Forced labor forces rethink
Global Times | 2012-9-9 20:05:04 By Yang Jinghao
原文链接：
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/732004.shtml
Those facing re-education through labor perform a collective exercise in a labor camp in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, on May 23. The camp opened its doors to around 60 relatives and law enforcement supervisors that day. Photo: CFP
The re-education through labor system, which empowers authorities to lock people away for up to three years without judicial procedure, has returned to the fore. A major outcry for its abolishment has sprung up and the entire system now finds itself in trouble.
While more and more "victims" of the system, all confined for varying periods of time, are standing up to sue their local re-education through labor committees, some legal experts have also joined the fray.
Wang Cheng, a Hangzhou-based lawyer, is calling on people from all different walks of life to sign a petition to eradicate the system, which will be sent to the nation's top legislature once 10,000 signatures are collected.
The campaign had more than 7,100 supporters as of Sunday, including legal experts, lawyers, entrepreneurs, migrant workers and even some civil servants, Wang told the Global Times.
"This indicates that the issue has drawn wide attention from the public, and I am optimistic for a potential change," he said.
Started back in the 1950s, the punishing approach of this policy has been under attack for years, due to its expanding scope and "unlawful" proceedings. The controversy reached a boiling point after Tang Hui, 39, the mother of an underage rape victim from Yongzhou, Hunan Province, was sent to a re-education through labor camp in early August for "seriously disturbing social order through repeated petitions."
Tang's daughter was raped in 2006 when she was only 11 and was later forced into prostitution.Tang protested to the local government for alleged injustice in the handling of the case. After an uproar, Tang was released on August 10.
Sign of change
As the fight to get rid of this system down continues, hopes are dawning after news broke of a reform in Jiangsu, Shandong, Gansu and Henan provinces.
The pilot project will see the current controversial system substituted with another. Roughly translated, this new program means "offense rectification through education." It is to be rolled out in Nanjing, Ji'nan, Lanzhou and Zhengzhou, the capitals of the aforementioned four provinces.
Precise details about the new initiative have yet to be unveiled by authorities. The Shandong Provincial Public Security Department told the Global Times that without authorization from the ministry, no "confidential" information could be disclosed.
