China to allow u.n. investigations into torture

[alonzomourning23]

Funny, the blood thirsty commies officially banned torture in 96 and, realizing its still widespread, allow an international body to investigate, make unannounced visits and interview detainees privately. The u.s.? Our president and vice president actively attempt to stop a measure banning torture. You'd think it would be the other way around

The UN special envoy on torture has said that his invitation to visit China indicates growing awareness in Beijing that the practice is still widely used.


Manfred Novak told the BBC he had been promised the freedom to see prisoners and investigate claims of torture.

Mr Novak will spend nearly two weeks in Beijing, Tibet and the troubled western province of Xinjiang.

Beijing outlawed torture in 1996, but human rights organisations report it is still used to extract confessions.

Mr Novak's visit follows 10 years of repeated requests to be allowed into the country.

Speaking at the start of a two-week trip, he also said he was confident his recommendations would bring about change. 'Small steps'

He said he was "grateful" China had allowed him the freedom to visit prisons un-announced and conduct private interviews with detainees.

"I see this as an opening up of government policy," he said.

"There is a growing awareness that torture is widely practised in common criminal proceedings," he said.

He cited recent cases where people were sentenced to death for murder - while their "victims" were later found to still be alive - as proof that torture is used to extract confessions.

Mr Nowak said he would make "realistic recommendations" to Beijing and he was confident they would be implemented.
"There is much going on in China in terms of legal reforms," he said, adding that he expected progress to take place in "small steps".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4458458.stm

 

[Duo_Maxwell]

Well the article made no mention of the envoy being allowed to investigate only interview and visit, those are not technically investigations, it will be interesting to see how much these envoys are controlled or allowed to see while they are actually there. I hope you didn't miss the part or the news in years past where they've ducked such requests for the 10 years since they "outlawed" it? It's more cracking under long term pressure and less making up for anything. They were even supposed to let them inspect htings last year and they then "delayed" it.

I agree the situation has some irony to it, but you make it sort of sound as though China is being a real daisy about this issue now, it's not as they were oblivious to it all and just now realized it. Plus last I checked, torture is not part of the official common criminal's interrogation in the US. My local police department doesn't include pre-arreginment shock torture on the list of ways to get me to fess up to a drug possession charge.

 

[alonzomourning23]

[quote name='Duo_Maxwell']Well the article made no mention of the envoy being allowed to investigate only interview and visit, those are not technically investigations, it will be interesting to see how much these envoys are controlled or allowed to see while they are actually there. I hope you didn't miss the part or the news in years past where they've ducked such requests for the 10 years since they "outlawed" it? It's more cracking under long term pressure and less making up for anything. They were even supposed to let them inspect htings last year and they then "delayed" it.

I agree the situation has some irony to it, but you make it sort of sound as though China is being a real daisy about this issue now, it's not as they were oblivious to it all and just now realized it. Plus last I checked, torture is not part of the official common criminal's interrogation in the US. My local police department doesn't include pre-arreginment shock torture on the list of ways to get me to fess up to a drug possession charge.[/QUOTE]

Well, in all fairness, torture isn't on any official list in china either. But the u.s. has had pressure on the torture issue from around the time the taliban fell and has gotten progressively worse, or at least worse things are being made public. Though torture in u.s. jails isn't completely unheard of, its obviously much better than most of the world, especially china.

Though china does have significant difficulty in controlling many of the local provincial governments, and fears weakening the system if they crack down too much. There seems to be a significant difference depending on how much control beijing exerts over certain areas. I think its debatable as to how muc they were A. were pressured to act and B. were convinced that torture was rampant and something needed to be done. I think its a combination and they probably would prefer to do this all internally.

Though, while not technically an investigation, interviewing detainees and making random visits is close enough.