Reeducation through labor
Encyclopedia
Re-education through labor (RTL) , abbreviated is a system of administrative detentions in the People's Republic of China
which is generally used to detain persons for minor crimes such as petty theft
, prostitution
, and trafficking illegal drugs, as well as religious or political dissidents such as unregistered Christians
or Falun Gong
adherents. Sentences typically span one to three years, with the possibility of an additional one-year extension. Re-education through labor sentences are issued by police, rather than through the judicial system. While incarcerated, detainees are often subject to some form of political education; torture, sometimes resulting in death, has also been reported in labor camps. The re-education through labor system has been in place since 1957 and was subjected to minor reforms by the Chinese government in 2007. Estimates on the number of RTL detainees on any given year ranges from 190,000 to 2 million. China Daily
in 2007 estimated that there were a total of 310 re-education centers in China at that time.
("reform through labor") criminal justice system, which generally refers to prisons, prison farm
s, and labor camps for convicted criminals. Re-education through labor, on the other hand, refers to detentions for persons who are not considered criminals or have only committed minor offenses. Persons detained under re-education through labor are detained in facilities which are separate from the general prison system; furthermore, detainees in these re-education facilities receive a small salary, which laogai detainees do not, and in theory have shorter work hours. The laogai system is much larger than the re-education through labor system, with the Laogai Research Foundation identifying 1,045 laogai camps in 2006 (compared to 346 re-education centers). Both systems, however, involve penal labor
and often do not allow trials
or judicial hearings
. The term "reform through labor" or laogai was officially replaced with "prison" in 1994, and the term "re-education center" or láojiàosuǒ (劳教所) was replaced with "correctional center" in 2007.
Other components of the prison system include detention centers for individuals awaiting sentence or execution, and juvenile detention camps for individuals under a minimum age (which has varied through the years, and may currently be under 14). The system formerly included components such as custody and repatriation
for individuals without a residence permit; "forced job placement," which has not been widely practiced since the 1990s; and "shelter and investigation," a system of detentions for individuals under legal investigation, which was abolished in 1996. The Laogai Research Foundation also classifies psychiatric facilities, or ankang
, as a form of detention for political dissidents, although it is not officially recognized as part of the laogai penal system.
in 1957 and 1958. A report by Human Rights in China (HRIC) states that re-education through labor was first used by the Communist Party of China
in 1955 to punish counter-revolutionaries, and in 1957 was officially adopted into law to be implemented by the Ministry of Public Security
. The law allowed police to sentence both minor offenders and "counter-revolutionaries" or "anti-socialist elements" to incarceration in labor camps without the right to a judicial hearing
or trial
, and did not allow judicial review
to take place until after the punishment was being enforced. In the beginning there were no limits to the length for which detainees could be sentenced, and it was not until 1979 that a maximum sentence of four years (three years' sentence plus one-year extension) was set. In 1983, the management and implementation of the re-education through labor system was passed from the Ministry of Public Security to the Ministry of Justice
.
When Falun Gong
was banned in mainland China in 1999, re-education through labor became a common punishment for practitioners. Some human rights groups claim that as many as 10,000 Falun Gong members were detained in between 1999 and 2002, with as many as 5,000 detained in 2001 alone. More recent estimates suggest that hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong adherents are imprisoned in China, with some sources estimating up to half of the official reeducation through labor camp population is Falun Gong practitioners. In some labor camps, Falun Gong practitioners make up the majority population.
In the past decade, there have been numerous calls for the system to be reformed or replaced. As early as 1997, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
(WGAD) called for China to allow judicial control over detentions; in 2000, the UN Committee Against Torture recommended that all forms of administrative detention, including re-education through labor, be abolished; in 2004, the WGAD called for the establishment of rights to due process and counsel for individuals detained; and in 2005, the Special Rapporteur on Torture called for the outright abolition of re-education through labor. The prominent deaths of two inmates in spring 2003 prompted many calls within China for reform of the system, but reform did not happen immediately, though The China Daily reported that there was "general consensus" that reform was needed. In March 2007, however, the Chinese government did announce that it would abolish the re-education through labor system and replace it with a more lenient set of laws. According to the proposal, the maximum sentence would be lowered from four years to 18 months; re-education centers would be renamed "correction centers" and have their fences and gates removed. A month later, Chongqing
municipality passed a law allowing lawyers to offer legal counsel in re-education through labor cases.
