E/CN.4/1993/26 page 26 so forth. The Penal Code also stipulates that if State employees inflict bodily suffering or disguised bodily suffering on persons undergoing investigation or convicts serving sentence as a means of extracting statements, the law enforcement authorities must apply penalties corresponding to the seriousness of the crime. Where torture does not result in lasting physical injury, it is to be treated as a serious case of "causing bodily harm", punishable by three to seven years' imprisonment; if death ensues, the punishment is from seven years to life in prison. Chinese legislation also contains provisions to prevent and prohibit torture during law enforcement procedures. The Administrative Suits Act, promulgated in 1990, permits citizens to seek legal protection when their rights are violated by a State institution or its staff, and provides a direct and effective channel. 3. In China, the essential rights of convicts serving sentence are legally protected. Not only are convicts given essential material life, medical care, industrial safety and labour protection, but they also have the right to appeal, to defence and to physical safety and the individual rights not to be humiliated, to complain, to report offences, etc. No criminals are deprived of their political rights, they are all entitled to exercise their votes in accordance with the law. 4. The Chinese law enforcement authorities investigate and punish individuals guilty of torture every year, mostly State employees who use torture to extract confessions and prison warders who inflict corporal punishment on or mistreat inmates. Under the law, when cases of torture are investigated there are normally two methods of proceeding. In one, the public security organs or procuratorate register the case and carry out the investigation, then pass the case to the courts for trial; in the second, the investigation is handled by the administrative authorities. The competent administrative body is the supervisory department, which handles civic discipline; it is required to refer any case which may constitute a crime to the law enforcement authorities, which conduct the investigation in accordance with legal procedure. 5. To check whether penalties are being properly applied in convicts' housing quarters, prisons and other correction through labour facilities and whether inmates are being subjected to corporal punishment or ill-treatment, special prison inspection mechanisms have been set up in every procuratorate. Some of these are based at prisons and custodial units, some work on a day-to-day inspection pattern. The departments in charge of such matters in the public security organs must, when investigating the handling of a case by public security personnel, investigate whether confessions have been extracted by torture besides looking into working procedures and methods. Public security organs at every level normally have legal, supervisory and disciplinary departments and a complaints centre which will accept reports and complaints of torture and beatings, and will mount conscientious inquiries into any cases of confessions extracted by torture or similar infringements of citizens' right to life that arise. Where breaches of discipline by prisoners lead to injuries among inmates, an inspection is carried out by medical personnel; in the event of deaths, an inquest is held by the medical examiner attached to a people's procuratorate or people's court.