Access to Justice
Officials at three middle schools in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), have barred 19 students diagnosed as hepatitis B positive from enrolling, according to an October 19 Radio Free Asia report. The Urumqi Bureau of Education approved the decision after the students were diagnosed in their matriculation health check. Seven of the students have since filed a lawsuit against the Urumqi Bureau of Education, according to an October 19 South China Morning Post (SCMP) report (subscription only). On October 18, XUAR authorities shut down the Xinjiang "Snow Lotus" AIDS organization, which had publicized the case of the 19 students, according to an October 20 SCMP article.
Authorities from the Yinan County People's Court have postponed Chen Guangcheng's trial indefinitely, according to a July 19 Chinese Rights Defenders (CRD) report (in Chinese). Chen Guangcheng is a self-trained legal advocate who drew international news media attention to population planning abuses in Linyi city, Shandong province in 2005. Local authorities placed Chen under house arrest in September 2005 and arrested Chen on June 21, 2006.
The Yinan County People's Court in Linyi city, Shandong province, sentenced Chen Guangcheng to four years and three months in prison on August 24 for "intentional destruction of property" (a crime under Article 275 of the Criminal Law) and "gathering people to disturb traffic order" (a crime under Article 291 of the Criminal Law), according to an August 25 Xinhua report (reprinted in the China Daily). Chen Guangcheng is a self-trained legal advocate who drew international news media attention to population planning abuses in Linyi in 2005. Local authorities placed Chen under house arrest in September 2005 and arrested Chen on June 21, 2006.
A student in Henan province has filed a law suit against the Henan Institute of Finance and Economics alleging that the school discriminated against him because he is a carrier of the hepatitis B virus, according to China Youth Daily. The university denied the student admission last spring, despite the fact that the student scored above the cut-off point on the entrance examination. According to the university, officials denied the student admission because his application showed that he had tested positive for hepatitis B.
The National People’s Congress amended the Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases on August 28, 2004. The amended law specifically prohibits discrimination against people infected with contagious diseases, people carrying the pathogen of a contagious disease, and people who are suspected of having a contagious disease.
A senior Ministry of Public Security (MPS) official disclosed the use of mass roundup measures to maintain social order during the early March annual plenary sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), according to official sources. The CPPCC plenary session began on March 3, and the NPC plenary convened on March 5. Xu Hu, Deputy Director of the MPS's Department for the Management of Public Order, said at a March 2 press conference that public security officials will round up those "people without proper professions, fixed places of residence, or stable incomes who have been hanging around Beijing for a long time" and encourage them to leave the capital, according to a Chinese-language transcript posted on the China Internet Information Center's (CIIC) Web site. The CIIC Web site operates under the auspices of the State Council.
Government authorities have acted to strengthen police responsibility for responding to citizen petitions, according to Chinese news reports and the Public Security Bureau (PSB) Rules on Xinfang Work issued on August 18. The move is likely a response to the mounting number of petitions, many of which take the form of disruptive or violent protests.
Chi Qiang, President of the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court (IPC), announced the abolition of that court's responsibility system for wrongly decided cases, according to a November 21 newspaper article in The First. The system is described in the Implementation Details for the Beijing No. 1 IPC's Responsibility System for Illegally Adjudicated Cases (Trial)," which previously was used to discipline judges for cases overturned or altered on appeal. Court President Chi noted that the definition of a "wrongly decided case" is unclear in practice, and that the fear of sanctions harms the willingness of trial judges to decide cases independently.
A Jiangsu court awarded compensation to the family of a migrant holding a rural hukou (household registration) who was killed in a traffic accident, using the same standards used to calculate compensation amounts for victims holding urban hukou, according to a February 16 China Court article. The decision contrasts with other cases in which parties to court cases have applied lower compensation standards for individuals who hold rural hukou but reside in urban areas. It also contrasts with appellate court rulings that have reversed decisions similar to that of the Jiangsu court.
Local government officials in China have continued to target for repression citizens who attempt to defend their legally protected rights, according to a September 25 Radio Free Asia (RFA) article. RFA reports: "Rather than penning well-crafted essays on broad themes aimed at Party ideologues and the urban elite, the new breed of Chinese activist is more likely to use their pens on countless official forms and letters, culminating in complaints, lawsuits, or appeals to Party disciplinary systems." The article notes that the struggles of these rights defenders "seem inevitably to lead to beatings, detentions, and [criminal] sentences," and that the underlying problem giving rise to their grievances "is systemic, rather than ideological, and therefore isn't going away any time soon."
The wrongful detentions and torture of four teenagers in 2005 in Chaohu city, Anhui province, reflect continuing criminal procedure violations and abuses by local police, as described in a September 12 Xinhua report (in Chinese) on the cases. The teenagers, who ranged in age from 16 to 18, were released in January 2006 after more than three months in police custody. According to the Xinhua account, the Anhui provincial-level Public Security Bureau (PSB) acknowledged that officials handled the teenagers' cases in error. In addition, public security officials have agreed to give each teenager 60,000 yuan (approximately US$7,600) in compensation for their wrongful detentions, pursuant to agreements signed with each individual teenager's guardians. Xinhua reports that authorities currently are investigating the three police officers who handled the cases for their suspected involvement in coercing confessions under torture.