The nation's overall human rights record improved in...

The nation's overall human rights record improved in 2003, while there is still room for improvement in various areas, according to the government's annual human rights report. The 90-page report, compiled by the Cabinet's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission, encompasses four areas: basic individual rights; civil and political rights; economic, social and cultural rights; and equal rights for special and minority groups. There is much room for improvement in basic individual rights because the death penalty is still on the books. Torture of prisoners, however, is no longer a routine practice and political prisoners no longer exist after the authoritarian Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lost power in 2000, the report said.