The People’s Republic of China is often taken as negative example when talking about Human Rights. Actually, it represents one of the most evident cases of lack in transparency for availability of data on executions, categorized as a highly confidential State secret. This is an alarming situation if we consider that figures made available alone show a number of executions higher than elsewhere. According to Amnesty International’s Report 2009, inmates are likely to face a condemn to death and execution for at least 68 different types of offence, including no grave crimes like bribery, corruption and tax evasion. What is more, trials are not fair since human rights activists claim the practice of forced confessions and too fast procedures.
Families of prisoners are often denied any information about their relatives in detention and sometimes informed about the execution when it is too late and, what is even more incredible, it happens they are refused access to the body of their beloved one. The existence of a black market for ‘transplant tourism’, where the organs of executed prisoners are sold first of all to foreigners, could explain this refuse. Even though this practice has been officially denied by Chinese authorities, the use of ‘mobile execution chambers’ and the impossibility of intervention for independent monitoring actors, such as the Red Cross, to detention centres and labour camps, is a tragic reality and contribute in facilitating this illegal trade.
Recently, China affirms the intention to pay more attention to the control of the system of sentencing prisoners to death. The China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC), stated that the death sentence should only be provided for people having committed very grave offences. International Organizations supporting the abolition welcome recent Chinese commitments oriented to gradually reform the judicial system in order to safeguard fair trials and reduce the number of people sentenced to death and then executed. Nevertheless, the death penalty is highly supported by the population because it is viewed as a strong crime deterrent. The capital punishment is still strongly considered as the necessary and most appropriate method to protect people and guarantee social order and State security. To date, around 30 countries have signed extradition treaties with China, but in general countries show reasonable concerns because of the bad human rights record, widespread use of the death penalty and doubts about fairness and independence of its courts.
In conclusion, the Chinese government must recognize, through concrete reforms, that it understands global leadership brings responsibilities and that it cannot ignore values and principles of the international community.
