Swedish Media Report: United Nations Special Rapporteur Says Torture is Still Widespread in China

(Clearwisdom.net) On December 2, 2005, several Swedish news networks carried reports by Reuters and the BBC on China's Human Rights situation. Here is a summary of these reports:

According to Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on torture, torture is still widespread in China, and only when China undertakes major reform of its judicial system and achieves judicial independence will the situation of torture be controlled.

Nowak was the first UN Special Rapporteur on torture to be invited to conduct an investigation of the issue of torture in China in ten years, since the United Nations made the first demand to visit China in 1995. At the end of the two week visit, Nowak held a press conference and said that torture is still widespread in China.

Nowak pointed out that the Chinese regime tried many approaches to impede his work. He said that some departments of the Chinese government, especially the department of Public Security and the National Security Department, attempted many times to hinder him and restrain him from finding some situations. He was often monitored by intelligence agents in the hotel and the surrounding area. A lot of the victims of torture and their relatives that he wanted to meet were intimidated and watched by the police, or were prevented from meeting him or ordered not to meet with him.

Different from other countries that he has visited, Nowak could not go to the detention places by himself for a visit. He had to be accompanied by Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials and provide notice one hour ahead of time in order to visit the detention place. Additionally, he was not allowed to carry a camcorder or other electronic devices.

Nowak particularly pointed out that during the process of talking to the persons under detention he could easily detect fear and self-constraint, which he had never previously encountered. Quite a lot of persons under detention were unwilling to talk to him, or demanded that their conversations be kept secret.

Given the constraints and limited time, and the vastness of China, Nowak admitted that there is a limitation in reaching a whole set of study results and conclusions about torture and maltreatment in China.

He said that although China was one of the countries that first signed the convention against torture, China's definition of torture does not comply with international standards. In particular, physical or psychological torture that does not leave marks or evidence was difficult to observe and will not be punished accordingly in China.

Nowak especially raised criticisms against China's re-education through labor system. He said that forced education is inhumane and insulting. The purpose of the system of re-education through labor is to crush the wills of the persons under detention and change their personalities, yet these measures have involved serious infringements of human rights, even tantamount to torture.

He said that a system that applies state surveillance to those citizens who do not have submissive opinions, and punishing deviant behavior with such severe systems as re-education through labor seems to be contrary to core social values on the basis of human rights culture, and results in a culture of fear and intimidation, submission and self-examination, and thus violates the right to be free from inhuman and insulting treatment or punishment.

Source http://clearharmony.net/articles/200512/30301.html

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