In a recent report to the United Nations (PDF, 1MB), groups including Safeguard Defenders and Human Rights Watch say the CCP forces critics into confessions that are then aired on state-run television, making a mockery of due process and the right to a fair trial.
“Forced televised confessions are part of a chain of systematic and widespread abuses of human rights perpetrated in order to serve the political interests of the CCP,” the report states. “There is little to distinguish them from the repugnant practices of Mao-era public struggle sessions or Stalin’s infamous show trials.”
The rights groups’ submission on “China’s practice of extracting and broadcasting forced confessions before trial” documents 87 cases since 2013 where state security or police have forced pretrial confessions that are then aired on state-run media.
They urge the United Nations to recommend that China’s leaders implement legal reforms to stop forced televised confessions and strengthen due process protections.
