The seventh annual Sino-Australian human-rights dialogue was held on July 28 in Beijing.
¡°The dialogue was positive, constructive and fruitful,¡± said Assistant Foreign Minister Shen Guofang, who led the Chinese delegation.
Geoff Raby, head of the Australian delegation and deputy secretary of Australia¡¯s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said that the annual dialogue has reached a mature stage.
The two sides held ¡°friendly and in-depth¡± discussions on a series of issues of common interest, including women¡¯s and children¡¯s rights, the rights of ethnic minorities, judicial administration, civil and political rights as well as economic, social and cultural rights and cooperation with United Nations human-rights organizations, Shen told a joint press conference held after the dialogue.
The two sides approved the Human-Rights Joint Technical Cooperation Program for 2003-04 and pledged to continue human-rights technical co-operation on the basis of equality and mutual respect.
The Australian delegation will visit Lhasa, capital of Southwest China¡¯s Tibet Autonomous Region, to see the human-rights situation there.
The dialogue mechanism was established in 1997 to strengthen mutual understanding, discuss human-rights issues and identify practical means of co-operation.
Australia was the first country to establish a human-rights dialogue system with China.
(From xinhuanet)
Citizens Invited to Audit Legislature
It was a new move for the coastal province of Zhejiang to let ordinary people have a glimpse of the working of its legislature, local officials said.
¡°This has provided a new channel for ordinary people to participate in politics,¡± said Fu Songshu, director of the general office of the provincial legislature.
Fu said inviting ordinary citizens to audit the operation of the provincial legislature would become a regular practice in the near future.
The auditors included engineers, company managers, private entrepreneurs, a jobless man, lawyers, workers, public servants and university students.
¡°I had never expected to observe personally the work of the standing committee,¡± said Jin Deyi, manager of a Hangzhou-based transport company.
Jin said that he was interested in the congress¡¯ report on its inspection of the implementation of the labor law.
¡°I didn¡¯t just listen to the report and keep silent,¡± said 55-year-old Zhou Nancheng, the jobless man, who said that he would submit a suggestion on unemployment insurance to the congress.
Any Chinese adult who has been a resident of Zhejiang for more than one year can apply to audit the provincial legislature¡¯s meetings, according to a recent ruling by the provincial congress.
This brings to 20 the total of provincial-level legislatures practicing this system of auditing.
(From qianlong.com)
Beijing Courts Announce 50 Major Changes
Local courts in Beijing will compensate criminal suspects, who are held in custody and then found not guilty, through a more simplified procedure to guarantee citizens¡¯ legal rights, the Beijing High People¡¯s Court has announced.
Starting from Sept. 1, 2003, suspects who are deemed to be innocent, reversing the judgement of first instance, can directly ask the original court for compensation.
In the past, a special organization under the courts had to undertake a series of investigations to confirm whether or not a suspect deserved compensation.
¡°Thus it needs less time now for those people that have been under mistaken detention to achieve State compensation,¡¯¡¯ Chi Qiang, vice-president of the Beijing High People¡¯s Court, told a press conference on Sept. 1, 2003, where a total of 50 measures to better serve the public and guarantee efficiency as well as justice were revealed.
Meanwhile, also from Sept. 1, 2003, residents in need of help will be able to find it at various courts in the capital.
Senior citizens, minors, disabled people, laid-off workers and migrant workers who are living in poverty will not have to pay court fees when claiming the recovery of maintenance expenses. Disabled people, senior citizens and pregnant women will also be given priority when applying to have a case placed on file.
Previously, the Beijing Fengtai District People¡¯s Court had established a special group to look after blind, deaf and mute plaintiffs.
¡°We never dodge residents¡¯ dissatisfaction with our court work,¡± Chi said.
He said local courts will do their utmost to guarantee the legal rights of residents.
The high, intermediate and district levels of courts in Beijing have received over 1,300 complaints and suggestions from residents since the beginning of the year through the holding symposiums, interviews and investigations.
The measures adopted by Beijing¡¯s local courts are in response to 23 measures recently issued by the Supreme People¡¯s Court to improve efficiency and better serve the public.
( From peopledaily.com)
Shanghai to Open Up Its Legal Sector
Shanghai will further open its legal service sector to foreign companies as a lack of qualified lawyers is impeding the city¡¯s development, Vice Mayor Zhou Yupeng said on Sept.11.
¡°A developed legal service is essential for Shanghai to attract foreign investment and help domestic companies expand abroad,¡± Zhou told more than 30 representatives from overseas law firms with offices in the city at a round-table discussion on Sept.11.