Many human rights groups, however, doubted the efficacy of the proposed reforms, saying that the new laws would only help minor criminals and not help political prisoners, and that the reforms would not actually abolish the re-education through labor system. The Laogai Research Foundation stated that lowering the maximum length of detention and changing the names of the detention facilities would not constitute a "fundamental change". Nine months after the declaration that the laws would be rewritten, the re-education through labor system had not been abolished; in December 2007, a group of academics drafted an open letter to the government calling for an end to the system. During the 2008 Summer Olympics
in Beijing
, there were reports that some individuals applying for permits to protest were detained without trial; of these, some were sentenced to re-education through labor. In the United Nations Human Rights Council
's September 2008 Universal Periodic Review of the People's Republic of China, re-education through labor was listed as an "urgent human rights concern," and as of February 2009 there remains a large number of active facilities.
Of these detainees, 5 to 10 percent are estimated to be political prisoners, and as many as 40 percent drug offenders—in 1998, nearly one-third of the known re-education camps were meant specifically for holding drug offenders.
China Daily estimated that there were a total of 310 re-education centers in China at in 2007. The 2008 edition the Laogai Research Foundation's biennial report listed exactly 319 "confirmed" re-education centers in China, and 74 "unconfirmed" ones, but estimated that the actual number might be much higher. the provinces with the most centers being Guangdong
(31), Heilongjiang
(21), and Henan
(21). In a February 2009 meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council
, the Chinese government stated that there are 320 centers. The provinces with the most re-education centers include Guangdong
, Liaoning
, Heilongjiang
, and Henan
.
s (police offices) are able to carry out administrative detentions for "minor" infringements that are not considered criminal acts; at least one analyst has suggested that local public security bureaus often abuse their authority and detain individuals for things such as personal vendettas. Individuals may also be sentenced to re-education through labor by courts, but the proportion of individuals who receive trials rather than going directly into administrative detention is determined in part by how much capacity that province has for re-education detainees—provinces with large re-education through labor apparatus generally allow fewer detainees to have trials. Where detainees have been allowed a trial, their lawyers have faced "intimidation and abuse," according to some reports, and the individuals under trial have sometimes been convicted on the basis of confessions that were coerced through "torture and severe psychological pressure." In at least one instance, convicted individuals were sent to re-education through labor even after being found not guilty in a trial.
Most detainees in re-education through labor facilities are reported to be drug users, petty criminals, and prostitutes, as well as some political prisoners; James Seymour has also claimed that most individuals sentenced to re-education through labor are from urban areas. Individuals who attempt to leave the country illegally have also been sentenced to re-education through labor upon their return. In periods leading up to visits from foreign dignitaries or politically sensitive anniversaries (such as the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
), local authorities have supposedly detained "undesirables" such as the homeless, mentally or physically disabled individuals, and migrant workers. One China specialist at the RAND Corporation
has claimed that the police, faced with a lack of "modern rehabilitation
and treatment programs," use re-education through labor convictions to "warehouse" individuals for "an increasing number of social problems." In some instances, individuals were sent to re-education through labor even after being found not guilty in a court of law.
Detainees can seek to have their detention repealed through an "administrative review" (xingzheng fuyi, 行政复议) of the decision or by filing an "administrative litigation" (xingzheng susong 行政诉讼) against the Re-education Through Labor Management Committee that detained them. According to the advocacy group Chinese Human Rights Defenders
, however, these options are ineffective and the groups overseeing the reviews and litigations often have the same interests as the management committee that originally ordered the detention.
Although drug abusers are ostensibly placed in re-education through labor to be treated for their addictions, some testimonial evidence has suggested that little "meaningful treatment" takes place in at least some of the centers, and that drug abusers often relapse into addiction upon their release from detention.
