United Nations
Report: Special Rapporteur on Torture, E/CN.4/1996/35 (excerpt) [p.97]
Economic and Social Council
E/CN.4/1996/35
9 January 1996
Original: ENGLISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Fifty-second session
Item 8(a)of the provisional agenda
QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS OF ALL PERSONS SUBJECTED TO ANY FORM OF DETENTION OR IMPRISONMENT; IN PARTICULAR: TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHING
Report of the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Nigel S. Rodley, submitted pursuant to Commisssion on Human Rights resolution 1995/37
China
43. The Special Rapporteur advised the Government that he had continued to receive information indicating that the use of torture and ill-treatment against persons held in police stations, detention centres, prisons and labour camps was occuring with frequency. According to the reports, many persons detained for political reasons were convicted of offences partly or wholly on the basis of �confessions� that had been obtained through the application of torture during interrogation.
44. Reports were received of numerous instances of ill-treatment at Guangzhou No.1 Reeducation-through-Labour-Centre, Hua county, Guangdong Province. Production quotas had reportedly been set at levels which in effect required prisoners, including the sick or disabled, to work for approximately 14 hours per day, seven days per week, performing such tasks as carrying and loading heavy stones onto boats. Food provisions were reported to be inadequate and ill prisoners were said to be provided with little or no medical treatment.
45. The Special Rapporteur was also informed that juveniles detained for political reasons in Gutsa Detention Centre in Lhasa Tibet were held together with adult prisoners rather than in the juvenile section of the facility. In Drapchi prison in Lhasa, adults and juveniles are reportedly kept together because no separate juvenile section exists. Juveniles are allegedly forced to do hard labour and to work in unsanitary conditions with adults in prisons, detention centres, reform-through-labour detachments or reeducation-through-labour detachments.
46. The Special Rapporteur transmitted 25 individual cases to the Government. He also sent an urgent appeal on behalf of one person, to which he received a reply. In addition, he received replies from the Government with respect to two urgent appeals he had transmitted in 1994.
Observations
47. The Special Rapporteur continues to be concerned by the persistence of the allegations reaching him. He has written to the Government requesting an invitation to visit the country. At the time of writing, he was still awaiting a response..