¡°The city will relax some of the restrictions ahead of other cities in the country,¡± Zhou said.
Currently, foreign law firms are barred from litigating in Chinese courts, among other restrictions. They can, however, consult clients on foreign investment, finances, securities, real estate, trade, maritime affairs and intellectual property rights.
¡°We will gradually relax the restrictions,¡± said Miao Xiaobao, director of Shanghai Justice Bureau. He added that the approval processes for foreign law firms looking to open offices in Shanghai will be simplified and cooperation between overseas and domestic law firms will be allowed in the future.
¡°Domestic law firms will be allowed to act as a liaison or member office of an international law firm when conditions mature,¡± he said.
Miao also said overseas firms will eventually be allowed to hire local lawyers, and the city will make it easier for domestic companies to hire foreign law professionals.
Foreign firms are pleased by the announcement, saying current regulations put too many restrictions on their activities.
¡°If foreign law firms can cooperate with domestic counterparts in conducting business in the future as the city government promised, that could help us expand a large part of our business,¡± said Danian Zhang, a partner with the Shanghai Office of Baker & McKenzie, a US-based law firm.
Some domestic lawyers seem unconcerned about the increased competition eased regulations could create.
¡°They (foreign firms) are prohibited from litigating in Chinese courts, which I believe won¡¯t be changed as it involves the country¡¯s sovereignty,¡± said a lawyer with Shanghai-based All Bright Law Offices, who only gave his surname Zhang.
Currently, half of All Bright¡¯s clients are multinational companies. ¡°Maybe some of our foreign clients will go to law firms from their own country, which may hurt part of our business. But the competition will benefit domestic law firms as the whole service level is improved,¡± he added. ¡°Who knows, maybe we will get more business as the whole legal environment improves.¡±
Relocated residents get legal help
The nation¡¯s first team of lawyers providing legal consultation and service to people being relocated from their homes due to urban construction projects was set up in Shanghai over the weekend.
The 152 experienced lawyers working under the Shanghai Bar Association will help the relocated families protect their legal rights against real estate developers and removal companies, officials said.
The lawyers also promised to provide free legal aid to residents who can¡¯t afford to pay them.
¡°With development of the city¡¯s urban construction, disputes on removal and relocation have been increasing quickly,¡± said Liu Fuyuan, an association official.
Liu says most city residents don¡¯t know how to fight developers if they aren¡¯t satisfied with the compensation they are offered when they are forced to leave their homes.
The association selected 152 lawyers from 80 local law firms to give appropriate guidance to residents on how to handle such disputes. ¡°Compared with real estate developers and removal companies, residents are in inferior position. Many of them are in need of a professional aid from lawyers,¡± said Lu Hongbin, an association spokesman.
¡°However, many of the relocated people don¡¯t know how and where to find a proper attorney. The lawyer team aims to give them a hand in a quick and convenient way,¡± Lu added
The association publicized the names and contact information of the 152 lawyers in local newspapers and on two Websites (www.lawyers.com.cn and law.eastday. com).
¡°The compensation provided by the removal company is too low to be accepted, I plan to negotiate for a more reasonable price.
I hope to find a good lawyer to represent me through the team,¡± said Helen Ma, who is being forced out of her home on Ruijin Road to make way for a new real estate project.
(From China Daily)
Union accepts migrant workers
All Chinese rural migrant workers who work in cities away from their homes can join branches of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), nationwide, said an ACFTU official.
¡°They are always moving around and their rights and interests are vulnerable. They will be better protected if they join the federation,¡± said Guo Wencai, director of the department of grassroots union building of ACFTU.
In the past, the federation would admit only city workers.
With the establishment of a market-based system, China has been witnessing ever larger labour migrations. More than 100 million Chinese farmers have poured into cities and towns to improve their living standard.
Guo said migrant workers are a rising force and are important new members of China¡¯s working class.
¡°We will make every effort to get migrant workers into the federation,¡± he said.
Statistics show a total of 34 million migrant workers have joined branches of the federation at various levels but still many migrant workers remain outside the federation.
In order to safeguard their legal rights and interests, rural migrant workers have spontaneously established various organizations for themselves with help from local governments. These organizations will be taken over by the federation as members of ACFTU.
¡°Our principle is that where there are workers or rural migrant workers, there should be a union,¡± said Guo.
Joining procedures for migrant workers are identical to those for other workers. They can become members of ACFTU simply by submitting an oral or written application.
