SCIO briefing on implementation of National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2016-2020)
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E-mail China.org.cn, June 7, 2021
Shou Xiaoli:
Thank you. Now, the floor is open for questions. Please identify your news outlets before asking questions.
CGTN:
Just now you mentioned that significant progress has been made in implementing this action plan, including poverty alleviation. Can you please tell us about the improvement in the protection of the rights of the people in Xinjiang, Tibet and other regions where ethnic minorities live? Thank you.
Zhang Yonghe:
We have done a lot of research in Xinjiang and Tibet, and from our research, it should be said that the entire economy, society and culture of Xinjiang and Tibet have undergone tremendous changes in the past five years, and in fact it is the people who have changed even more. In this process, we focused not only on the "development of people," but also "helping people develop." Over the past five years, the promotion of their human rights has been enhanced, both spiritually and in many of ways. The results are very obvious, so I think the Chinese government has done a very good job in this regard. Thank you.
People's Daily:
What are the new highlights in the implementation of this plan in terms of safeguarding civil and political rights compared to the two previous human rights action plans? Thank you.
Chang Jian:
Let me answer this question. Much progress has been made in the protection of civil and political rights. We recently went to Zhejiang, Shanghai, and other places to conduct research. From my personal experience, I feel that there has been more prominent progress in the construction of grassroots democracy.
The improvement of community-level democracy mainly includes the construction of urban residents' committees, rural villagers' committees, and meetings of workers' representatives of enterprises and institutions. During the implementation process, China revised the organic law of the urban residents' committees. About 28 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities nationwide formulated or revised the implementation methods of the organic law of villagers' committees, and villagers' supervisory committees were established in various places. Village affairs were made public by counties and the procedures and time for disclosure also ensured transparency. Labor unions at all levels have also basically established a democratic system of dealing with enterprise affairs with meetings of workers' representatives as the basic form, which includes a system for transparency of enterprise affairs, a workers' director system, a workers' supervisor system, and a collective contract system for equal consultation. These are all legal forms that ensure democracy within enterprises. Other specific forms such as workers' democratic management committees, democratic councils, talks between labor and capital, and democratic consultation meetings were also set up.
In particular, we made investigations in Houchen village, Wuyi county of Jinhua city, Zhejiang province, China's first village to establish a village affairs supervision committee, starting in 2004. This is a vivid example. At that time, village officials worked hard for the villagers, however, due to a lack of information being disclosed, residents were skeptical about the village finances and thought that the officials might be embezzling money. Later, the village affairs disclosure system and the village affairs supervision system were set up, publishing details of how every yuan was spent. The move had a great effect. Now, the officials believe that as long as they work hard to disclosure all information for the villagers to supervise, the villagers will trust them more, since people will be able to observe and recognize their work. In 2016, the revised Organic Law of the Villagers Committees incorporated the village affairs supervision system, which has been adopted nationwide, delivering good results. Thank you.
Cover News:
The National Human Rights Action Plan stipulates strictly controlling application of the death penalty and intensifying the procedures for reviewing death penalty cases. What work has the Supreme People's Court done in this regard in recent years? What proportion of death penalty cases are not approved? Some law scholars have called for open trials or hearings in reviewing death sentences cases. What is the Supreme People's Court's take on this? Thank you.
Li Xiao:
Thank you for your questions. I see you have a strong interest in death sentences cases. I will answer your questions one by one.
First, the Supreme People's Court has done a lot of work to strictly control the approval of death sentences. For example, in terms of legislation, those who perform major meritorious services should be given lesser punishments, and we approve as few death penalty cases as we can. For defendants over 75 years old, unless they committed crimes of intentional homicide or the circumstances were heinous, they should not be sentenced to death. In reviewing death penalty cases, we have strengthened human rights protection by entrusting lawyers to give them every opportunity to conduct their defense. The Supreme People's Procuratorate has regulations related to the supervision of death penalty cases.
Your second question was about the proportion of cases that result in the death penalty. In reviewing capital punishment cases, the Supreme People's Court sticks to the highest standards, strictest rules, and the principle of seeking truth from facts, approving those should be approved, and rejecting those that should be rejected. From time to time, we also release details of typical cases. Therefore, there is no certain proportion — it all depends on seeking truth from facts.
Reviewing death penalty cases, as a special hearing procedure, is different from the lawsuit procedures of first and second instance judgments. The Supreme People's Court considers the defense of lawyers during the review as much as possible, and is also supervised by the Supreme People's Procuratorate. Thank you.
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