E/CN.4/1997/7 page 16 bill amending the existing Code of Criminal Procedure and the Penal Code in respect of detention and introducing rules for strengthening the protection of civic rights. China 55. By letter dated 5 July 1996 the Special Rapporteur advised the Government that he had received information indicating that torture and other ill-treatment had continued to be used on a widespread and systematic basis against both common criminal detainees and persons detained for political reasons. Criminal suspects were allegedly tortured or otherwise ill-treated during preliminary or pre-trial detention to intimidate, to coerce “confessions”, or to elicit information about the detainee or other persons. 56. Persons detained during the preliminary stages of an investigation of a case were said usually to be held incommunicado, without access to family or legal counsel. Such periods of incommunicado detention might last for a number of months or even years. Under the recent amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law, lawyers were permitted to meet detainees in the presence of police officers “following the first interrogation”. However, the provisions were also said to allow persons to be held without notification of the detention to family members or legal representatives if “this notification hinders the investigation of the crimes or cases”. 57. Torture was also alleged to occur frequently in administrative detention, including “Shelter and Investigation” ( shourong schencha ), in which persons may be held for up to three months without any judicial proceedings or approval, “Re-education Through Labour” ( laodong jioyang ), in which persons may be sent to labour camps for up to three years without judicial proceedings or approval, and “Retention for In-Camp Employment” ( liuchang jiuye ), in which persons may be detained in prison camps after they have completed their sentences. 58. The forms of punishment reported to be administered in prisons and labour camps include beatings, shackling and prolonged solitary confinement. In some instances, torture was reportedly carried out for discipline or punishment by inmates, known as “trustees”, acting as surrogates for or at the instigation of prison officials. Arrangements of this nature were said to allow prison officials to avoid accountability for abuse inflicted upon prisoners. 59. The Special Rapporteur also informed the Government that he had continued to receive reports according to which the practice of torture was endemic to police stations and detention centres in Tibet. At police stations, the forms of torture and ill-treatment reported include kicking; beating; application of electric shocks by means of batons or small electrical generators; the use of self-tightening handcuffs; deprivation of food; exposure to alternating extremes of hot and cold temperatures; enforced standing in difficult positions; enforced standing in cold water; prolonged shackling of detainees spread-eagled to a wall; placing of heated objects on the skin; and striking with iron rods on the joints or hands. Tibetans who had been forcibly returned to Tibet after seeking asylum in Nepal were alleged to be particularly vulnerable to torture.