials have reportedly died from abuses in “shuanggui” since 2007.
Since coming to power, President Xi Jinping has presided over a much-publicised drive against corruption that has punished more than one million officials in what some compare to a political purge.
Abuses
“President Xi has built his anti-corruption campaign on an abusive and illegal detention system,” said Sophie Richardson, HRW’s China director.
She called for its abolition as a “first urgent step” towards restoring confidence in China’s legal system. “Political parties in a one-party state should not run their own detention systems.”
A report released Tuesday, based on analysis of court verdicts, media reports and interviews with former detainees and their family members, details the abuses of the system.
Typically, “shuanggui” subjects disappear without warning and are held in unofficial detention facilities until they “confess” to corruption. Then they are brought into the criminal justice system and convicted.
Tactics used to extract confessions include prolonged sleep deprivation, food and water deprivation, severe beatings, being forced into stress positions for extended periods of time and threats to family members, among others.
‘They’d beat me’
One former detainee detailed how he was forced to invent stories of his crimes. “They made me make it up. I had to make it up -– if I didn’t, they’d beat me.”
Another was made to stand and sit in alternating endless 12 hour shifts, saying “my legs became swollen, and my buttocks were raw and started oozing pus.”
One Beijing-based lawyer described the case of a client who was given only an hour of sleep a day and was forced to spend the rest of his time balancing a book on his head.
After eight days, he “confessed to everything and to whatever they said”, the lawyer explained.
“At that point his feet were swollen like an elephant’s and he could no longer urinate.”
Stricter control
Chinese courts have a conviction rate of 99.92 percent.
“The courts function as rubber stamps, lending credibility to an utterly illegal Communist Party process,” said Richardson.
In October a key meeting of the Communist Party called for stricter control over its members, promising to strengthen internal curbs on their behaviour.
Newly issued rules after the conclave further tighten ideological controls that have already increased dramatically under Xi.
They call on party members to oppose acts contrary to the party leadership and promise increased investigations into behaviour that does not follow the party line.
- © AFP 2016.
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I’m honestly shocked that this is not a matter of practice already, and that it had to be fought for.
Imagine the heartbreak of losing your partner in childbirth and being told you weren’t automatically entitled to a inquest?
@Abbie Cranky: I am not shocked at all to be honest, this is the country we live in, we vote for corrupt parties and we get a corrupt system because of this its very simple.
@Peter Hughes:
Fine Gael increasing their percentage of the vote despite the many health scandals happening on their watch.
One could easily despair of the myopia of the electorate if one was so inclined.
@Jimmy Coltrane: They’re not really though.Its all “within margin of error” stuff and when broken down doesn’t mean they’d be returned to government. If it did we’d have an election next September..
Shocking that it isn’t already the rule, I guess it’s part of the old Ireland, at least we do make some progress in some areas.
Well done to Claire Daly, it’s excellent legislation and well done to her for proposing it and for persisting with it for 3 years since 2015. Some people are quick to criticize her but she does excellent work and doesn’t deserve the grief some people give her. You might not always agree with her politics but you cannot argue with her work rate and she is the exception in a bunch of lazy and incompetent ministers.
Just waiting to see which Total Dichs oppose this.
@Ixtrix Net: Mattie McGrath step on down…
@Ixtrix Net: The new rules requiring the prompt treatment of sepsis will prevent a case like Savita’s happening ever again.
@Tom Molloy: Removing a septic foetus would have helped.
@Tom Molloy:
that’s a good thing, but, some thing should be pro-active, not , retro-active
@Ciara Ni Mhurchu: Savita lived for three days after the spontaneous miscarriage. No medic has said that an abortion would have made any difference to the out of control sepsis. Sepsis causes multiple organ failure, removing any one would not “cure” the sepsis nor would the removal of the fetus.
@Tom Molloy: Well Tom, thats just not true. A former Master of Holles St, a man at the top of his field said that early intervention, in this case abortion, would likely have prevented sepsis.
Can we stick to the truth please?
8 women all died by medical negligence yet only one name will stand out for most . Shameful.
@Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: No, they died because they were prevented from accessing abortion here at home.
How many can you name?
@Ciara Ni Mhurchu: Great to hear there are no sepsis related maternal deaths in the UK where abortion has been legal for years…..oh wait…
@Ciara Ni Mhurchu: did you even read the article?
I wonder where would women’s voices be heard without @ClareDalyTD?
What if the family don’t want the death reported. This is often the case in suicide or OD.
Clare Daly is a beacon in a sea of …. (express exasperation here)
@Shawn O’Ceallaghan: suicide and OD would always be reported. This is about death during or shortly after childbirth.
have your say