Ending re-education through labour must lead to curbs on police powers
Hu Shuli says whatever changes are made to the system,they must go hand in hand with efforts to ensure officers operate under the rule of law
The detested administrative punishment of "re-education through labour" may finally end this year. A proposal for reform tabled at a law and order work conference this month is said to have the central government's backing, and will take effect once the National People's Congress Standing Committee gives its nod.
This is good news. It represents progress built on the recent cases of people like Ren Jianyu and Tang Hui , whose fight for freedom made the news. But many problems still have to be solved before police excess can be curbed.
To deprive a person of his freedom through labour re-education is an anachronism. By the second half of the 20th century, most countries had come to agree on the basic principles on restricting freedom set out in the United Nations' International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Yet China's punishment of re-education through labour, which began in 1957 and continues today, gives local security and administrative officials the power to strip a citizen of his freedom for up to four years without needing approval from the court or state prosecutors. The police have long been the major agency to wield this power.
Labour re-education originated, of course, in the terrible forced labour camps of the former Soviet Union.
Today, a civilised society is judged by its ability to protect people's personal freedom. It is a prerequisite for social harmony. A society that cannot protect people's freedom is also one where police power runs amok (this largely refers to the security police, but in China also includes criminal investigation officers). Such unjust detention not only harms the person in question, but also makes the infringement of other people's civil liberties and rights easier.