How to explain that criminals also have human rights?

1. As a component of rights, human rights are interests, demands, qualifications, rights and freedoms. Interest may be personal or social; It may be material or spiritual; It may be the right subject's own, or it may be that the right subject is related to others. Demands are claims. If no one puts forward claims or demands, interests cannot become rights. Qualification refers to the basis for proposing interests, including moral qualification and legal qualification. Power includes authority and ability. "Freedom" means that there is always the possibility that a person will act according to his own decisions and plans, and the rights and obligations are corresponding. There is no right without obligation, and there is no obligation without right. As human beings, criminals have the same basic rights as human beings, but they are partially or completely deprived of their interests, requirements, qualifications, rights and freedoms. Therefore, the criminal's human rights refer to the sum of the criminal's rights and obligations in the execution of legal relations arising from the exercise of criminal power by the state:

First of all, the human rights of criminals are the concrete embodiment of the humanitarian principle of punishment. "The humanitarianism of punishment is related to the words of virtue such as tolerance, gentleness and humanity, and is opposite to the images of barbarism, cruelty, terror and torture." It "shows the state's tolerant attitude towards crimes and criminals when stipulating and applying penalties." Tolerance is not only a personal character, but also an institutional feature. Legal tolerance is the institutional confirmation of social tolerance. In the process of penalty execution, we should treat criminals with a humane attitude, respect their personal dignity, forbid corporal punishment and maltreatment of criminals, safeguard their legal rights, earnestly care about their lives and give them corresponding material guarantees.

Second, the human rights of criminals are the rights and obligations arising from the legal relationship of execution. There are three meanings here: first, the human rights of criminals arise from the legal relationship of execution and are stipulated by criminal laws and regulations. Unlike the rights of ordinary citizens, they are specifically stipulated by civil legal relations or administrative legal relations, not the restoration of ordinary citizens' rights. Generally speaking, the human rights of criminals end with the termination of the legal relationship, so there is a time limit. The second is to emphasize criminal human rights obligations. Although the rights and obligations of ordinary citizens also correspond to each other, it is necessary to emphasize the obligations of criminals in criminal human rights because of their special legal status. This kind of legal obligation is not only corresponding to the existing rights of criminals, but also based on their criminal behavior, which is more mandatory. Thirdly, as an execution organ, prison occupies an important position in the legal relationship of execution and has a decisive influence on the realization of criminals' rights and obligations.

Third, criminals have incomplete human rights and limited capacity. First of all, in the execution of legal relations, the fact that criminals are punished makes their basic rights, including interests, requirements, qualifications, rights and freedoms, in a serious defect and vague state. Secondly, due to the loss of freedom, other rights related to prisoners' personal freedom will also be restricted by law.

Fourth, criminals' human rights are legal. For ordinary citizens, it is their right to enjoy freedom, so they are free to do anything that is not prohibited by law. But for criminals, it is their duty to endure freedom, so they can't do anything that is not allowed by law. Therefore, the human rights of criminals are not applicable "what is not prohibited by law is allowed". Regarding the human rights of criminals, the application of "what is not allowed by law is forbidden", that is to say, the human rights of criminals mainly refer to the legal rights of criminals.

2, the content of criminal human rights:

(1) Right to life. The right to life is a citizen's right to exist, and no organ, group or individual has the right to infringe upon it unless it is deprived by the state according to law. Criminals who are not sentenced to death and executed immediately show that their crimes are not serious enough to require the state to deprive them of their lives or execute them immediately, so the law still recognizes and protects their rights and conditions for their continued existence.

(2) the right to health. The right to health is a citizen's right to maintain and ensure the normal function of the body, and it is also a right derived from the right to life. According to the prison law and other laws and regulations and the relevant provisions of the Ministry of Justice, such rights include: reasonably arranging prisoners' diet and daily life according to standards, ensuring that prisoners have enough time to eat and sleep, and taking care of the special living habits of ethnic minority prisoners; Make reasonable arrangements for prisoners' work, study and cultural and sports activities, prohibit overtime and excessive physical labor, and ensure that prisoners have enough rest time; Distribute clothes, bedding, shoes and socks according to regulations, and ensure regular cleaning and hygiene matters such as bathing, haircut, laundry, disinfection and epidemic prevention; Set up hospitals to ensure that criminals can get timely treatment when they are sick; Establish necessary safety equipment and systems to ensure the personal safety of criminals in productive labor.

(3) the right of personality. Personality right is a necessary right to safeguard citizens' qualifications as subjects of rights and obligations. Personal dignity and personal freedom are the highest interests of personality. Because criminals are deprived of personal freedom, the criminal's personality right mainly refers to personal dignity. The prison law stipulates that the prison people's police shall not insult the personality of criminals. For example, degrading slogans that were once common on prison walls have been eliminated; Respect criminals' right to name, change the past practice of calling criminals by numbers and use their own names instead; The Code of Conduct for Criminals, issued by the Ministry of Justice on March 19, 2004, renamed criminals as "criminals", which is also conducive to respecting criminals' personality and feelings. In addition, the criminal's personality right also includes the right of religious belief based on personality right.

