劳动教养不经正当的司法程序，不需审判，甚至被劳教人员没有上诉的权利，仅由劳动...

活着是一种幸福

8月10日，湖南省劳动教养管理委员会决定，“永州幼女被迫卖淫案”被害人母亲唐慧的劳动教养决定经复议被依法撤销。8月11日，唐慧从长沙回到永州，将开始经营她的门面店，重新开始生活。

为唐慧重获自由而高兴，但仍有很多人因劳教而失去自由。大家应该还记得2003年的孙志刚案，一名年轻的大学生，用生命的代价推动了收容制度的废除。今天，若能以一个妈妈上访6年反被劳教的代价换来对劳动教养制度的反思，并作出纠正，就是进步。

用明亮的眼睛看

On August 10th the authorities caved in and released her. They did not say Ms Tang was innocent, but that her traumatised daughter, who is now 17, needed her mother’s care.

They also said they were launching an investigation into official handling of her daughter’s case. This did not end the furore.

On August 14th， ten lawyers wrote a letter to the central government calling the laojiao system a “violation of international human-rights treaties”.

Unusually, given the official media’s normal reticence on such issues, several Chinese newspapers reported this demand for reform.

One of the lawyers, Li Fangping, says he does not expect changes soon. Officials are worried, he says, about using courts to handle offences now dealt with by laojiao because more sensitive cases would come to light.

(The court system is slightly less secretive.) It seems activists like Mr Li are making some officials even less inclined to change the system.

用明亮的眼睛看

Ms Tang’s crime of “disturbing public order” with her protests is one often used by local officials seeking to remove potential causes of embarrassment.

The laojiao system allows those accused of minor offences (which may include prostitutes and house-church Christians（？这样的中国政府不劳教管理吧，不会是说法轮功那会吧？）) to be detained in labour camps without trial for up to four years, simply on the orders of police.

State-controlled media say about 160,000 people were held in around 350 such camps in 2008.

(Another labour-camp system, formerly known as laogai, houses prisoners sentenced by courts.)

As news of Ms Tang’s sentencing spread on Chinese microblogs, even the People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s own mouthpiece, rallied to her cause.

Assessments of a country’s strength, it said on its own microblog, should not only look at such measures as GDP and Olympic gold medals, but also focus on “the rights and dignity of ordinary citizens, and the fairness and justice of society”.

Xinhua, the state-run news agency, said that within five days of the news of Ms Tang’s internment, nearly 700,000 posts about it had appeared on Sina Weibo, the most popular Chinese microblog.

用明亮的眼睛看

国外观点：

Labour camps  Demanding justice
Chinese citizens start to push for an end to forced labour without trial

UNTIL recently, China’s official media preferred to keep a lid on public complaints about the country’s notorious “re-education through labour” camps, where tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands of inmates are held without trial.

Now, prodded by revelations on the internet of an egregious abuse of the system, they are breaking their silence.

In early August the horrors endured by Tang Hui, a 39-year-old woman from the southern province of Hunan, triggered an outcry by the public and by state-run media alike: a unanimity rarely seen on such a sensitive issue.

Ms Tang had been sentenced to 18 months of laojiao, as this form of labour-camp punishment is known, for her persistent efforts to seek justice for her daughter. The girl was kidnapped at the age of 11 and forced into prostitution.

Ms Tang complained that police were slow to respond to the case and that the kidnappers were then sentenced too leniently.

我思故我在

不管怎么说，我只认同一点：那就是---被劳教的都是没有背景的。

我思故我在

劳教——权大于法的机制，“一些人”不想放手

我思故我在

马怀德：现在全国人大讨论过通过制定违法行为教育矫治法来取代劳动教养制度，这个思路恐怕也是学界的共识。

刘卫国律师则呼吁，在劳教决定作出之前之后，应该明确告知当事人享有的权利，同时能让律师为他们提供法律帮助。

刘卫东：公安机关抓人，应该有充足的证据，你的证据外界没法见到，没法对它提出质疑，不公开、不透明、没有外界的监督和参与。

马怀德教授还对劳教制度需要在哪些方面改革提出了具体建议。

马怀德：比如说劳动教养的期限，过去规定是一到三年，必要的时候还可以延长一年。如果能够限定在半年以内或者是一年以内我觉得都是可以讨论的。
在劳动教养的决定权的问题上，很多学者都提出应该由法院来裁决，公安机关可以提出，法院裁决，最后由劳动教养执行机关来执行。
此外劳动教养的对象也要进一步明晰化，也就是让那些真正应该受到违法行为教育矫治的人得到教育矫治，同时呢又不能够轻易扩大这个范围。

我思故我在

刘卫国：国家规定了《信访条例》，有这个信访制度的话，信访就是民众的一个权利，他向领导、上级机关反映自己遇到问题的途径是国家允许的。

实际上，十一届、十二届两届全国人大常委会都将违法行为教育矫治法列入年度立法计划，但是这部法律却迟迟没有出台，不论是全国人大代表，还是法律界人士都在关注劳动教养制度该如何改造。他们的建议给这项制度的未来走向画出了比较清晰的轨迹。

王锡锌教授认为，未来可以考虑将需要劳教的行为分化，确实轻微的违法行为给予治安处罚，而构成轻罪的用刑法调整，目前劳教制度改革首先要明文规定行为名称。

王锡锌：整个这个劳动教养中涉及到的行为，必须要具体地列举，不能够什么样的行为都有可能引来劳教，这符合罪刑法定的要求。第二，对于不同行为所对应的制裁，有些应该要行政化，有些应该要刑事化。第三，无论未来怎么改造，在程序上都必须要体现出这种公开公平公正，如何落实对公民的这种自由权利、对人权的尊重保障，其实这也是我们国家法制所承诺的一个重要目标。
马怀德教授认为，劳教制度对于维护社会秩序有一定的作用，目前存在还是必要的。但必须法制化。

我思故我在

马怀德：劳动教养制度是设立于我们国家五十年代初，为了维护社会秩序、打击违法犯罪行为，配合刑罚和治安管理处罚形成的这样一项介于治安管理处罚和刑罚之间的特殊的处罚制度。
也就是对于尚不构成犯罪、但是给予行政处罚又过轻的一些违法行为，特别是对于流窜作案、结伙作案、屡次作案的这些违法行为人采取的一种惩戒措施。

随着我国《立法法》颁布实施，随着流动人口的增加、社会秩序新问题的出现、劳教制度改革，纳入法制化轨道的呼声越来越强烈。
北京大学法学院教授、博士生导师王锡锌。

王锡锌：从劳教的这种操作来看，剥夺和限制公民的人身自由，但是欠缺必要的公开、公平、公正的程序保障，所以与现行的法律、与我们国家尊重保障人权的这样一种宪法原则，它是有一些不吻合的。正是在这个意义上，我们说从法理上来讲应当对劳教制度进行重新的改造。

专家分析。除了法学理论，司法实践也要求劳教制度必须改造。

王锡锌：从实践中来看呢，劳教制度操作其实它是把这种指控的权力、调查的权力和施加处罚裁决的权力都集中到了公安机关这里，所以它就很难产生制约，因此在实践中的确也出现了一些被滥用、侵害公民人身自由权的这种情形。所以从实践中来看，也需要加以改进。

山东泉舜律师事务所律师刘卫国和其他九名律师，日前直接上书公安部、司法部，以上访妈妈唐慧被劳教事件为例，指出不应将劳教对象一味扩大。