The facilities have been widely criticized for the physical abuse that is said to go on within them. Corporal punishment
is commonly used, and torture and physical abuse are also thought to be widespread in the facilities. In April 2003, Zhang Bin, an inmate at the re-education facility Huludao City Correctional Camp, was beaten to death, reportedly by other inmates and by the labor supervisor. Zhang's death, along with the March 2003 death of inmate Sun Zhigang in a custody and repatriation
prison, sparked calls within China for reform of the system, although reforms were not made immediately.
Though most reports describe the conditions of re-education camps as "brutal," there are some claims of prisoners being well-treated. For example, when he was released from a three-year re-education sentence in 1999, dissident Liu Xiaobo said that he had been treated very mildly, that he had been allowed to spend time reading, and that the conditions had been "pretty good."
According to Xinhua, the official news agency of the Communist Party of China
, slightly over 50% of detainees released from prison and re-education through labor in 2006 received government aid in the form of funds or assistance in finding jobs.
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.
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
which is generally used to detain persons for minor crimes such as petty theft
Theft
In common usage, theft is the illegal taking of another person's property without that person's permission or consent. The word is also used as an informal shorthand term for some crimes against property, such as burglary, embezzlement, larceny, looting, robbery, shoplifting and fraud...
, prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
, and trafficking illegal drugs, as well as religious or political dissidents such as unregistered Christians
Chinese house church
Chinese house churches are a religious movement of unregistered assemblies of Christians in the People's Republic of China, which operate independently of the government-run Three-Self Patriotic Movement and China Christian Council for Protestant groups and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic...
or Falun Gong
Falun Gong
Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline first introduced in China in 1992 by its founder, Li Hongzhi, through public lectures. It combines the practice of meditation and slow-moving qigong exercises with the moral philosophy...
adherents. Sentences typically span one to three years, with the possibility of an additional one-year extension. Re-education through labor sentences are issued by police, rather than through the judicial system. While incarcerated, detainees are often subject to some form of political education; torture, sometimes resulting in death, has also been reported in labor camps. The re-education through labor system has been in place since 1957 and was subjected to minor reforms by the Chinese government in 2007. Estimates on the number of RTL detainees on any given year ranges from 190,000 to 2 million. China Daily
China Daily
The China Daily is an English language daily newspaper published in the People's Republic of China.- Overview :China Daily was established in June 1981 and has the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in the country...
in 2007 estimated that there were a total of 310 re-education centers in China at that time.
Re-education through labor and the Chinese penal system
The People's Republic of China employs several forms of corrections for people who have been arrested, of which re-education through labor is one. The Laogai Research Foundation classifies re-education through labor as a sub-component under the umbrella of the laogaiLaogai
Laogai , the abbreviation for Láodòng Gǎizào , which means "reform through labor," is a slogan of the Chinese criminal justice system and has been used to refer to the use of prison labor and prison farms in the People's Republic of China . It is estimated that in the last fifty years more than...
("reform through labor") criminal justice system, which generally refers to prisons, prison farm
Prison farm
A prison farm is a large correctional facility where penal labor convicts are put to economical use in a 'farm' , usually for manual labour, largely in open air, such as in agriculture, logging, quarrying, etc...
s, and labor camps for convicted criminals. Re-education through labor, on the other hand, refers to detentions for persons who are not considered criminals or have only committed minor offenses. Persons detained under re-education through labor are detained in facilities which are separate from the general prison system; furthermore, detainees in these re-education facilities receive a small salary, which laogai detainees do not, and in theory have shorter work hours. The laogai system is much larger than the re-education through labor system, with the Laogai Research Foundation identifying 1,045 laogai camps in 2006 (compared to 346 re-education centers). Both systems, however, involve penal labor
Penal labour
Penal labour is a form of unfree labour in which prisoners perform work, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of sentence which involve penal labour include penal servitude and imprisonment with hard labour...
and often do not allow trials
Trial (law)
In law, a trial is when parties to a dispute come together to present information in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court...
or judicial hearings
Hearing (law)
In law, a hearing is a proceeding before a court or other decision-making body or officer, such as a government agency.A hearing is generally distinguished from a trial in that it is usually shorter and often less formal...
