China Voice: China moves to safeguard social justice

A white paper released Monday detailed how China has improved the judicial protection of people's rights and freedoms, showing the country's determination to safeguard social justice.

China has made a firm commitment to human rights in its constitution.

Past years have seen intensive efforts by the government to advance judicial reform in a bid to respect and safeguard human rights.

In recent years, China has reduced the number of crimes punishable by the death penalty, putting capital punishment under strict control.

In 2011, the country adopted an amendment to its Criminal Law, which abolished the death penalty for 13 offenses. Last year, the punishment was abolished for nine areas of crime.

Also, defendants' right to a defense and other legitimate rights are fully protected, and hearings are held for all death penalty cases of second instance.

In addition to capital punishment, concrete achievements have been made in correcting miscarriages of justice.

In 2015, procuratorial agencies demanded the withdrawal of 10,384 cases wrongly filed by investigative organs, and regulated 31,874 cases of illegal conduct involving abuse of compulsory measures and unlawfully obtaining evidence.

However, prevention is more important than cure. China has endeavored to eliminate such cases by introducing rules to better protect the legitimate rights of criminal suspects.

A system to exclude unlawful evidence has been introduced with revisions to the country's Criminal Procedure Law.

The interrogation rooms of public security organs and detention houses are all equipped with audio and video recording facilities to prevent misconduct in law enforcement, such as extorting confessions by torture and obtaining evidence through illegal means.

In its latest effort, China's legislature approved pilot measures for plea bargaining in criminal cases, allowing suspects and defendants to plead guilty in return for lesser charges.

The protection of minors also plays a crucial role in human rights protection. To this end, the country has improved procedures for juvenile criminal cases to help underage offenders better reintegrate into society.

Substantial efforts were also made to ensure lawyers' right of practice, as lawyers are an important force in safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of criminal suspects.

Documents on various measures to protect lawyers' right of practice have been issued by the Chinese government in recent years, making it more convenient for lawyers to participate in litigation and to improve accountability mechanisms for ensuring lawyers' right to practice.

As far as the bigger picture goes, the strengthening of judicial protection and human rights continues to be a major task in China's rule-of-law blueprint.

There is no end to mankind's pursuit of progress and much room for improvement regarding the rule of law. China will proceed from its current reality and unswervingly safeguard social fairness and justice in the future. Endi