III. Judicial Guarantee for Human Rights

    In 2004, China strengthened its judicial reform to ensure strict law enforcement and fair administration of justice, and guarantee citizens' legal rights according to law.

    China has cracked down on various criminal offenses in accordance with law to protect citizens' life and the safety of their property. From January to October 2004, the Chinese public security organs investigated and cracked 2.004 million criminal cases. The people's courts at all levels wound up 644,248 criminalcases of first instance, in which 767,951 criminals were sentenced,effectively protecting the victims' legitimate rights and interests.

    Adhering to the principle of "enforcing law in the interest of the people," the public security organs strengthened construction of the law enforcement system to ensure that law enforcement is strict, just and humane, improved the system of supervision over law enforcement, and made real efforts to solve some outstanding problems in law enforce-ment. From September 2003 to October 2004,the public security organs sorted out all the public security rules and regulations in effect since the founding of the People'sRepublic of China concerning the rights and duties of citizens, legal persons and other organizations. Among the 1,871 laws and regulations, 558 remained, 1,077 were abolished and 164 amended. In 2004, the public security organs worked out the "Working Plan for Solving Outstanding Problems in Law Enforcement to Promote theConstruction of a Law Enforcement System of Public Security Organs," which listed key problems to be solved in law enforcement over next three years, and launched a special campaign to address breaches of regulations in law enforcement to conscientiously solve the problems of seizing, sealing up, freezing and confiscating properties, giving orders for business suspension andrectification, and revocation of business certificates and licenses in violation of set regulations. Meanwhile, the public security organs strengthened supervision over key links in law enforcement related to the protection of human rights. According to statistics, in 2004, the Chinese public security and judicial organs handled 22,976 administrative reconsideration cases and 3,666 lawsuits, which were respectively 3.6 percent and 5.4 percent more than those of the previous year. The quality of work in the handling of administrative cases and level of administrative law enforcement were further improved.

    The judicial organs have adopted vigorous measures to prevent and contain extended detention. In 2004, the Chinese procuratorialorgans had no extended detention, and urged other law-enforcing organs to correct the extended detention of 7,132 people. The Chinese courts cleared up 873 old and new cases of extended detention involving 2,432 people, settling all the cases save a handful due to technical legal problems. By the end of 2004, the Chinese public security organs had no extended detention.

     The procuratorial organs have performed their functions honestly, conscientiously strengthened legal supervision and safeguarded justice in law enforcement. In 2004, the procuratorialorgans rejected applications for the arrest of 67,904 people; supervised over the canceling of investigation of 2,699 cases, which they found should not have been put on file for investigation; made decisions not to prosecute 21,225 people; appealed against court judgments of 3,063 criminal cases and 13,218 civil cases; proposed for review of 4,333 cases; put 5,569 criminal appeal cases on file for reinvestigation and changed the original judgments in 786 cases; and filed for investigation casesof power abuse, dereliction of duty, soliciting or accepting bribes and malpractices for personal gain involving 3,010 judicialpersonnel, thus effectively safeguarding the citizens' rights and ensuring fairness and justice. To strengthen the work of investigation and arrest, and to protect suspects' legitimate rights and interests, the Supreme People's Procuratorate formulated the "Opinions on Interrogating Suspects When Handling and Investigating Cases Involving Arrest." At present, all the provincial procuratorates, 349 at the prefecture and city level and 2,407 at the county level are experimenting with the system ofcitizen supervisors. They account for 86 percent of the total number of procuratorates throughout the country. Under the supervision of the citizen supervisors, 3,341 cases have been concluded, thus effectively preventing handling of cases in violation of law and guaranteeing the quality of case handling.

    Since May 2004, the Supreme People's Procuratorate has carried out a special campaign to severely deal with criminal cases involving government functionaries' infringement upon human rightsby misusing their powers, focusing on cases of illegal detention and search, extorting confessions by torture, gathering evidence with violence, abusing people in custody, disrupting elections as well as serious cases of dereliction of duty that cause heavy losses of life and property of the people. In total, 1,595 government functionaries suspected of criminal activities were investigated and prosecuted, thus effectively bringing under control offences of infringement on rights.

    The judicial organs have strengthened supervision over trials and the handling of petitions and visits involving legal procedures and lawsuits. Adhering to the principle of "handling each and every appeal," they have addressed the "obstacles to appeal" in a practical way. In 2004, the procuratorates throughoutthe country handled and concluded 20,306 cases of appeal accordingto law, the people's courts at all levels handled 4.22 million petitions and visits of complaint, and corrected the judgments in 16,967 cases that were proved to be wrongly judged according to law, which accounted for 0.34 percent of the annual total of courtdecisions in effect.

     The trial system with Chinese characteristics has been further improved. Courts at all levels have further carried out the principle of open trial, striving to realize openness in filing for investigation, court hearing, conclusion of trial, and judgment documents and process of enforcement in the hope to promote justice with openness. Observance of trials by the generalpublic has been facilitated with bulletins before trials and simplified procedures for attending trials. Over 50 million citizens observed trials in 2004.

    The lawyer system has been continuously improved. In 2004, the Supreme People's Procuratorate formulated the "Regulations of People's Procuratorates to Ensure the Lawful Practice of Lawyers in Criminal Procedures," and the Ministry of Justice promulgated the "Provisional Regulations on Lawyers' Visits to Criminals in Custody." Relevant authorities in various places also promulgated many regulato-ry documents to guarantee lawyers' rights in practice, all of which further ensured that lawyers practice in accordance with the law. Statistics show that up to June 2004 there were 114,500 lawyers in practice and 11,691 law firms in China.