Although the Party has decided to abolish the controversial "re-education through labor" system, a move hailed by legal professionals as a major step in protecting human rights, the official end of the half-century-old penalty system can come no earlier than late December, experts said.

The system, known as laojiao, was created in 1957 when the top legislature endorsed a proposal submitted by the State Council to allow laojiao committees to detain minor wrongdoers for up to four years without an open trial.

Inmates in labor camps are usually drug addicts undergoing treatment or other such cases in which the wrongdoing does not constitute a crime.