Access to Justice
The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) has issued a Reply to the Zhejiang High People’s Court confirming that people’s courts may not directly accept civil lawsuits involving disputes over compensation for urban evictions. The Reply provides that such disputes must first be submitted to administrative adjudication boards under procedures outlined in China’s Urban Housing Demolition and Relocation Management Regulations. Under the Regulations, parties must submit compensation disputes to administrative adjudication tribunals, and may appeal to higher level administrative organs and/or file an administrative lawsuit in a people’s court to challenge the adjudication decision if they are not satisfied.
A July 23 Beijing News article reviews in detail recent discussion and debate over amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law (CPL). According to the article, the CPL amendment has been added to the National People’s Congress (NPC) legislative calendar. An NPC source quoted in the article reports that the Legal Affairs Committee of the NPC Standing Committee is still researching amendment issues and has not yet begun drafting the amendment proposal. The NPC has tentatively scheduled consideration of a draft CPL amendment proposal during 2006, with final passage slated for 2007. The article provides insights into problems that the drafters have already encountered in the amendment drafting process.
A group of prominent Chinese lawyers has published an open letter to the All China Lawyers Association (ACLA) calling on it to investigate the detention of Beijing lawyer Zhu Jiuhu in Shaanxi province and work more actively to protect the legal rights of lawyers. Zhu had been representing thousands of investors in a sensitive administrative lawsuit against several local government entities in Shaanxi. The investors claim that Shaanxi officials illegally seized more than 5,000 privately run oil fields worth hundreds of millions of dollars after provincial officials encouraged them to invest in the properties. The seizures affected more than 1,000 private enterprises with more than 60,000 investors, and observers view the case as a test of the Chinese government's rhetoric on improving protections for private property rights.
Louise Arbour, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, is visiting China from August 29 to September 2, according to a United Nations press release. Ms. Arbour’s visit aims to renew technical cooperation programs between her office and the Chinese government. She also hopes to sign an agreement on facilitating the Chinese government’s ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and on implementing several recommendations from the U.N. Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. According to the press release, the High Commissioner will meet the Ministers of Justice and Foreign Affairs, the President of the Supreme People’s Court, and other senior Chinese officials.
An advocate for Shaanxi investors who are challenging a government seizure of their oil wells was detained after local officials lured him out of hiding with a forged e-mail, according to an article in the Washington Post. Police officials in Yulin, Shaanxi province, have confirmed that they detained Feng Bingxian on July 26. Feng, a businessman, has been leading a lawsuit by thousands of investors against the local government. The investors claim that Shaanxi provincial officials illegally seized privately owned oil wells worth up to $850 million. Feng is not the first individual to be detained in connection with the sensitive case. In May, public security officials detained Zhu Jiuhu, a prominent Beijing attorney who was representing the investors. Zhu was reportedly charged with disturbing social order and illegal assembly simply for meeting with his clients.
On August 15, the English-language version of the People’s Daily published an adapted version of Professor Jerome Cohen’s statement at a recent CECC hearing. The hearing, entitled "Law in Political Transitions: Lessons From East Asia and the Road Ahead for China," was held on July 26. For Professor Cohen’s full written statement to the CECC, click here. For the People’s Daily adaptation, click here. For a comparison of the two versions, click here.
The respected U.S.-based human rights NGO Human Rights in China has published an edition of its journal China Rights Forum that focuses on China’s criminal justice system. The issue features English-language articles and translations of Chinese materials on a range of criminal justice topics, including criminal procedure reform, re-education through labor, the court system, torture, defense lawyers, recent wrongful conviction cases, and criminal provisions on subversion and state secrets. The issue also includes a list of lawyers currently detained in China, a profile of imprisoned journalist Shi Tao, and a resource list of online materials on China’s legal system.
The Chinese news media have stepped up a publicity campaign that highlights government efforts to reduce the prevalence of torture and coerced confessions. In late July, the Supreme People's Procuratorate announced that it had filed criminal cases against 1,751 officials for human rights violations since July 2004, an increase of 7.7 percent over the year before. The SPP also published descriptions of three "typical" cases of "strictly investigating" cases involving torture and abuse. At the same time, Chinese news media have suggested that forthcoming amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law (CPL) will focus on enhanced legal protections against torture, including a rule to grant lawyers better access to their clients during interrogations.
As many as 15,000 villagers besieged a pharmaceutical plant and clashed with police at Xinchang, Zhejiang province, in early July to protest environmental degradation to the local water supply caused by leakages at the plant, according to reports in the New York Times (registration required). The villagers said they took action because their efforts to negotiate with plant managers failed and government officials were unwilling to intervene. "This is the only way to solve problems like ours," stated one protestor. Others said that the example of a similar riot earlier in 2005 inspired the Xinchang protest.
Three senior Chinese officials recently acknowledged rising social unrest in China and attributed its causes to economic grievances, failures on the part of local cadres, and rising rights consciousness by Chinese citizens, according to a series of articles (1, 2, 3, subscription required) in the South China Morning Post (SCMP).