China has unveiled major reform plans across three institutions - the Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Supreme People's Court.

The measures are aimed at ensuring independent trials and better protection of human rights, while bolstering the rule of law.

The announcement comes ahead of the annual “Two Sessions,” which are due to start next week.

The Supreme People's Court in Beijing

The “Two Sessions” refer to the annual meetings of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top political advisory body, and the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.

The judicial reforms announced include over 200 measures, covering minor changes, such as prohibiting defendants from wearing prison uniforms during criminal trials, as well as wider concerns, such as fighting systemic corruption.

With regard to the court and the procuratorate, a key change that has been proposed is related to how the records of cases are being maintained.

A group of lawyers visited the Supreme People's Procuratorate in Beijing on Dec. 8, 2014.

Henceforth, a detailed record will be made in terms of how each case has been processed from the beginning to the end. This means that whoever accesses or reviews a case will be named and be on record. A party involved can then check how their case is being handled, and by whom.

This reform measure is in part connected to a landmark case last year, which led to a court overturning the verdict in an 18-year-old case.

Huugjilt, a teenager from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, had been convicted, and subsequently executed, for rape and murder in 1996. However, the region’s Higher People’s Court ruled on December 15, 2014, that his conviction was wrong. The boy’s parents were also given 2 million yuan in compensation from the state.

Huugjilt's parents burned the conviction paper for their son in Inner Mongolia Dec. 15, 2014.

Meanwhile, with regard to the Ministry of Public Security, one of the key changes that it outlined last week was related to the accountability system for officers and a correctional system.

There have also been calls for changes in the way in which the police handle cases, in order to prevent miscarriages of justice and the use of torture to secure confessions.

These steps come after a case last year saw 38-year-old Nian Bin, a prisoner on death-row, being declared innocent. Nian told prosecutors that two police officers had tortured him to make him confess and fabricated evidence that led to his conviction for the murder of two children in 2006.

The court had then overturned the guilty verdict in August, ruling that the prosecution had presented conflicting and insufficient evidence.