Criticism
Human Rights Watch has stated that the "re-education through labor" system violates international law, specifically Article 9 (4.)of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which provides that "Anyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings before a court, in order that the court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his detention..." The Chinese Ministry of Justice, as well, has admitted that the system violated items in the Chinese constitution. Wang Gongyi, vice-director of the Institute of Justice Research affiliated to the Ministry of Justice, said that the current re-education through labor practice contradicts several items in the Constitution, the Criminal Procedure Law, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights a United Nations human rights treaty China signed in 1998. Re-education through labor has also been criticized by numerous human rights groups for not offering procedural guarantees for the accused, and for being used to detain political dissidents, teachers, Chinese house church leaders, and Falun Gong practitioners. Furthermore, even though the law up until 2007 specified a maximum length of detainment of four years, at least one source mentions a "retention for in-camp employment" system that allowed authorities to keep detainees in the camps for longer than their official sentences.
Re-education through labor has been a focus of discussion not only among foreign human rights groups, but also among legal scholars in China, some of whom were involved in the drafting of the 2007 laws meant to replace the system. In addition to legal scholars, the Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China had criticized the system. In light of the widespread disapproval of the system, HRIC called in 2001 for the system to be abolished entirely. Among its criticisms it cited the fact that the wording of re-education through labor laws was too loose, allowing authorities to manipulate it; the fact that the punishment given in re-education centers was too severe for the crimes committed; the abusive conditions at re-education centers; and the variation of re-education through labor laws from one province to another.
Although many human rights groups and legal scholars both within and without China called for the reform or total abolition of re-education through labor, some groups have defended the system. A 1997 report in China's Legal Daily hailed re-education through labor as a means to "maintain social peace and prevent and reduce crime." The Ministry of Public Security stated in 2005 that re-education through labor helped maintain rule of law and was mainly used for rehabilitating lawbreakers. In 2007, when new laws were drafted, the Ministry of Public Security was in favor of continuing the practice of not allowing judicial review before punishment was enforced.
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