National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2012-2015)

(3) Right to fair trial

-- China will improve the legal stipulations regarding judicial proceeding to guarantee litigants' right to fair trial.

-- Guaranteeing criminal defendants the rights to plead, receive legal aid and request an avoidance (of a judge or witness).

-- Guaranteeing the personal rights and right of defense of lawyers when they perform their duties.

-- Further improving the system to have witnesses and expert witnesses appear in court and the system of protecting the witnesses.

-- Improving the system of eliminating illegal evidence; all confessions by suspects and defendants extorted by torture or other illegal methods, as well as testimonies and statements of witnesses or victims collected by violence, threat or other illegal means will be eliminated and not used in working out the verdict. In addition, the stipulations on evidences used to examine and decide cases of death penalty will be strictly observed, and more strict standards will be adopted in this regard.

-- Implementing the Decisions of the Supreme People's Court on Audio-Visual Recordings of Court Trials. The system of producing audio-visual recordings of the whole process of suspect interrogating in major cases will be established.

-- Continuing to push forward standardized measurement of penalty. The people's procuratorates will make suggestions on penalty measurement to the people's courts when handling criminal cases. The discretion in penalty measurement will be institutionalized. Guidelines on penalty measurement by the people's courts will be worked out, so will regulations of the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security on standardizing procedures of penalty measurement to guarantee openness and fairness in penalty measurement.

-- Observing more stringent judicial procedures for death penalty and review of death penalty. China will improve the trial procedures of death penalty cases. The trial of all death penalty cases of second instance will be open to the public. The review of death penalty should include the questioning of the defendant, and listening to the opinions of his/her attorney if the attorney so demands. Legal supervision by the Supreme People's Procuratorate over the review of death penalty will be strengthened. The Supreme People's Court will publicize typical cases to clarify the norms of application of death penalty.

-- Amending the Law of Civil Procedure. China will further improve the procedures of bringing an action, case acceptance and pre-trial preparation, establish small-claim and public-interest litigation systems and improve the systems of preservation, evidence, service of litigation document, publicizing of court rulings and trial supervision to protect the litigants' litigation rights.

-- Amending Administrative Procedure Law. China will further improve the rules regarding the acceptance of administrative cases, examination procedures and proofs to guarantee the right of individuals and organizations to legal aid in cases of administrative malfeasance.

(4) Freedom of religious belief

China upholds the principle of freedom of religious belief stipulated in the Constitution and strictly implements the Regulations on Religious Affairs to guarantee citizens' freedom of religious belief.

-- Protecting citizens from being forced to believe in or not to believe in any religion, and from discrimination due to religious belief.

-- Protecting normal religious activities according to law.

-- Improving the management measures of pilgrimage. China will improve the organization and management of, and service to pilgrimage to provide convenience and guarantee for Muslims to complete their pilgrimage smoothly.

-- Encouraging religious believers to carry out charity activities.

-- Helping the religious circles resolve difficulties encountered in the construction of some projects. The state will provide financial support to the construction of new school buildings in the Buddhist Academy of China and the improvement and expansion of the China Islamic Institute. The same support will be rendered to the rebuilding and expansion of venues for religious activities of the Tibetan-inhabited areas in Sichuan, Yunnan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces. Financial support will also be extended to the post-earthquake rebuilding of venues for religious activities in Yushu, Qinghai Province, and to mosques damaged during natural disasters.

-- Working out methods for implementing the relevant regulations on social security for religious staff.

-- Promoting cultural exchanges in religion. China will support friendly exchanges between Chinese religious circles and foreign religious organizations.

(5) Right to be informed

The Chinese government will further efforts to make government affairs public, to expand the scope of right to be informed by proceeding from the angles of laws, regulations and policies, so as to enhance the level of guarantee to citizens' right to information.

-- Pushing forward the disclosure of government information. China will implement the Provisions on the Disclosure of Government Information and the Opinions of the State Council on Strengthening Government Administration Based on the Rule of Law. The government will make public any government information that does not involve state or trade secrets, or individual privacy. Priority will be given to the disclosure of government information in the areas of financial budgeting, allocation of public resources, approval and implementation of major construction projects, and construction of social welfare undertakings.

-- The state will make greater efforts in making public of administrative work. The system of making public of administrative work will be implemented in all government departments providing public services, and they will be asked to make public in accordance with the law the basis, prerequisites, requirements, progress and result of government administrative work, and provide adequate information.

-- Proactive efforts will be made to steadily push forward the disclosure of auditing information. The state will uphold and improve the system of announcing auditing results, and standardize the form, content and procedure of such announcement; and uphold and improve the system of announcing the results of phased auditing of special-purpose auditing project and results of investigation of major cases.

-- The government press conference system, spokesperson system and spokesperson system for Party committees will be improved continuously.

-- The system of keeping the public informed of leading officials' appointment and dismissal will be established and improved. Vacant leadership positions and related job responsibilities, as well as basic information of the candidates will be announced in due time to promote the institutionalization and standardization of appointment and dismissal of officials.

-- The state will standardize and supervise the disclosure of work of enterprises and institutions that provide public services, including hospitals, schools, public transportation and public utilities. Priority will be given to the announcement of such contents as job responsibilities, service commitments, services for charges, job specifications, work discipline and channels of supervision.

-- Effective measures will be taken to make enterprise affairs known to employees. By 2015, the system of disclosing enterprise affairs to their employees will be implemented in all state-owned and collective enterprises and state- and collective-controlled enterprises where trade union organizations are established, and in more than 80% of non-public enterprises with trade union organizations, so as to ensure the employees' right to be informed.

-- The state will make efforts to improve the transparency of village affairs. The emphasis will be placed on the disclosure of financial affairs, and a platform for open village affairs will be set up.