Friday, June 1, 2007

Abuse of basic human rights in China


As per Amnesty International, nearly 70 crimes are punishable by execution, including non-violent crimes. The exact number of executions is not known because the government treats death penalty statistics as a state secret, in contravention of internationally accepted standards requiring all countries still using the death penalty to publish statistics on its use. Estimates are that the executions could run into thousands each year.
As per Amnesty's published report, the abuses documented include:


  • no immediate access to lawyer

  • seriously inadequate legal representation

  • torture used to extort confessions

  • confessions extracted under torture used as evidence in court

  • obviously fabricated evidence used in court

  • no guaranteed presumption of innocence

  • most judges have minimal or no legal training

  • Party supervision of all courts resulting in verdicts before trial

  • abuse of state secrets legislation to hide politically sensitive cases

  • “strike-hard” campaigns that put political pressure on police to “resolve” cases

  • detentions beyond legal limits

  • convicts paraded in public before execution




Mobile execution chambers are also being used extensively throughout China – converted buses in which convicts can be executed by lethal injection “immediately after sentence is passed”.
The latest news about an execution which has been made public, to salvage its falling image in matters of the spiking of its pet food, baby formula,medicines and wheat gluten and heaven knows what else with a lethal metallic powder of melamine, is the order to execute Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of its food and drug regulation department, for corruption.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

wonder if theres a site for humam right abuses in any of the so called developed naions?

Anonymous said...

very very sad to see these happening in this modern world - these human abuess in China should be condemned and brought to world attention

Bond

Eternalsoul said...

You are right bond. But who is to bell the cat???
Eternalsoul