Solitary Confinement with Chinese Characteristics

• Pages: 24-35

󲎮󰹧󰐱󳠉󰥂󰨆󳎓󰨆󳎓󰨆󲜔󲻻󱐂󲛷󲣒󰑐󱄷󱉢󰍠󲗜󱐂󲛷󱎵󱼛󱉢

󰑛󰋡󲣺󲣭󰨆󱐂󲛷󲣒󰑐󱐼󱎵󰀉󱊊

󱐂󲛷󱎵󰑐

󰎟85 

󰪺󰺮󳗑󲚷󰉰󰑴󱴲󰥂󰎟󱼛 2002 11 󰐹󲗜󱐂󲛷󳊰󲳯

85 󱎵󲭛󰒒󰡯󱎵󲴡󳏅󱛬󲤴

󱚲󳌞󱎵󱄷󱘙󰣥󰀃󱰎󳘐󱉐󱋈󱎵󱶺󱘙󱜡󱐂󲛷

󲶄󰤅󱐂󱀢󰀉󱊊󰐥󰢼󲺨

󱎮󱜼󱴅󰕨󲣠󰍠󱐂󲛷󰐱󰡓󲳿󱎵󲸙

󱎵󰧒󰐺󱎵󰪹󱐥󲗜󰀉󱊊 11 󰐹

󱰄󰒐󱚲󳌞

2008 󱶅󲺨󳌟󳗉󰾪󰐭󳐨贷󲤫󱈗󲤥󱚲󳌞󰐱

󱎵󰣦2011 󱃡󰾪󱸒贷󳌙󰋠󲣟󱰄󰒐

󰀉󱊊󱚲󳌞󰪹󱩓󰑠󱚲󳌞󰪹󰌑󳎁󰑐󱎵󱚲󳌞󱲿󲣟

󱯗󱴡贷󳯗󲤹󱼛󲪻󱎵󰿠󱰀󰌧󲴊󰕨󲤥

󱀝󲴊󰍠󱎵󱖿󱎵󱧯󱚏󱎵󰤅󱎵

󲎁󰐥󰐺󰉹󰧒󰐺󳒑󰥳󱋂󱼛󱎵󰋞󰥅

Solitary Confinement with Chinese Characteristics

Solitary confinement was the theme of a side event held during the 19th session of the

Human Rights Council on March 6, 2012. It is a widespread and global practice, but the

event focused most extensively on abuses in the United States. China was given no verbal

mention but was referenced once in a report that served as a catalyst for the event. In

his August 2011 report to the United Nations General Assembly (hereafter, the interim

report), Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan E. Méndez mentioned China as an example

of a country where solitary confinement is used against people considered risks to

national security—in this case a woman was allegedly held under solitary confinement

for two years.

Her case was previously written up by the special rapporteur’s predecessor, Manfred

Nowak, who was invited by the Chinese government to conduct a mission to China in

late 2005. During the mission, Nowak noted several records and claims of solitary

confinement in prisons, detention centers, and reeducation through labor (RTL) facilities

that spanned from three weeks to two years—all exceeding domestic and international

limits. His report also includes notes from a November 2005 interview with rights activist

and petitioner Mao Hengfeng detailing allegations of torture by police. Eight months