Editor’s Note: The Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Minors and the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention of Juvenile Crimes were passed on September 4, 1991 and June 28, 1999 and came into force on January 1, 1992 and November 1, 1999. Over the past decades, China has scored outstanding achievements in implementing the two laws. In order to strengthen supervision of the implementation of the two laws and better protect the lawful rights and interests of the under-aged, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee set up a Law Enforcement Check Group in July 2003, which carried out a nationwide check of the implementation of the two laws. On August 25, NPC Vice-Chairperson Gu Xiulian reported on the result of the check to the fourth meeting of the Tenth NPC standing committee. She described the general situation in the implementation of the two laws as “good” and also identified some problems and put forward some recommendations with regard to the enforcement and implementation of the two laws.

The following are the excerpts of the report:

The NPC Law Enforcement Check Group carried out a nationwide check of the implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Minors and the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention of Juvenile Crimes in July 2003. The check focused on three problems: the protection of the rights of the under-aged to education, especially the education of the migrant children in rural and urban areas; the situation of the social protection of the minors, especially the management of cultural environment; and the correction of juvenile delinquents. The group heard reports by the education, public security and cultural departments of the State Council, the Supreme People’s Court and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League and the All-China Women’s Federation before setting off to Jilin, Anhui, Henan and Ningxia and at the same time entrusted the standing committees of people’s congresses of Beijing, Jiangsu, Guizhou and Xinjiang to carry out inspection tours in their localities.

The following are the main findings and our recommendations:

1. Achievements and experience

Our general impression is that the two laws have been well implemented and leaderships at all levels have paid full attention to it. All social circles have taken an active part in it and adopted many effective measures, achieving outstanding achievements.

(1) All on board to protect the rights and interests of children. The two laws cover a wide area and involve multiple law enforcement agencies. That is why the implementation of the laws requires the concerted efforts of the whole society. Party committees, people’s congresses and governments at all levels, and all social circles regard the protection of the rights and interests of the under-aged and prevention of juvenile crimes as a task of strategic importance that concerns the future of the country and the rise and fall of the Chinese nation. They have adopted organizational measures and mobilized the whole society to pitch in. At present, 29 provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities and most cities (prefectures) and counties (districts) have their own committees for the protection of the under-aged. The committees are led by a deputy leader of the local governments, with the participation of representatives from education, public security, culture, and civil affairs departments, TV and radio networks, administrations for industry and commerce, judicial organs and people’s courts and procuratorates as well as communist youth league organizations and women’s federations. All places have set up their own work committees for women and children, work committees for the care of the next generation and leading groups for the prevention of juvenile crimes. All related units have strengthened cooperation and pooled their resources and carried out work in families, schools, the society at large and the administration of justice, achieving good results. Governments at all levels have incorporated the study and publicity of the two laws into the plan for spreading legal knowledge and make publicity of the two laws in forms that are liked by the common people so as to enhance the people’s awareness of the importance of the implementation of the two laws. Local people’s congresses have strengthened legislation and supervision and formulated local laws and regulations that are matched with the two laws. They have strengthened supervision of law enforcement and overseen the local government and the local people’s courts and procuratorates to make them improve law enforcement and implement the two laws.
　　　　　
The Law Enforcement Check Group of the NPC standing committee inspecting the language lab of a school in Changchun, Jilin.

(2) Under-aged better educated. The protection of the right to education of the under-aged is an important part of the protection of the minors and also a crucial link in preventing juvenile crimes. Over the past more than dozen years, all Party committees, governments and other authorities have made unremitting efforts to protect the rights of the under-aged to education and achieved marked successes. The coverage of the national compulsory education program has been raised from 73% in 1998 to 91.22% by 2002. The enrolment of school-age children has been raised from 96.8% to 98.6% as compared with 1991 before the Law on the Protection of Minors was promulgated. The enrolment of junior high school has been raised from 69.7% to 90% and the enrolment of senior high school has been raised from 28.4% to 42.8%.

The rural areas are the weakest in elementary education and they have therefore claimed priority in protecting the right to education of rural under-aged people. In order to enable more rural children to go to school, Party committees, governments and other authorities adopted many measures. One is to promote the reform of the rural compulsory education management system. Up to May, over 94% of the counties had put the management of the wages and personnel of rural high and primary schools under control of the county authorities instead of local townships. This has played a positive role in solving the most outstanding problems that affected the healthy development of the rural compulsory education, such as failur to give primary and high school teachers full pay in time and the shortage of funds for normal school operation. The second is to strengthen poverty relief in impoverished rural areas. The central finance has invested 20.9 billion yuan in launching the compulsory education project in impoverished areas and projects for revamping and rebuilding primary and high school houses. Starting from 2001, the central finance has earmarked 200 million yuan every year for buying textbooks and providing them free to primary and high school students. The third is to try to reduce school dropouts. In 2001, the decisions of the State Council on the Reform and Development of Basic Education demanded governments at all levels to adopt measures to really reduce the dropout rate of rural junior high school students. In the same year, the Ministry of Education held a teleconference, calling on all places to control the dropout rate of rural junior high school students. Jilin and Xinjiang made good achievements in controlling school dropouts by law and helping the poverty-stricken families and encouraging them to make their children stay at school. The fourth is that communist youth league organizations and women’s federations have carried out the “Hope Project” and “Spring Bud Project” to assist students of poor families in their school studies. They built more than 9,000 “Hope” schools, enabling millions of school dropouts to return to school.

(3) Purifying the cultural environment for the growth of the under-aged. Most minors like Web bars, games halls and publications, audio-video products and they are prone to be conditioned by such cultural environment. In recent years, under the unified arrangements by the State Council, cultural, public security, press and publication departments and administrations for industry and commerce have strengthened routine supervisions and carried out organized crackdowns to eliminate the mental pollution sources for minors.

In 2001 and 2002, the country carried out actions twice to check Internet bars and other internet service providers, banning quite a number of operators without valid licenses and cutting internet bars from original more than 200,000 down to 110,000. In September 2002, the State Council issued the Regulations on the Management of Sites for Providing Internet Services in a bid to standardize such services. From then on, the number of children going to Internet bars has been much reduced. In July-September 2000, a nationwide check of E-game services was carried out, cutting the number of such services from more than 100,000 in 2000 down to more than 20,000 at present. The illegal e-game services have basically been brought under control. The country has also carried out activities to eliminate pornography and illegal trading of pornographic works and set up youth posts for safeguarding the rights of children to keep watch on the publications market. In July-October 2002, a nationwide campaign was carried out to eliminate harmful cartoons and pornographic “pocket books,” which uncovered more than 6,000 cases and confiscated more than three million copies of such publications, thus effectively cutting off the channels for such publications to spread into schools.
　　　　　
Gu Xiulian at a juvenile correctional center in Jilin Province.

In correcting the cultural market, all places have paid attention to providing guidance so as to satisfy the cultural demand of the minors. Henan Province has over the past four years published more than 7,000 titles of books dedicated to children and launched a project for making books available in 10,000 villages and a plan for the reading by youth in the new century, all aimed at providing healthy and progressive cultural products to children and young people. Changchun, the provincial capital of Jilin, supported schools in using the available computer equipment to set up 87 what is known as “New Sunshine Internet Services” for students of their own schools to surf the Internet.

(4) Achievements in correcting juvenile delinquents. The public security organs and people’s procuratorates have conscientiously implemented the principle of “education, persuasion and correction” in handling juvenile cases and gradually established a system best suited to such cases, paying great attention to protecting the names and lawful rights and interests of juvenile delinquents, adopting as less coercive measures as possible. Most of the places have separated detained juvenile delinquents from adult criminals and provided them with care in study and living in the light of their physiological and psychological characteristics and, through patient counseling, help them correct their bad habits to become new persons.

In handling juvenile cases, the people’s courts do as much as possible education during trials and give both education and punishment, with emphasis put on education. In handling cases, they pay great attention to education before, during and after trials and mete out punishment correctly, providing more probation. The Juvenile Court of the Litong District Court of Wuzhong City in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region helps juvenile delinquents analyze the causes of their crimes, acknowledge their crimes and pluck up courage to become new persons. In 1995-2000, the court tried 109 juvenile delinquents and there have been no recidivates.

The juvenile delinquent correctional centers and reform schools have strengthened moral and legal education of juvenile delinquents, helping them foster correct world outlook and concept of values. At the same time, they enforce the nine-year compulsory education program and carry out technical training so that they would master some kind of skills and could earn their own bread after serving their terms and would not recidivate. Some juvenile correction centers have also given psychological correction so as to enhance the result of the education and correction.

Besides, all places have proceeded from reality and carried out all kinds of corrections by inviting people from the society. The Anhui Provincial Committee for the Protection of the Minors set up in 2001 a “team of volunteers for the care of the under-aged,” with each member pairing off with minors serving their prison terms. Jilin, Henan and Ningxia all mobilized such social forces as residential communities, villagers’ committee, policemen and relatives of juvenile delinquents to help the minor offenders.

(5) A lot of work has been done to prevent juvenile crimes. All places have cleared up the environment around schools. In 2002, the Central Comprehensive Rectification Committee, Ministry of Education and other related departments set up a steering group for purifying the surrounding of schools. In the same year, a nationwide campaign was carried out in this regard. In July this year, a general check was carried out in some provinces and cities, meting out strict punishments on illegally leasing and selling under-aged oriented CDs and other publications with unhealthy contents and on those who instigated the under-aged to commit crimes and criminal acts of beating up and robbing primary and high school students. The other is that all primary and high schools have strengthened legal education, adding knowledge about law to the moral education and other related courses. They have also invited scholars and policemen to give lectures on law and order and put up billboards to publicize knowledge about law and order. All law-enforcement agencies have sent people to primary or high schools to take up the posts as vice-president for law or as legal tutors to assist the schools to carry out legal education and correct the bad behaviors of students. The third is that all urban communities, schools and women’s federations have organized all kinds of schools for parents to enhance their sense of responsibility and improve the quality of family education. Guizhou Province has set up 5,862 parent schools and more than 870,000 parents received training. The fourth is that all places have carried out activities among children and young people in legal education and self-protection. By opening “Schools of Law for Children and Young People,” “Legal Education in Communities,” “Community Children and Young People keep away from Drugs” and self protection training courses, all places have tried their best to enhance the sense of law and abilities of self-protection among children and young people. The fifth is that efforts have been made to explore for ways of reforming and developing schools for juvenile delinquents. While carrying out mental health education, moral education and legal education, various places have introduced vocational training into such schools and introduced preparatory classes for the schools of juvenile delinquents to prevent juvenile crimes. The sixth is that the civil affairs and law-enforcement agencies mobilized social forces to relieve street children, orphans and children whose families are in difficulty and provide jobs to juvenile delinquents who have been released at the end of their term of correction.
　　　　　
NPC Vice-Chairperson Gu Xiulian and member of the NPC standing committee and Chairman of the Internal Judicial Committee He Chunlin inspecting the computer room of an orphan school in Jilin Province. p10 A campaign for the legal assistance system.

2. Problems and recommendations

The inspection of the situation in the country has made us feel that there are still some problems existing with the enforcement and implementation of the two laws.

(1) There are still some weak links in protecting the juvenile rights to education. The nine-year compulsory education in rural areas is not high or even and the right to education of school-aged children moving with their parents is not well guaranteed.

(2) The harm done by unhealthy culture on the minors cannot be overestimated. The hidden dangers of Internet culture still exist; smuggling and pirating of audio-video products are still rife; the harmful cartoon pictures and pornographic “pocket books” targeting at children and young people are not stamped out.

(3) There are still too many juvenile crimes. The incidence of juvenile crimes is assuming an upward trend, with a considerable part involving money; organized crimes still outstanding; the age of juvenile offenders becoming lower; crimes committed by idle children and young people being serious, with more crimes committed with the means of adults and intelligence.

(4) The juvenile judicial protection system is imperfect. The staffs of juvenile criminal courts are unstable and some grassroots juvenile courts have remained in name only. Apart from such large cities as Beijing and Shanghai, it is, in most cases, difficult to apply legal assistance to juvenile defendants.

We have, therefore, suggest:

(1) To further enhance the understanding of the importance of conscientious implementation of the two laws in the whole society. There are 370 million under-aged people. Their healthy growth concerns the happiness and peace of millions of families and the destiny of the Chinese nation. Governments, judicial organs and social groups at all levels must adopt all possible effective measures to publicize the two laws to make them known to every family and every member of the society so as to further enhance the understanding of the major significance of protecting the healthy growth of children and young people and give rise to a pattern in which all people get involved and all departments and services make concerted efforts.

(2) There is the need of careful study and solution to the priorities and difficult points in ensuring the juvenile rights to education. It is necessary to actively promote the reform and development of rural education, strictly control school dropouts. The Ministry of Education and related departments should adopt more effective measures to ensure enrolment of children of the floating population and take further steps to strengthen legal education in primary and secondary schools, and promote the construction and reform of schools for juvenile delinquents. The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice should pool their resources to study the problems concerning the cultural and technical education, especially the nine-year compulsory education of juvenile delinquents, unifying education plans, school expenses, teachers, examinations and issuing of certificates.

(3) Governments at all levels must strengthen leadership over cultural undertakings and establish a lasting mechanism for the management and building of cultural undertakings. It is necessary to strengthen the cultural front for children and young people and incorporate the related work into the master plans of various cities and community construction, adopt active and effective supportive measures and policies to open museums, libraries, cinemas and theaters and gymnasiums and other public facilities to children and young people at preferential rates.

(4) It is necessary to strengthen the building of juvenile courts and incorporate the juvenile judicial system into the master plans for the judicial reform. In large cities where conditions permit, it is necessary to set up juvenile courts on a trial basis. Intermediate courts should strengthen juvenile hearings and grassroots courts should consolidate their juvenile collegiate panels or juvenile courts. At the same time, it is necessary to develop and improve the series of systems including judicial investigation, prosecution, defense, legal assistance and correction and education.

(5) It is necessary to incorporate the prevention of juvenile crimes into the general plan for maintaining law and order in a comprehensive way. Juvenile crimes are a complicated social phenomenon. It requires comprehensive measures to control them, with education as the foundation and prevention as principal means. Full attention should be given to the role of communities in protecting juveniles and actively explore for more effective ways to correct bad behaviors of juveniles in communities and improve the work mechanism of communities in educating, managing and serving juveniles so as to realize community integration of protection and prevention work by families, schools and society. It is also necessary to strengthen the protection of special juvenile groups and actively explore ways under the new situation as to how to better relieve and educate street children, disabled and orphaned children and juvenile delinquents who have been released or at the end of their correction.

(6) We suggest that the State Council take further steps to strengthen the coordination and supervision over the protection of minors. The enforcement and implementation of the two laws require an authoritative organ to organize and coordinate the steps and carry out checks. We have found that the committees for the protection of under-aged people in all places have played a great role in this regard and we suggest that the state will strengthen leadership over the work.

During our checks, many places told us that it is already 12 years since the promulgation of the law on the protection of minors and some of the articles have become not square with the current conditions and some are too principled, lacking operability. We propose that the NPC standing committee list the revision of the law into the law making plan for the current term of the National People’s Congress.
The author is a Vice-Chairperson of the NPC Standing Committee, China.