© Yettesu / ISHR

China
News

RSDL - Chinese lawyers' perspective

In 2012 China amended its Criminal Procedure Law, including a new provision in Article 73 that allowed for a practice called "Residential surveillance at a designated location" (known in short as RSDL). Chinese lawyers share their views on this system.

This provision authorised holding someone in custody – prior to arrest – for up to 6 months in any location or building chosen by the police, without a need to disclose such location, and with very limited due process and possibilities for judicial review.

Would you like to know more about RSDL?

Please check the explanation and analysis of the RSDL system by Chinese lawyers:

Several questions about ‘Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location’ (RSDL)

On the violations to international human rights conventions through the system of ‘Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location’

Why do public security organs use Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location’?

Related articles

ACHPR83: ISHR calls for peace in the DRC and law to protect defenders in Zambia

At the 83rd ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, held in Banjul (The Gambia) from 2 May to 22 May, ISHR delivered an oral statement calling for peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the continuation of the process toward a human rights defenders protection law in Zambia, reparations for Africans and people of African descent, and a binding treaty on environmental rights in Africa.

ACHPR83: End repression of human rights defenders in the Sahel

On 3 May 2025, on the sidelines of the 83rd ordinary session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, ISHR co-sponsored a side event on the situation of human rights defenders in the Sahel, organised by the International Federation for Human Rights and the World Organisation against Torture.