. The term "reform through labor" or laogai was officially replaced with "prison" in 1994, and the term "re-education center" or láojiàosuǒ (劳教所) was replaced with "correctional center" in 2007.
Other components of the prison system include detention centers for individuals awaiting sentence or execution, and juvenile detention camps for individuals under a minimum age (which has varied through the years, and may currently be under 14). The system formerly included components such as custody and repatriation
Custody and repatriation
Custody and repatriation was an administrative procedure, established in 1982 and ended in 2003, by which the police in the People's Republic of China could detain people if they did not have a residence permit or temporary living permit , and return them to the place where they could legally...
for individuals without a residence permit; "forced job placement," which has not been widely practiced since the 1990s; and "shelter and investigation," a system of detentions for individuals under legal investigation, which was abolished in 1996. The Laogai Research Foundation also classifies psychiatric facilities, or ankang
Ankang (asylum)
Ankang is a name shared by a number of psychiatric hospitals or asylums in China. The term literally means "peace and health [for the mentally ill]". Many of these institutions are prison-hospitals for holding prisoners judged to be mentally ill, and operate directly under the local Public...
, as a form of detention for political dissidents, although it is not officially recognized as part of the laogai penal system.
History
Institutions similar to re-education through labor facilities, but called "new life schools" or "loafers' camps", existed in the early 1950s, although they did not become official until the anti-rightist campaignsAnti-Rightist Movement
The Anti-Rightist Movement of the People's Republic of China in the 1950s and early 1960s consisted of a series of campaigns to purge alleged "rightists" within the Communist Party of China and abroad...
in 1957 and 1958. A report by Human Rights in China (HRIC) states that re-education through labor was first used by the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
in 1955 to punish counter-revolutionaries, and in 1957 was officially adopted into law to be implemented by the Ministry of Public Security
Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China
The Ministry of Public Security , is the principal police and security authority of the mainland of the People's Republic of China and the government agency that exercises oversight over and is ultimately responsible for day-to-day law enforcement...
. The law allowed police to sentence both minor offenders and "counter-revolutionaries" or "anti-socialist elements" to incarceration in labor camps without the right to a judicial hearing
Hearing (law)
In law, a hearing is a proceeding before a court or other decision-making body or officer, such as a government agency.A hearing is generally distinguished from a trial in that it is usually shorter and often less formal...
or trial
Trial (law)
In law, a trial is when parties to a dispute come together to present information in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court...
, and did not allow judicial review
Judicial review
Judicial review is the doctrine under which legislative and executive actions are subject to review by the judiciary. Specific courts with judicial review power must annul the acts of the state when it finds them incompatible with a higher authority...
to take place until after the punishment was being enforced. In the beginning there were no limits to the length for which detainees could be sentenced, and it was not until 1979 that a maximum sentence of four years (three years' sentence plus one-year extension) was set. In 1983, the management and implementation of the re-education through labor system was passed from the Ministry of Public Security to the Ministry of Justice
Ministry of Justice of the People's Republic of China
Ministry of Justice of the People's Republic of China is a ministry of the Chinese central government which is responsible for legal affairs...
.
When Falun Gong
Falun Gong
Falun Gong is a spiritual discipline first introduced in China in 1992 by its founder, Li Hongzhi, through public lectures. It combines the practice of meditation and slow-moving qigong exercises with the moral philosophy...
was banned in mainland China in 1999, re-education through labor became a common punishment for practitioners. Some human rights groups claim that as many as 10,000 Falun Gong members were detained in between 1999 and 2002, with as many as 5,000 detained in 2001 alone. More recent estimates suggest that hundreds of thousands of Falun Gong adherents are imprisoned in China, with some sources estimating up to half of the official reeducation through labor camp population is Falun Gong practitioners. In some labor camps, Falun Gong practitioners make up the majority population.
In the past decade, there have been numerous calls for the system to be reformed or replaced. As early as 1997, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention is a UN-mandated body of independent human rights experts that investigates cases of arbitrary arrest and detention that may be in violation of international human rights law....
