A second set of draft amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law, tabled last week in the nation's legislature, answer some concerns raised by the public but fall short of expectations overall, rights advocates and law experts say.
Some amount to a step backwards, they say.
Nevertheless, the National People's Congress Standing Committee voted yesterday at the end of its latest meeting to have the amendments tabled at the full NPC plenary session in March, where they will almost certainly be passed.
The Criminal Procedure Law seeks to strike a balance between the state's exercise of power and the rights of individuals. Lawyers and rights activists hold high hopes that the long-awaited revisions will make significant steps towards protecting rights.
The first draft amendments - the first major revision of this important law since 1996 - were released for a month's public consultation in September and more than 80,000 responses were received and reviewed by law drafters, Xinhua said.
At the time, some of the changes that most concerned rights advocates related to the duty of police to inform family members when a citizen is detained, arrested or put under residential surveillance at a location other than that person's normal residence.
The first draft stated that police had a general duty to inform the family, except when it was not possible to reach them or in cases of state security or terrorism, when notifying them might prejudice investigations.