Re-education through labor, a kind of administrative penalty, will be subject to reform this year, according to a national legal work conference convened on Monday in Beijing.

This decision should obviously be lauded, as the punishment, which can deprive a person of his or her personal freedom on the decision of a public security department, has long been controversial.

There is no denying re-education through labor has a role for those who have committed offenses that are not serious enough for jail sentences. But its use, if not tightly supervised, is likely to infringe upon the rights of those subject to it. This explains why some strongly maintain that the system be abolished.

What is even worse is the fact this administrative punishment has become a coercive means some local authorities have employed against disobedient petitioners.

One of the most well-known cases involves a woman named Tang Hui, whose daughter was raped. She petitioned higher authorities time and again for many years in the hope that the local public security department would do its best to bring all culprits to justice.

However, the local authorities, considering her a troublemaker, threw her into a re-education through labor camp. It was not until an avalanche of criticism in both the print media and the Internet exerted heavy pressure on the local government that the punishment was revoked.

What makes the system the focus of public criticism is such punishments, without an open trial, often represent the will of the local authorities rather than justice delivered by proper legal procedure.

To keep the system, specific legal codes must be made to legalize its procedure so that such punishments can be meted out in a transparent and reasonable manner. The range of offenders subject to it should be strictly defined lest it be abused for other purposes and the rights of innocent people infringed upon.

The conference has also revealed that measures will be made to sort out petitions so that those that should be dealt with through legal procedures are settled in court. In this way the sanctity of the rule of law will be established and petitioners be made to appeal to the law for protection rather than seeking help from higher authorities.

(China Daily 01/09/2013 page8)