The outcome report of China\u2019s fifth review under the Convention against Torture highlights the absence of accountability and need for broad legal reform to eradicate torture in the country, Human Rights Watch said today. <\/p>\n
DECEMBER 9, 2015<\/p>\n
(Geneva) \u2013 The outcome report<\/a> of China\u2019s<\/a> fifth review under the Convention against Torture highlights the absence of accountability and need for broad legal reform to eradicate torture<\/a> in the country, Human Rights Watch said today. China\u2019s review, under the United Nations Committee Against Torture, concludes at the UN Human Rights Council on December 9, 2015, in Geneva. Many of the committee\u2019s recommendations have been raised in previous reviews.<\/p>\n \u201cMore than a dozen pages of fundamental and longstanding recommendations show that China\u2019s compliance with the UN review has been at best superficial,\u201d said Sophie Richardson<\/a>, China director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cChina has shown no serious willingness to adopt the independent experts\u2019 recommendations to eradicate torture and ill-treatment in detention. In doing so, the Chinese government rejects the core purpose of UN reviews, and deepens the pain of torture survivors.\u201d The committee\u2019s \u201cconcluding observations\u201d document, reflecting a year-long process, praises the Chinese government for a half-dozen steps, primarily the adoption of specific legal provisions to combat torture and ill-treatment. But it then addresses at unusual length and in considerable detail \u201cprincipal subjects of concern\u201d on issues such as the definition of torture \u2013 as China has still not adopted a definition that fully meets international standards \u2013 and the persistent problems of prolonged pre-trial detention, restrictions on access to lawyers, and the shortfall in medical professionals independent of the police and detention centers.<\/p>\n The report details the Chinese government\u2019s unwillingness to provide critical data about the number of allegations of torture in detention<\/a> and the efficacy of the \u201cexclusionary rule<\/a>\u201d in protecting criminal suspects from abuse. It raises concerns about the crackdown on human rights lawyers<\/a>, and about the torture of 1989 Tiananmen Square protesters<\/a>, and refugees forcibly returned to North Korea<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the interactive dialogue<\/a>, held on November 17-18, 2015, the Chinese delegation refused to answer critical questions from the committee; claimed that the term \u201ctorture\u201d was difficult to translate into Chinese; and tried to assert that \u201ctiger chairs\u201d \u2013 devices used, according to Human Rights Watch research, to immobilize suspects for days at a time and sometimes longer \u2013 are in fact used for suspects\u2019 \u201ccomfort\u201d and \u201csafety.\u201d<\/p>\n Chinese authorities should not only vigorously pursue the committee\u2019s detailed, thorough recommendations, but should also be pressed to report to the committee and other UN human rights mechanisms on pressing cases raised in the review: accountability for the more than 40 human rights lawyers and activists being detained<\/a>, many of them in unknown locations; the need for investigations into the deaths of peaceful government critics including Cao Shunli<\/a> and Tenzin Delek Rinpoche<\/a>; investigations into those who brutally tortured victims like Nian Bin<\/a>; and the harassment of activists from China who wanted to participate in the CAT review.<\/p>\n China ratified the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 1988. Parties to the convention are required to submit \u201creports every four years on any new measures taken [to implement the treaty] and such other reports as the Committee may request.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese extraordinary recommendations reflect the UN Committee\u2019s deep commitment to ending torture and providing support to torture survivors in China,\u201d said Richardson. \u201cBut the question remains: Does Beijing share that commitment?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The outcome report of China\u2019s fifth review under the Convention against Torture highlights the absence of accountability and need for broad legal reform to eradicate torture in the country, Human Rights Watch said today. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-2266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2266"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=2266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}