| The legal system's quiet revolution |
| By Karen I. Tse International Herald Tribune |
Justice in China I
GENEVA This week's Chinese New Year celebrations honored the Year of the Rooster, an auspicious time signifying achievement and new hopes. But while one of China's achievements, its economic success, is well known, another transformation has received far less attention: a revolution in legal rights that has a groundswell of popular support and is poised over the next few years to completely reshape Chinese society.
The two are in fact related: Economic progress and globalization are major forces that help explain the legal changes that are afoot. Over the past few years, China's desire to play a more prominent global role through international institutions - joining the World Trade Organization, hosting the Olympics in 2008 and the like - has thrown a spotlight on its criminal judicial system. The rule of law in support of contracts and the rights of citizenship and property, among other things, is a cornerstone of economic progress and a stable social system. Importantly, as in the opening of the economy under Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s, the overarching strategy has been provided from above, but there is flexibility in how to achieve the country's goals on the ground, where there is greater local, hands-on knowledge.
In a little under a decade, China has established more than 2,800 legal aid centers - an unprecedented accomplishment for any country - whose basic mission is to provide fair and competent legal representation to all of China's citizens regardless of ethnicity, gender or economic status. Given opportunities to participate in national information campaigns and roundtables on new laws, Chinese from all levels of society - government, law enforcement, lawyers, and ordinary citizens - have embraced the basic concepts of legal fairness and justice. These developments, in turn, have created a very significant opportunity for ordinary citizens to take China's growing body of law and demand that it is better enforced.
Though many laws already exist on the books - covering the rights of defendants and prisoners, and the safety of lawyers - they are not always upheld, particularly in rural and remote regions. Indeed, there have been complaints that lawyers sometimes become the targets of the very abuse that they are fighting against.
Part of the reason has been a lack of education about new laws, and a sense of professional isolation (and indeed intimidation) among lawyers, who are reluctant to insist on their enforcement. Aware of this, the Chinese Ministry of Justice and other governmental departments, with an outpouring of backing from China's own indigenous legal community, have welcomed the support of international players who will work with them in reaching their goal of establishing a country ruled by law.
My organization, International Bridges to Justice, was invited by the Ministry of Justice in 2001 to assist in the development of legal aid and defender services. Our experiences suggest the range of efforts China is undertaking.
In December, for instance, in our joint project with Peking University, more than 3,000 students, members of the Communist Youth League from 14 of the most prominent law schools nationwide, organized a "Rights of Detainees" campaign to "publicize the spirit of the Constitution and enhance the concept of the rule of law." Another joint project, with National Legal Aid of China, involved the creation and nationwide distribution of 500,000 posters and brochures describing the new legal rights of the accused, including versions in Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian and Uighur.
Local legal aid lawyers in Tibet took it further, partnering with local police and prison officials to visit prisoners and explain their legal rights. In Guangxi, local theater troupes created a Chinese-style opera that they performed on the streets to illustrate new rights of Chinese citizens.
Not all of the national conversations, however, have been easy. In one of a series of roundtable meetings among lawyers, prosecutors and judges, lawyers spoke of intimidation by the judicial system aimed against lawyers themselves. Indeed, at one meeting, a prosecutor broke the ice at a tense moment by exclaiming: "Perhaps we need a lawyer to defend the poor prosecutors here!" Some judges, put on the defensive, replied that they were not trying to hurt lawyers. As the frank dialogue ensued, some people were moved to tears - yet many bridges were built.
China's' legal reforms will not be completed overnight, but the door has been opened for international support for the country in this process. As one lawyer remarked poetically after our international training session in Gansu Province, "It is medicine for the heart, a fresh wind in the desert."
This support is critical, and it is up to us as an international community to have the courage to respond. In this auspicious Year of the Rooster, Chinese citizens are sowing the seeds of hope for many generations to come.
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Copyright © 2005 The International Herald Tribune |
