Since it was instituted in 1979, the Criminal Procedure Law has undergone two revisions. The first amendment was passed in 1996. The present draft amendment not only expands the new criminal procedural law to 285 articles from 225, but also changes more than one-fourth of the clauses in the original text.
Dai Zhongchuan, vice president of the Law School of Huaqiao University, says the Criminal Procedure Law should be amended to adapt to the country's current social and economic development, particularly with regard to the protection of human rights, which was written into China's constitution in 2004.
"In the past, inadequate protection was given to the rights that suspects or the accused should have, including their right to defense, sometimes even below the lowest standard adopted in international practice in this field."
Earlier, Li Zhaoxing, the spokesman for the Fifth Session of the 11th National People's Congress, China's lawmaking body, confirmed that the principle of respecting and protecting human rights had been written in the draft.
Dai Zhongchuan says the addition of many detailed regulations in the draft reflect the government's determination to better protect human rights.
"The amendments include the changes that have occurred with the rules regarding evidence and witnesses, mandatory measures as well as judicial procedures. And all these changes place emphasis on the protection of human rights."
The bill's chapter on evidence, for instance, ensures that no one be forced to prove their own guilt, and provisions on ruling out illegal evidence have been added.
Lawmakers have also strictly limited the situations where the family members of a detained person are not notified of his or her whereabouts.
In the chapter on defense, legislators have made it clear that suspects may entrust defense lawyers during the investigation stage.
Li Ju, a lawyer with Beijing-based Zhong Yin Law Firm, is one of those who believe that the draft amendment will help improve the protection of suspects' human rights.
"Procuratorial organs used to be reluctant to let lawyers get involved in the early stages of interrogation out of fear of what they thought would be an obstruction to their investigation procedures. The amended Criminal Procedure Law classifies cases involving state secrets, which were once used as an excuse by investigation departments to prevent lawyers from seeing their clients. Except for certain conditions that require approval from police authorities, defense lawyers are all allowed to offer the accused timely legal aid. I see it as a big improvement."
Besides lawyers and Chinese legal experts, many international media have made positive comments on the draft amendment, calling it a great improvement by Chinese authorities in balancing crime fighting and the protection of human rights.
For CRI, I'm Yang Yong.
