China issues white paper on human rights

Progress made in protecting rights of person

China has effectively safeguarded its citizens' rights of life and health, of personal liberty, of personal dignity and other rights of the person.

The reeducation through labor system was abolished in 2013 after more than 50 years of operation in China.

China has effectively protected the rights of the person of women and children through waging special campaigns against human trafficking, according to the report.

The country cracked 5,126 and 2,765 cases of abducted and trafficked women and children, respectively, and united 631 abducted children with their biological parents through the DNA database network of public security organs in 2013.

Special emphasis has been given to the protection of the rights of the person of people with mental disorders, says the report, adding the Law on Mental Health came into effect May 1, 2013, and applies the principles of free will and restriction on involuntary hospitalization for patients with mental disorders.

The state has seriously punished crimes that undermined the people's sense of security and infringing upon the citizens' rights of the person, it says.

People's courts at all levels concluded 250,000 cases of homicide, robbery, kidnapping, explosion, rape, trafficking of children and women, and gang-related organized crime, convicting 325,000 persons.

Measures for preventing and rectifying unjust, false and erroneous charges have been further strengthened, according to the report.

In 2013 the people's courts at all levels acquitted a total of 825 defendants in accordance with the law, and ran retrials of unjust, false and erroneous charges discovered during appeal and quashed the original judgments in these cases.

Protection of the rights of the person of criminal suspects, defendants and detainees has been enhanced, says the report.

The people's procuratorates further improved synchronized audio- and video-recording system, effectively protecting the legitimate rights of suspects, it added.

China increases environmental investment for people's health right

Funds used for China's environmental protection is being increased, a measure of the country to safeguard people's right to a healthy and clean environment.

The Chinese government provided some 338.3 billion yuan in 2013 for conserving energy and protecting the environment, seeing a 14.2 percent year-on-year growth, according to the report .

The Chinese government continued to promote ecological progress in 2013, constantly improving environmental protection systems and enhancing environmental management and ecosystem preservation, the report said.

With 135 newly issued items in 2013, China had a total of 1,499 items of national criteria for environmental protection currently in effect, the report said.

Inspection teams for the implementation of the strictest management system of water resources were set up in 31 provincial-level regions, with the local government heads assuming responsibility, it said.

Moreover, when 496 monitoring stations in 74 cities gave real-time updates of monitoring data of six pollutants, including fine particles (PM2.5 particles), a second batch of 116 cities were also building pollutant-monitoring stations and began providing real-time updates, it said.

The emissions of four major pollutants- organic pollutants (measured by chemical oxygen demand), ammonia nitrogen, sulfur dioxide and NOx-decreased by 2.93 percent, 3.14 percent, 3.48 percent and 4.72 percent, respectively, compared with 2012.

The daily sewage treatment capacity in towns increased by 11.94 million tons in 2013, and 84.8 percent of the garbage in cities at all levels was made harmless after treatment, according to the report.

Specialized environmental-protection inspections are being conducted, and environmental crimes are being cracked down on, it said.

Some 1.83 million law-enforcement personnel were sent to inspect 710,000 enterprises in 2013, investigating and dealing with 6,499 cases of environmental violation and illegal activities, according to the document.

The revised Civil Procedure Law, which went into force January 1, 2013, established the environment-related public interest litigation system.

In 2013, people's courts at all levels accepted and heard 134 environmental cases, with 104 concluded, and applied criminal sanctions to 139 persons.