(WGAD) called for China to allow judicial control over detentions; in 2000, the UN Committee Against Torture recommended that all forms of administrative detention, including re-education through labor, be abolished; in 2004, the WGAD called for the establishment of rights to due process and counsel for individuals detained; and in 2005, the Special Rapporteur on Torture called for the outright abolition of re-education through labor. The prominent deaths of two inmates in spring 2003 prompted many calls within China for reform of the system, but reform did not happen immediately, though The China Daily reported that there was "general consensus" that reform was needed. In March 2007, however, the Chinese government did announce that it would abolish the re-education through labor system and replace it with a more lenient set of laws. According to the proposal, the maximum sentence would be lowered from four years to 18 months; re-education centers would be renamed "correction centers" and have their fences and gates removed. A month later, Chongqing
Chongqing
Chongqing is a major city in Southwest China and one of the five national central cities of China. Administratively, it is one of the PRC's four direct-controlled municipalities , and the only such municipality in inland China.The municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the...
municipality passed a law allowing lawyers to offer legal counsel in re-education through labor cases.
Many human rights groups, however, doubted the efficacy of the proposed reforms, saying that the new laws would only help minor criminals and not help political prisoners, and that the reforms would not actually abolish the re-education through labor system. The Laogai Research Foundation stated that lowering the maximum length of detention and changing the names of the detention facilities would not constitute a "fundamental change". Nine months after the declaration that the laws would be rewritten, the re-education through labor system had not been abolished; in December 2007, a group of academics drafted an open letter to the government calling for an end to the system. During the 2008 Summer Olympics
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, there were reports that some individuals applying for permits to protest were detained without trial; of these, some were sentenced to re-education through labor. In the United Nations Human Rights Council
United Nations Human Rights Council
The United Nations Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations System. The UNHRC is the successor to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights , and is a subsidiary body of the United Nations General Assembly...
's September 2008 Universal Periodic Review of the People's Republic of China, re-education through labor was listed as an "urgent human rights concern," and as of February 2009 there remains a large number of active facilities.
Statistics
Reports on re-education through labor have found it difficult to estimate the number of people in re-education centers, and nationwide statistics were often unavailable in the past. What data have become available often vary widely.| Source | |Year | |Number of detainees in given year | |Number of detainees since founding |
|---|---|---|---|
| PRC government | 2009 | 190,000 | |
| 2003 | 230,000 | ||
| China Labour Bulletin China Labour Bulletin China Labour Bulletin is a non-governmental organization that promotes and defends workers’ rights in the People’s Republic of China. It is based in Hong Kong and was founded in 1994 by labour activist Han Dongfang... |
2007 | 300,000 | |
| Laogai Research Foundation Laogai Research Foundation The Laogai Research Foundation is a human rights NGO located in Washington, DC. The foundation's mission is to "gather information on and raise public awareness of the Laogai—China’s extensive system of forced-labor prison camps."-History:... |
2006, 2008 | 500,000–2 million | |
| Unspecified non-governmental organizations | 2003 | 310,000 | |
| Human Rights in China Human Rights in China Human Rights in China is a New York-based international, Chinese, non-governmental organization with a mission to promote international human rights and advance the institutional protection of these rights in the People's Republic of China.... |
2001 | 200,000 (in 1990s) | |
| Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,... |
1998 | 230,000 (in 1997) | |
| Xinhua Xinhua News Agency The Xinhua News Agency is the official press agency of the government of the People's Republic of China and the biggest center for collecting information and press conferences in the PRC. It is the largest news agency in the PRC, ahead of the China News Service... official news agency |
2001 | 3.5 million | |
| China Daily China Daily The China Daily is an English language daily newspaper published in the People's Republic of China.- Overview :China Daily was established in June 1981 and has the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in the country... |
2007 | 400,000 | |
Of these detainees, 5 to 10 percent are estimated to be political prisoners, and as many as 40 percent drug offenders—in 1998, nearly one-third of the known re-education camps were meant specifically for holding drug offenders.
China Daily estimated that there were a total of 310 re-education centers in China at in 2007. The 2008 edition the Laogai Research Foundation's biennial report listed exactly 319 "confirmed" re-education centers in China, and 74 "unconfirmed" ones, but estimated that the actual number might be much higher. the provinces with the most centers being Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
(31), Heilongjiang
Heilongjiang
For the river known in Mandarin as Heilong Jiang, see Amur River' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. "Heilongjiang" literally means Black Dragon River, which is the Chinese name for the Amur. The one-character abbreviation is 黑...
