The first room allowing inmates condemned to death to meet with their families was opened at the First Municipal Intermediate People's Court in Beijing on Tuesday, Beijing Morning Post reports.

The meeting room is divided by a glass partition, and telephones connecting the two sides are available in case the parties have trouble hearing one another though the glass.

According to a judge, if a convict awaiting execution files a request to see family members, or vice versa, the court is obliged to arrange a meeting for them. The measure is being lauded as a humanitarian gesture.

The special meeting room, one of 50 new measures adopted by the municipal higher court to better serve the public, will take effect at all intermediate courts in Beijing from October 1.

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