China’s justice system was completely eradicated during the Cultural Revolution. Despite progress made since 1977, China still only has a total of 200,000 lawyers for a population of more than 1.3 billion. Furthermore, the practice of criminal defense law is often regarded as a high-risk profession.  As a result, an exceptionally large number of criminal defendants remain unrepresented at trial.

There are, however, tremendous changes afoot in the Chinese criminal justice system. China has amended its Constitution and recently amended its Criminal Law for the eighth time since the late 1990s. It is, furthermore, in the process of amending its Criminal Procedural Law to bring it closer to internationally accepted standards. Seizing the opportunity offered by these recent changes, IBJ has been working alongside government institutions and members of the criminal justice community to generate sustainable reforms. IBJ supports an emerging class of legal aid attorneys and is contributing towards the development of a rights-based approach in China’s criminal justice system.