(21), and Henan
Henan
Henan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...
(21). In a February 2009 meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council
United Nations Human Rights Council
The United Nations Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the United Nations System. The UNHRC is the successor to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights , and is a subsidiary body of the United Nations General Assembly...
, the Chinese government stated that there are 320 centers. The provinces with the most re-education centers include Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
, Liaoning
Liaoning
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the northeast of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "辽" , a name taken from the Liao River that flows through the province. "Níng" means "peace"...
, Heilongjiang
Heilongjiang
For the river known in Mandarin as Heilong Jiang, see Amur River' is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. "Heilongjiang" literally means Black Dragon River, which is the Chinese name for the Amur. The one-character abbreviation is 黑...
, and Henan
Henan
Henan , is a province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-character abbreviation is "豫" , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty state that included parts of Henan...
.
Conviction and detention
Sentencing for re-education through labor is generally carried out by the police rather than by the judicial system, so individuals are rarely charged or tried before being detained. Public security bureauPublic Security Bureau
In the People's Republic of China, a public security bureau refers to the government offices while the smaller offices are called Police posts which are similar in concept to the Japanese Kōban system) present in each province and municipality that handles policing , public security, and...
s (police offices) are able to carry out administrative detentions for "minor" infringements that are not considered criminal acts; at least one analyst has suggested that local public security bureaus often abuse their authority and detain individuals for things such as personal vendettas. Individuals may also be sentenced to re-education through labor by courts, but the proportion of individuals who receive trials rather than going directly into administrative detention is determined in part by how much capacity that province has for re-education detainees—provinces with large re-education through labor apparatus generally allow fewer detainees to have trials. Where detainees have been allowed a trial, their lawyers have faced "intimidation and abuse," according to some reports, and the individuals under trial have sometimes been convicted on the basis of confessions that were coerced through "torture and severe psychological pressure." In at least one instance, convicted individuals were sent to re-education through labor even after being found not guilty in a trial.
Most detainees in re-education through labor facilities are reported to be drug users, petty criminals, and prostitutes, as well as some political prisoners; James Seymour has also claimed that most individuals sentenced to re-education through labor are from urban areas. Individuals who attempt to leave the country illegally have also been sentenced to re-education through labor upon their return. In periods leading up to visits from foreign dignitaries or politically sensitive anniversaries (such as the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
), local authorities have supposedly detained "undesirables" such as the homeless, mentally or physically disabled individuals, and migrant workers. One China specialist at the RAND Corporation
RAND
RAND Corporation is a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company. It is currently financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations including the healthcare industry, universities...
has claimed that the police, faced with a lack of "modern rehabilitation
Drug rehabilitation
Drug rehabilitation is a term for the processes of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment, for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and so-called street drugs such as cocaine, heroin or amphetamines...
and treatment programs," use re-education through labor convictions to "warehouse" individuals for "an increasing number of social problems." In some instances, individuals were sent to re-education through labor even after being found not guilty in a court of law.
Detainees can seek to have their detention repealed through an "administrative review" (xingzheng fuyi, 行政复议) of the decision or by filing an "administrative litigation" (xingzheng susong 行政诉讼) against the Re-education Through Labor Management Committee that detained them. According to the advocacy group Chinese Human Rights Defenders
Chinese Human Rights Defenders
China Human Rights Defenders is a network of domestic and overseas Chinese human rights activists and groups.The group issues statements on human rights issues and its website provides news and background information....
, however, these options are ineffective and the groups overseeing the reviews and litigations often have the same interests as the management committee that originally ordered the detention.
