 Human Rights Watch has stated that the " re @-@ education through labor " system violates international law , specifically Article 9 ( 4 . ) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ( ICCPR ) , which provides that " Anyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled to take proceedings before a court , in order that the court may decide without delay on the lawfulness of his detention ... " The Chinese Ministry of Justice , as well , has admitted that the system violated items in the Chinese constitution . Wang Gongyi , vice @-@ director of the Institute of Justice Research affiliated to the Ministry of Justice , said that the current re @-@ education through labor practice contradicts several items in the Constitution , the Criminal Procedure Law , and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights a United Nations human rights treaty China signed in 1998 . Re @-@ education through labor has also been criticized by numerous human rights groups for not offering procedural guarantees for the accused , and for being used to detain political dissidents , teachers , Chinese house church leaders , and Falun Gong practitioners . Furthermore , even though the law up until 2007 specified a maximum length of detainment of four years , at least one source mentions a " retention for in @-@ camp employment " system that allowed authorities to keep detainees in the camps for longer than their official sentences . 
