Access to Justice
Recently, Li Fei, Vice Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, confirmed in a public statement that citizens may petition for legislative review of laws and regulations that they believe conflict with the PRC Constitution (for details, click here). In a commentary published a week later, Li Shuming notes that the NPC delegate’s statement is nothing new and that citizens have had the right to petition for the constitutional review of laws and regulations since the adoption of the Legislation Law. However, he argues that constitutional review has been a sensitive issue in China’s democratization process and that the NPC statement, especially from a member of the Legal Affairs Committee, is a significant reaffirmation of the petition right.
The Guangdong Public Security Bureau (PSB) has circulated a report that blames a succession of mass protests in 2005 on "disputes over so-called rights defense," according to a February 24 Ming Pao article (in Chinese). Public security officials indicated that in 2006, they will concentrate on striking against internal and external "hostile forces" who get involved in domestic issues of "rights defense." The report blames hostile forces for politicizing issues of farmer and consumer economic rights, and taking advantage of individual incidents to write essays stirring public opinion. It accuses these forces of inciting the masses, who are unaware of the truth, to create disturbances that threaten the construction of a harmonious and stable society in Guangdong.
The high people's courts (HPCs) of Beijing, Shanghai, and Tianjin municipalities, Hainan and Qinghai provinces, and the Tibet Autonomous Region all have reported that they currently handle death penalty appeals in court, according to a January 17 China Youth Daily article. These reports come several weeks after a Supreme People's Court (SPC) circular went into effect on January 1, requiring court hearings in all death penalty appeals beginning in the second half of 2006.
Human rights defenders in China launched a hunger strike relay on February 4, according to Chinese dissident Web sites and international news media reports.
The annual report of the government-sponsored Beijing Migrant Workers Legal Aid Center said that labor subcontractors “have become a serious obstacle to the protection of migrant worker rights,” according to a January 18 China Youth Daily article. Established in September 2005, the Center has received 2,007 inquiries regarding cases, 757 of which represent back wage issues involving more than 13,000 workers and totaling about 35 million yuan (about US $ 4.3 million) of disputed back wages. The Center has accepted 271 of these cases.
The Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court conducted an appeals hearing on January 20 and upheld the original guilty verdict against petitioner Xu Zhengqing, according to a press release issued on the same day by Human Rights in China (HRIC). Xu was originally sentenced to three years imprisonment on a charge of "creating disturbances," a crime under Article 293 of China's Criminal Law. HRIC noted that over 100 supporters appeared outside the courthouse for Xu's appeal hearing, and that public security officials forcibly removed the supporters and temporarily detained them in a nearby school building.
China's hukou (household registration) system contributed to discrimination in the amount of compensation that rural and urban residents received in a personal injury case in Sichuan province, drawing criticism in a January 27 Xinhua article and a January 24 Procuratorial Daily article (in Chinese).
Local officials beat blind legal activist Chen Guangcheng and unidentified assailants also attacked a group of lawyers visiting him October 4 in Chen's home village in Shandong province, according to an October 5 report by Radio Free Asia. Lawyers Xu Zhiyong, Li Subin, and Li Fangping travelled to Chen's home village of Dongshigu to speak with him on October 4. Officials have held Chen under house arrest since September 6 for publicizing abuses by local population planning officials. Boxun reported (in Chinese) that the lawyers reached Dongshigu on October 4, but local officials prevented them from entering the village.
Shanghai public security officials detained several petitioners, including housing rights activist Liu Xinjuan, on January 16 and forcibly admitted Liu to psychiatric care at the Minhang District Beiqiao Psychiatric Hospital, according to a January 20 report by Human Rights in China (HRIC). The detentions took place when Liu and others met to petition before the Shanghai People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, both in session on that date. The HRIC report notes that public security officials took Liu into custody and transported her first to the Qibao Township Dispatch Station and then to the Beiqiao Psychiatric Hospital, both in Shanghai's Minhang district.
A prison official informed the family of imprisoned Shanghai lawyer and housing rights activist Zheng Enchong that he had broken an unspecified rule on December 10, and that they were barred from seeing or speaking to him, Amnesty International reported on December 20. Zheng is serving a three-year sentence for disclosing state secrets. Zheng's punishment came days after the German Judges Association announced (in German) that it had awarded Zheng its 2005 Human Rights Award.