Criminal law on NPC agenda

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A controversial draft amendment that proposes to outlaw forced confession and permits secret detention will be discussed at the plenary session of the National People's Congress (NPC) in March, an additional agenda item of the meeting this year apart from its routine schedule.

The NPC Standing Committee decided on Saturday that the draft amendment to the Criminal Procedural Law, one that aims to rule out forced detention under torture and empower the public security to conduct secret detentions, will be delivered to the plenary session of the top legislature for review.

The plenary session of the NPC is the annual meeting of China's top legislature. Its routine schedule usually includes reviewing the work report delivered by the State Council, the People's Supreme Court, the People's Supreme Procuratorate and the NPC Standing Committee.

The session will be open on March 5, according to a decision made on Saturday by the NPC Standing Committee.

China's Legislation Law stipulates that the plenary session of the NPC enacts and amends "basic criminal, civil and state structure laws and other basic laws". The legislative competence of the NPC Standing Committee, however, is limited to enacting and amending laws other than those that shall be enacted by the plenary session, or to make partial supplement and amendment to basic laws when the plenary meeting is not in the session, although such supplement may not contradict the law's basic principle.

"Some of the changes in the draft amendment, such as the prohibition of forced confession under torture, improves the current fundamental rules in the existing law," said Chen Sixi, member of the NPC Standing Committee and a constitutional expert.

The top legislature in 2011 also reviewed the draft amendment to the Civil Procedural Law, but Chen said it "most likely will not be reviewed by the plenary session this year".

Chen said there are "pros and cons" in the two kinds to review drafts, either by the plenary session or the NPC Standing Committee, due to different personnel structure.

He said the plenary session usually includes more public opinions, since many of its some 3,000 deputies are from the grassroots society. Meanwhile, "the NPC Standing Committee mostly consists of special professionals and legal experts," he said.

Chen said there were two times when draft amendments proposed were met with divergent opinions and these were not put for vote. One of those cases was "the draft organizational law of the villagers committees in 1987," he said, adding the proposal was opposed since it fails to ensure "the self-governance by the villagers in the countryside".

Saturday's meeting also witnessed the passage of a long-awaited law that aims to prevent occupational disease and provide better medical service for those patients.

China reported 27,000 plus new cases of work-related illness in 2010, according to health ministry figures.