The guideline standardizes judicial procedures for sealing, seizing, freezing and disposing of properties, improves the correction and punishment measures, advocates narrowing down the application of the death penalty, and abolishes the "re-education through labor" system saying it should be replaced by an improved community-based correction system and proper legal assistance. These measures will help the government to continuously improve its human rights judicial safeguard system.

The NPC passed a resolution on Dec 28, annulling the decades-long, controversial "re-education through labor" system, taking an important step toward strengthening judicial safeguards for human rights. The government should regard its efforts to strengthen judicial safeguards for human rights as a task closely related to improving people's welfare and guaranteeing their rights and interests. This will help people believe that "the judicial system is for the people".

The measures outlined in the Party's guideline are aimed at making continuous improvements to the systems and procedures related to strengthening judicial safeguards for human rights in order to create a fair and just environment.

The government should try to combine the efforts to strengthen judicial safeguards for human rights with measures to deepen institutional reforms. China's pledge to reform and strengthen judicial safeguards for human rights is an important component of its political reforms.

As part of the new round of judicial reforms, the decision to abolish the "re-education through labor" system and efforts to replace it with an improved community-based correction and judicial assistance system demonstrates that the country is making great progress with its political reforms from a judicial perspective.

The government should also combine the task to strengthen judicial safeguards for human rights with its efforts to promote the rule of law to ensure that human rights is fully respected and protected by 2020. Judicial safeguards for human rights remain an important part of China's judicial system and human rights protection mechanism. The efforts to improve the systems of community-based correction and judicial assistance will consolidate the institutional foundation of the rule of law and push forward judicial reforms to establish a better human rights safeguard system.

The Party's guideline says that deepening the reform of the judicial system is a key part of the country's efforts to promote the rule of law. Strengthening judicial safeguards for human rights is an integral, though demanding, part of the judicial reforms and will serve as an important standard to judge the outcome of such reforms. Judicial reforms that do not protect people's interests and rights and ensure that they get justice cannot be called a success. In this sense, the reforms aimed at strengthening judicial safeguards for human rights marks the beginning of a new round of deeper judicial reforms.

The author is director of the Institute of Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.