CAT/C/CHN/CO/4 page 5 particular against members of certain religious and ethnic minority groups. While the State party has indicated that the RTL system has recently been reformed and that further reform of the system is currently being envisaged, the Committee is concerned with repeated delays, despite calls from Chinese scholars to abolish the system (arts. 2 and 11). The State party should immediately abolish all forms of administrative detention, including “re-education through labour”. The State party should provide more information, including current statistics, on those currently subject to administrative detention, the reasons for their detention, the means of challenging such detention and the safeguards put in place to prevent torture and ill-treatment in RTL facilities. Secret detention centres 14. The Committee is concerned by allegations that secret detention facilities, including the so-called “black jails”, exist and are used to detain petitioners, such as those seeking to come to the capital, such as Wang Guilan. Detention in such facilities constitutes per se disappearance. Detainees are allegedly deprived of fundamental legal safeguards, including an oversight mechanism in regard to their treatment and review procedures with respect to their detention. The Committee is also concerned over other unacknowledged detention facilities such as those where prominent disappeared persons have been reportedly confined (arts. 2 and 11). The State party should ensure that no one is detained in any secret detention facility. Detaining persons in such conditions constitutes, per se, a violation of the Convention. The State party should investigate, disclose the existence of any such facilities and the authority under which they have been established and the manner in which detainees are treated, and make reparations to the victims of enforced disappearances where appropriate. Main obstacles to the effective implementation of the Convention 15. The Committee identified three overarching problems that impact all other issues raised by the Committee in the list of issues and during the oral presentations: (a) the 1988 Law on the Preservation of State Secrets in the People’s Republic of China; (b) the reported harassment of lawyers and human rights defenders; and (c) the abuses carried out by unaccountable “thugs” who use physical violence against specific defenders but enjoy de facto immunity. Collectively, these problems stand in the way of ensuring the legal safeguards that the Committee generally recommends to all States parties to the Convention as necessary for the prevention of torture. 1. State secrets law 16. While taking note of the oral information from the State party on the conditions of application of the 1988 Law on the Preservation of State Secrets in the People’s Republic of China, the Committee expressed grave concern over the use of this law which severely undermines the availability of information about torture, criminal justice and related issues. The broad application of this law raises a range of issues relating to the application of the Convention in the State party: