IX. Legal Guarantees of Women's Rights and Interests
The state's legal system for protecting women's legitimate rights and
interests has been improved constantly. In the last decade, China has enacted
and revised, in succession, the Marriage Law, the Population and Family Planning
Law, the Law on Rural Land Contracting, and the Law on Protection of Rights and
Interests of Women, and promulgated and implemented over 100 rules and
regulations concerning the protection of women's rights and interests, such as
the Regulations on Implementing the Law on Mother and Infant Healthcare.
Gradually setting up a socialized work mechanism for protecting women's
rights and interests. The state has established a national coordination group
for the protection of women's and children's rights and interests, composed of
members from 19 government departments. Some courts have established specialized
tribunals to accept and adjudicate civil cases involving the protection of
women's rights and interests, and people's jurors from women's federations and
other relevant organs are invited by the courts to participate directly in the
hearing of such cases. The state has made positive efforts to cultivate gender
awareness among law enforcement and judicial officials, bringing into full play
judicial officials' role in safeguarding women's rights. The state also sets
store by increasing the number of female judicial officials and their ratio in
the total number. In 2004, female judges and procurators accounted for 22.7
percent and 21.7 percent of the total numbers, up 5.9 percentage points and 5
percentage points, respectively, as compared with 1995.
Holding legal aid and publicity activities concerning the legal system for
safeguarding women's leg itimate rights and interests. To ensure that women's
legitimate rights and interests are properly protected, the relevant department
of the Chinese government issued a special notice, stressing that no legal aid
institutions, law firms, notarization institutions or grassroots legal service
institutions may decline to handle or postpone without proper reason an
accusation, appeal or prosecution that involves infringement on women's rights
and interests. Moreover, legal service fees should be reduced or exempted for
women in straitened circumstances. The Regulations on Legal Aid, put into effect
in China in 2003, expressly stipulates that it is the government's
responsibility to provide legal aid, and citizens in straitened circumstances
can obtain legal aid free of charge, which therefore provides material aid to
impoverished women against infringement of their rights. By the end of 2004,
3,023 governmental legal aid institutions had been established in China. In
addition, the Chinese government also supports NGOs' efforts to set up hotlines
to protect women's rights and legal consultation centers to provide legal aid
and similar services for women. China is now engaged in its fourth five-year
publicity campaign. Highlighted in the publicity activities are the Law on
Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, the Labor Law, the Marriage Law,
the Population and Family Planning Law, and the Law on Rural Land Contracting,
all of which are closely related to women's rights and interests.
Combating domestic violence against women and taking practical measures to
solve the problem. The Criminal Law, the Criminal Procedure Law, the General
Rules of the Civil Law, the Marriage Law, and the Law on Protection of Rights
and Interests of Women all forbid violence against women by anyone and in any
form. Legislation and judicial practice both stress that those who have
committed domestic violence against women shall be penalized in civil and
criminal terms according to the seriousness of the violence, and active legal
aids should be provided to the victims. In recent years, local statutes
outlawing domestic violence have been enacted in some areas, and by the end of
2004 some 22 provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the
central government) had formulated such rules, policies and measures. Besides,
the Chinese government has cooperated actively with NGOs to launch intervening
projects, as well as vigorous publicity, education and training activities; set
up alarm centers, injury assessment centers and women's aid stations; open
anti-domestic-violence hotlines; and provide multiple services for female
victims, including consultation, shelter, medical care and psychological help.
Stringently cracking down on crimes of abducting and trafficking in women.
The charges for abduction, trafficking in and buying women were revised and
added to the Criminal Law in 1997, and the penalties for such crimes were made
more severe. The Supreme People's Court has laid down judicial interpretations
on the related legal clauses to facilitate their execution. In recent years,
public security organs throughout the country have taken a series of special
actions to crack down on the abducting of and trafficking in women and children,
set up transfer, training and rehabilitating centers for rescued women and
children. All these actions have achieved remarkable results. Meanwhile, the
public security and judicial organs have made the crackdown on the crimes of
abducting and trafficking in women and children an important field of
international cooperation, and have signed agreements on bilateral police
service cooperation and treaties on judicial assistance in criminal cases with
related countries in joint undertakings to prevent and crack down on crimes of
abducting and trafficking in women and children.
Protecting the legal rights of female criminals and criminal suspects. The
state strictly observes the system of separate jails and management for male and
female criminals, with female criminals directly managed by policewomen. Women
doctors are assigned to female criminals, and the latter are allowed to spend
festivals with their minor children. Education in law, culture and vocations
suitable for female criminals' physiology and psychology, and a rich variety of
cultural and sport activities are conducted to help their
rehabilitation.
