Situation in during visit in 2005 (See E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.6) a) The crime of torture should be defined as a matter of priority in accordance with article 1 of the Convention against Torture, with penalties commensurate with the gravity of torture. No explicit definition of torture in domestic legislation; the existing legislation relevant to the prohibition and criminalization of torture did not satisfy the requirements of articles 1 and 4 of CAT; in particular, it lacked the following elements: • mental torture; • the direct or indirect involvement of a public official or another person acting in an official capacity; and • Infliction of the act for a specific purpose. The penalization of acts of torture was stipulated in articles 247 and 248 of the Criminal Law (CL), however a number of other regulations permit exceptions (see infra Rec c)). b) All allegations of torture and ill-treatment should be promptly investigated by an independent authority with no connection to the authority investigating or prosecuting the case against the alleged victim. According to Article 18 of the Criminal Procedure Law (CPL), the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) is the mechanism responsible for investigating and prosecuting crimes committed by State functionaries. The Procurators are also mandated to monitor Steps taken in previous years Information received in the reporting (See A/HRC/4/33/Add.2, A/HRC/7/3/Add.2 and A/HRC/10/44/Add.5) period In 2006, the Ministry of Justice issued regulations prohibiting torture and illtreatment by specific categories of public officials, such as “Six prohibitions for prison guards”, “Six prohibitions for Reeducation Through Labour” (RTL) etc. Non-governmental sources: Despite the introduction of new categories of offences relating to torture by the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP), the definition of torture and the prohibition and criminalization of torture in Chinese law do not satisfy the requirements of Articles 1 and 4 of CAT. By including only a list of situations amounting to torture and ill-treatment, other torture methods risk to fall outside the law. In practice, the punishment against perpetrators of torture is very light in comparison to the gravity of the crime. It is still common that perpetrators of torture escape criminal punishment or any punishment at all. In the Regulations on Case-Filing Standards in Cases of Rights Infringement through Dereliction of Duty, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) lists several acts amounting to the crime of coercing a confession, such as beatings, binding, prolonged use of cold, hunger, exposure or scorching to abuse detainees, severely injuring suspects or leading a suspect to commit serious self-injury or directly or indirectly ordering others to use torture for the purpose of extracting a confession. Government: The National Human Right Action Plan 2009-2010 (NHRA) foresees the establishment and improvement of supervisory mechanisms for law enforcement and administration of justice by establishing responsibility and accountability systems. Non-governmental sources: The Government rejects the release of concrete A/HRC/13/39/Add.6 38 Recommendation (E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.6)