BEIJING - The Information Office of the State Council issued Tuesday a white paper on judicial reform.

Apart from reviewing China's judicial system and reform process, the white paper focuses on maintaining social fairness, justice and human rights protection.

"China aims its judicial reform at strengthening its judicial organs' capability in maintaining social justice by optimizing the structure of the judicial organs and allocation of their functions and power, standardizing judicial acts, improving judicial proceedings, and enhancing judicial democracy and legal supervision," it says.

Maintaining that improving the protection of human rights is an important goal, the white paper noted that China's Criminal Procedure Law amended in 2012 included "respecting and protecting human rights."

In terms of protecting human rights, effective measures are being taken to deter and prohibit extorting confessions by torture, better protect the rights of criminal suspects and defendants, and protect attorneys' rights to exercise their duties. Measures are also being taken to strictly control and prudently apply the death penalty.

Judicial reform, an important part of China's political system reform, remains a long and arduous task. The white paper vows continuous efforts to strengthen reform with a goal of establishing a "just, effective and authoritative socialist judicial system with Chinese characteristics."

An English version of the white paper has been published by the Foreign Languages Press in Beijing.