(4) Social communication rights. Social communication, also known as social interaction, is the communication, interaction and mutual understanding between people in various ways, in order to obtain a certain psychological sense of belonging and identity. Communicating with society is the basic need of human beings. Criminals' social communication rights are mainly realized through meetings and correspondence, and they can also watch TV if possible. Understanding the current situation and development of society by meeting with relatives, correspondence and watching TV is of great benefit to eliminating the worries of criminals, stabilizing their emotions and better adapting to society after they are released from prison.

(5) the right to education. The right to education refers to the right to receive political and ideological education, cultural knowledge education and production technology education. It is both a right and an obligation for criminals to receive education. In terms of rights, prisons should provide conditions for criminals to learn political, cultural and scientific knowledge; Vocational and technical education should be carried out; Criminals should be allowed and organized to take part in correspondence, TV University and self-taught study; The diplomas and professional titles obtained by criminals in prison are recognized by society. In terms of obligation, receiving education and reform is a compulsory obligation independent of the will of criminals, and criminals must participate in political, cultural and technical studies organized by prisons.

(6) Right to work. Criminal labor is an incomplete form of rights. For criminals, labor is more of a special obligation of criminals, and organizing criminal labor is a necessary part of society to correct crimes to a certain extent. However, from the perspective of learning knowledge and mastering livelihood skills, a form of prison labor that can best meet the needs of social life is the right need of criminals. In addition, the contents derived from the right to work, such as the right to rest and the right to work safety, are the obligations of prisons to prohibit criminals from working overtime and beyond physical strength to ensure production safety. For criminals who are about to be released from prison, this kind of right protection is of even greater significance.

(7) Legal property ownership. Protecting citizens' legitimate property ownership is one of the constitutional principles. The legal property of criminals mainly includes three parts: first, legal income, savings, housing and so on. Before imprisonment; The second is the labor remuneration after imprisonment; The third is the property acquired through legal inheritance during the prison term. No one may infringe upon the lawful property of a criminal. However, the ability of criminals to possess, use, control and dispose of property should be restricted to varying degrees. The Prison Law stipulates that unnecessary necessities of life shall be kept by the prison or returned to the family members with the consent of the criminals. Criminals are not allowed to hold property other than cash and daily necessities while serving their sentences. If it is kept by the prison, it will be returned when the prisoner is released from prison.

(8) Marriage and family rights. The criminal's right to marriage and family refers to the freedom of marriage and divorce protected by law, the inviolability of the criminal's legal marriage and family, and other rights directly related to this. The rights enjoyed by criminals are incomplete. The right of marriage enjoyed by criminals means that criminals are the subject of marriage rights, not the subject of marriage. The former is a kind of right ability, and the latter is a kind of behavior ability. Because criminals are restricted in their personal freedom, their capacity for behavior is greatly reduced, and it is impossible to realize this right without the help of prisons. Article 10 of the Opinions on Implementing the Regulations on Marriage Registration issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs in 2004 gives criminals the right of marriage registration, which cannot compete with the right of punishment exercised by prisons on behalf of the state. Therefore, in practice, allowing criminals to get married or live together is only an individualized treatment of the special situation of criminals, similar to "preferential treatment in western prisons", which means that "criminals win special treatment in favor of prisoners through good performance and work performance." Compared with rights, preferential treatment is not necessarily protected by law, but provided by prison managers according to the behavior of prisoners. "

(nine) the right to protect their legitimate rights and interests. As mentioned above, one of the contents of rights is a claim or claim. The right of self-protection of criminals' legitimate rights and interests is the right of criminals to seek help and remedy other rights, which makes the above eight rights become a kind of rights that can be claimed, including the right of appeal, the right of accusation, the right of defense and the right of appeal. The criminal's right of appeal includes the right of litigation appeal and the right of non-litigation appeal. The former means that a criminal refuses to accept a legally effective judgment or ruling and requests a retrial from a people's court or a people's procuratorate; The latter means that when a criminal refuses to accept the illegal dereliction of duty of state organs and their staff or the non-criminal punishment, he requests a review or reexamination from the relevant state organs. The criminal's right to report refers to the right of a criminal to report and expose the criminal and his criminal facts to the judicial organs when he thinks that his legitimate rights and interests have been infringed by a criminal act, and to ask for examination and handling. The criminal's right to report refers to the criminal's right to report and expose the illegal and dereliction of duty of state staff or the illegal and criminal acts that others have not directly violated their rights and interests to the judicial organs. If a criminal finds a missing crime or a new crime while serving his sentence, he will not lose his right to defense and appeal when he is prosecuted according to law.