Conditions in the facilities
The United States Department of State called the conditions in prisons "harsh and frequently degrading," and said the conditions in re-education through labor facilities were similar, citing overcrowded living spaces, low-quality food, and poor or absent medical care. Detainees in camps are required to work for little or no pay; while Chinese law requires that prison laborers' workday be limited to 12 hours a day, The United States Department of State and the Laogai Research Foundation have speculated that re-education through labor detainees are forced to work longer. In 2001, sociologist Dean Rojek estimated that detainees generally worked six days a week, "in total silence." Much of the labor done by re-education through labor detainees is geared towards agriculture or producing goods, many of which are sold internationally, since re-education through labor detainees are not counted as official "prisoners" and therefore not subject to international treaties. They also perform work ranging "from tending vegetables and emptying septic pits to cutting stone blocks and construction work."Although drug abusers are ostensibly placed in re-education through labor to be treated for their addictions, some testimonial evidence has suggested that little "meaningful treatment" takes place in at least some of the centers, and that drug abusers often relapse into addiction upon their release from detention.
The facilities have been widely criticized for the physical abuse that is said to go on within them. Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment
Corporal punishment is a form of physical punishment that involves the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behaviour deemed unacceptable...
is commonly used, and torture and physical abuse are also thought to be widespread in the facilities. In April 2003, Zhang Bin, an inmate at the re-education facility Huludao City Correctional Camp, was beaten to death, reportedly by other inmates and by the labor supervisor. Zhang's death, along with the March 2003 death of inmate Sun Zhigang in a custody and repatriation
Custody and repatriation
Custody and repatriation was an administrative procedure, established in 1982 and ended in 2003, by which the police in the People's Republic of China could detain people if they did not have a residence permit or temporary living permit , and return them to the place where they could legally...
prison, sparked calls within China for reform of the system, although reforms were not made immediately.
Though most reports describe the conditions of re-education camps as "brutal," there are some claims of prisoners being well-treated. For example, when he was released from a three-year re-education sentence in 1999, dissident Liu Xiaobo said that he had been treated very mildly, that he had been allowed to spend time reading, and that the conditions had been "pretty good."
Life after release
Detainees who are released from re-education through labor camps may still be unable to travel or see other people freely. Individuals who remain in re-education through labor for 5 or more years may not be allowed to return to their homes, and those who do may be closely monitored and not permitted to leave certain areas. For example, in July 2003 a priest who had been released from detention was kept under house arrest, and five men who attempted to visit him were themselves detained.According to Xinhua, the official news agency of the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
, slightly over 50% of detainees released from prison and re-education through labor in 2006 received government aid in the form of funds or assistance in finding jobs.
Criticism
Human Rights WatchHuman Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...
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
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 16, 1966, and in force from March 23, 1976...
(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
Ministry of Justice of the People's Republic of China
Ministry of Justice of the People's Republic of China is a ministry of the Chinese central government which is responsible for legal affairs...
, as well, has admitted that the system violated items in the Chinese constitution
Constitution of the People's Republic of China
The Constitution of the People's Republic of China is the highest law within the People's Republic of China. The current version was adopted by the 5th National People's Congress on December 4, 1982 with further revisions in 1988, 1993, 1999, and 2004. Three previous state constitutions—those of...
. 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
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
groups for not offering procedural guarantees for the accused, and for being used to detain political dissidents, teachers, Chinese house church
Chinese house church
Chinese house churches are a religious movement of unregistered assemblies of Christians in the People's Republic of China, which operate independently of the government-run Three-Self Patriotic Movement and China Christian Council for Protestant groups and the Chinese Patriotic Catholic...
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
Supreme People's Court of the People's Republic of China
The Supreme People's Court is the highest court in the mainland area 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
Legal Daily
The Legal Daily is a People's Republic of China state-owned newspaper under the supervision of the PRC Ministry of Justice that is published in the PRC and primarily covers legal developments....
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.
See also
- Human rights in the People's Republic of ChinaHuman rights in the People's Republic of ChinaHuman rights in the People's Republic of China are a matter of dispute between the Chinese government, other countries, international NGOs, and dissidents inside the country. Organizations such as the U.S. State Department, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have accused the Chinese...
- List of Re-education Through Labor camps in China
- Mao HengfengMao HengfengMao Hengfeng is a women's rights and human rights activist in the People's Republic of China. She refused to abort her third child after already having twins and was detained in an ankang and then dismissed from her job...
, a human rights activist, who has been repeatedly ill-treated and tortured in the RTL camps.