The Convention Against Torture And The Quest For Direction In Seeking The Prevention Of Torture In China

The international community has long focused on banning torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment worldwide. As a specific and universal national human rights document, the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) represents an important attempt at international implementation of a prohibition of torture. The Convention represents an attempt by the international community put in place a supervisory mechanism that will help enforce the ban on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In the late 1980s, China became a party to CAT.The government has taken various steps to be in accordance with CAT and combat the problem of torture in China. The laws, rules, regulations and the relevant normative documents such as the Prison Law, Administrative Penalties Law, National Compensation Law, Prison Ordinance, Judges Law, Police Law, Public Procurators Law, and Judge Responsibility Disciplinary Measures constitute the foundation of China’s legal system against torture, and can be regarded as an important legal basis and guarantee for prohibiting and preventing torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.Although the Chinese government has made efforts to tailor the legal regime to the requirement of the conventions so as to get rid of the phenomenon of torture, it efforts have not yet met with deep or comprehensive success. The She Xianglin case, Du Peiwu case and Zhao Zuohai case are the most famous three cases which have been instrumental in exposing the extralegal measures used in investigations. According to the 2015 Human Rights Report:Tiger Chairs and Cell Bosses:Police Torture of Criminal Suspects in China by Human Rights Watch, "some police officers deliberately thwart the new protections by taking detainees from official detention facilities or use torture methods that leave no visible injuries. In other cases, procurators and judges ignore clear evidence of mistreatment, rendering China’s new "exclusionary rule"-which prohibits the use of evidence directly obtained through torture-of no help." Besides, while measures such as the exclusionary rule and videotaped interrogations are positive, the deficiency deep-rooted in criminal justice system "still affords the police enormous power over the judiciary and offers police numerous opportunities to abuse suspects."Therefore, by analyzing the deficiencies in the legal system and practices in China, and by learning lessons from EU, UK and Denmark, I provide several measures to improve the abilities of the government to attack and prevent torture in China.The research issues involved in the thesis are as follows:1. The dissertation defines the four essential criteria of torture, and studies the structure of the Convention, basic principles embodied in the Convention, and its implementation mechanisms. The basic principles include general prohibition of torture and blocking the use of evidence obtained through torture. The implementation mechanisms to ensure the effectiveness of the Convention contain reporting mechanisms, examination mechanisms, and communication mechanisms.2. The dissertation analyzes practice and experience in prevention of torture in the international community. It analyzes torture prevention schemes in the EU, UK, and Denmark. To be specific, in the EU, the main weapon in fighting against torture consists of two conventions, namely the European Convention on Human Rights and the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. In the UK, police complaints scheme and independent custody visiting scheme are two impressive designs. In Denmark, NGOs, state compensation, and training of police contribute most to the prevention of torture.3. The dissertation mainly focuses on China’s implementation of the Convention, gives rational and institutional analyses on the prohibition of torture in China, and proposes long-term recommendations for improving the current state of affairs.4. The dissertation proposes opinions and suggestions about measures and policies the government can take to alleviate and even eradicate torture in China. These measures include:enhance the recruit and training of police, gradually lessening limits on the participation of non-government institutions in human rights protection, establish a police complaints board, build a system of visitation in place of custody.