China, the hidden secret of human rights violations

China, the hidden secret of human rights violations

ONE of the events to be remembered in China this year is the OLYMPICS Games which begun on August 8, 2008 and was expected to welcome many people allover the world including 20,000 accredited journalists.

This article is going to analyze the situation of China before the Olympics Games because there had been different events of human rights violation and problems.

Amnesty International has documented widespread human rights violations in China. An estimated 500,000 people are currently enduring punitive detention without charge or trial, and millions are unable to access the legal system to seek redress for their grievances.

Harassment, surveillance, house arrest, and imprisonment of human rights defenders are on the rise, and censorship of the Internet and other media has grown.

Repression of minority groups, including Tibetans, Uighurs and Mongolians, and of Falun Gong practitioners and Christians who practice their religion outside state-sanctioned churches continues.

While the recent reinstatement of Supreme People’s Court review of death penalty cases may result in lower numbers of executions, China remains the leading executioner in the world.
Christians were persecuted for practicing their religion outside state-sanctioned channels. Despite the reinstatement of Supreme People's Court review of death penalty cases, the death penalty remained shrouded in secrecy and continued to be used extensively.
Torture of detainees and prisoners remained prevalent. Millions of people had no access to justice and were forced to seek redress through an ineffective extra-legal petition system. Women and girls continued to suffer violence and discrimination. Preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing were marked by repression of human rights activists. Censorship of the internet and other media intensified.
Death penalty statistics continued to be regarded as a state secret, making it difficult to assess official claims that the reinstatement of Supreme Court review had reduced the number of executions.
Based on public reports, Amnesty International estimated that at least 470 people were executed and 1,860 people sentenced to death during 2007, although the true figures were believed to be much higher.
In June 2007, the Supreme People's Court stipulated that first-instance death penalty cases must be held in open court and that courts must move towards public trials for appeals in capital cases.
However, death penalty trials continued to be held behind closed doors, police often resorted to torture to obtain "confessions", and detainees were denied prompt and regular access to lawyers.
Death sentences and executions continued to be imposed for 68 offences, including many non-violent crimes such as corruption and drug-related offences.
People who peacefully exercised their rights such as freedom of expression and association remained at high risk of enforced disappearance, illegal and incommunicado detention or house arrest, surveillance, beatings and harassment.
An estimated 500,000 people were subjected to punitive detention without charge or trial through "re-education through labour" and other forms of administrative detention.
For an estimated 11-13 million people, the only practical channel for justice remained outside the courts in a system of petitioning to local and higher level authorities, where the vast majority of cases remained unresolved.
The Chinese authorities maintained efforts to tightly control the flow of information. They decided what topics and news stories could be published, and media outlets were sometimes required to respond within minutes to government directives.
The authorities continued to block websites and to filter internet content based on specified words and topics.
Around 30 journalists were known to be in prison and at least 50 individuals were in prison for posting their views on the internet. People were often punished simply for accessing banned websites.
Freedom of religion, expression and association of Tibetans continued to be severely restricted. The State Administration for Religious Affairs established government control over the identification and training of Tibetan Buddhist teachers throughout China.
Some 40 Tibetan children were detained by police in Gansu Province for writing pro-Tibetan independence slogans on walls.
Approximately 50,000 North Koreans were reportedly hiding in China, living under constant fear of deportation. Each month hundreds of North Koreans were believed to have been forcibly repatriated to North Korea without being given access to UNHCR offices in China. That was a real situation in China before Olympics Games kicked off.