You travel to China just over three months after Amnesty International launched a major global campaign to combat torture worldwide, a campaign that will last two years in Canada. Torture is one of the many serious human rights concerns we urge you to raise during your visit. It continues to be prevalent throughout China. It has also been inflicted by officials working outside the criminal justice system, sometimes publicly, to humiliate, threaten or coerce. Methods of torture include severe beating, kicking, electric shocks, hanging by the arms, shackling in painful positions, exposure to extreme heat or cold, sleep and food deprivation.
Prison conditions are harsh, often with long hours of forced labour and inadequate medical care.
Some dissidents not known to have psychiatric problems have been sent to psychiatric institutions where they have been forcibly injected with drugs. Amnesty International had intended to highlight the case of Abdulhelil Abdumijit in the course of our current campaign. He was accused of leading a demonstration three years ago and was imprisoned. From the outset it was reported that he was being brutally tortured in detention. The day before we launched our Campaign against Torture, we learned that he had died in custody, reportedly due to the torture he had been experiencing.