A circular issued on August 9 stipulates that all migrant workers are legally entitled to join the trade union, irrespective of their household address and work experience. Hindering and limiting their entry, by any individual or organization, is illegal.
In Beijing, the city trade union has set up a special institution responsible for the union affairs of migrant workers. The union requires construction enterprises which have been registered in Beijing for more than one year to set up a union branch before June 2004.
The construction industry is a field where migrant labourers often suffer hard working conditions, inferior safety protection and infringements of their rights as labourers.
The ACFTU was established in 1925 and boasts over 131 million members across the country.
(From chinadaily.com)
Trade Unions Put Workers¡¯ Rights First
The central government is preparing to develop a regular communications platform with trade unions in an effort to better safeguard the interests of workers.
On Sept. 12, Vice-Chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) Zhang Junjiu said the State Council, China¡¯s cabinet, is scheduled to invite unionists to voice suggestions next week regarding the effort.
¡°This meeting will become a regular practice,¡± Zhang told reporters at Beijing news conference on Sept. 12.
He said the cabinet has planned to hear unionists¡¯ views on China¡¯s employment situation, workplace safety and workers¡¯ legal rights.
A similar open level of communication has already been organized between most provincial governments and union federations, Zhang said.
¡°The practice has proved to be effective in solving many problems facing workers,¡± said Zhang.
At the press conference, Zhang also said that the 14th national congress of trade unions is scheduled to take place September 22 through 26.
Journalists from home and abroad are being invited to cover the five-day event.
Zhang said his federation has made many achievements since 1998, when the 13th congress was held.
The latest statistics indicate that China has established over 1.65 million trade unions at grass-roots levels, more than ever before, with a record 130 million members.
Zhang said that trade unions play an important role in promoting democratic management inside enterprises and helping safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of employees.
More than 327,000 enterprises across the country have encouraged a system of workers¡¯ conferences, he said.
According to Zhang, trade unions have also assisted nearly 3 million laid-off workers find new jobs in the past five years, and launched training courses to help improve job skills of 3.19 million such workers. ¡°Our next step is to take migrant workers and place them under the umbrella of ACFTU,¡± said an ACFTU official surnamed Sun.
(From China Daily)
Rural Education to Receive Needed Aid
The central government has set aside 6 billion yuan (US$722 million) to support the revamping of old and dangerous school buildings in the country¡¯s central and western areas. Dilapidated buildings are one of the biggest problems hindering local education development.
Finance Vice-Minister Lou Jiwei announced the funding at a national conference on rural education development, which opened in Beijing .
Lou said the Ministry of Finance will allocate another special fund with which school children in rural areas can be exempted from tuition and textbooks fees. But he did not reveal the budget for the fund.
He said regional financial departments should include the improvement of old and dangerous school buildings into local budgets.
Li Shenglin, vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, said speeding up the development of education in rural areas is crucial to the country¡¯s overall progress towards the goal of a wealthy and comfortable life for its citizens.
Illiterate people account for 8 percent of China¡¯s rural population of 800 million, having a huge impact on rural economic and social development, said Li.
Although no specific numbers have been decided, Li said his commission will increase investment year on year, to help push rapid and continuous education development in rural areas.
He called on regional planning departments to incorporate rural education improvements in local economic and social development plans.
At the conference¡¯s opening ceremony, Premier Wen Jiabao said making primary and middle school-level education universal is the key to the country¡¯s current education work in rural areas.
Wen said the State Council is determined to finish this job in the western areas by 2007.
About 10 percent of the country¡¯s total population residing in 372 counties in western areas does not receive such an education, according to the Ministry of Education.
The rest living in better developed eastern areas have got a primary and middle school education, ministry statistics show.
He reiterated that promoting education in rural areas is important to bridging the economic gap between urban and rural areas of the country.
Education Minister Zhou Ji said more efforts will go into the development of distance-learning methods, based on television and computer-aided teaching programs, among rural and remote areas to provide lifelong studies, since there is an insufficient number of teachers in those areas.
Adult and vocational education will be widely introduced to offer skill and employment-oriented learning programs for farmers, said Zhou.
(From china.org)
Relief project aids 4,000 needy college students
China¡¯s relief project for needy college students, the New Great Wall Project, had raised 8.4 million yuan (about one million US dollars) by August 29.
The fund is enough to benefit 4,000 college students, as each of them will receive 2,000 yuan to cover their living costs every year.
¡°We aim to help 10,001 poverty-stricken college students this year, but we still have a long way to go,¡± said Liu Wenkui, deputy secretary-general of the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFFPA).
According to the CFFPA, over 10,000 students have applied for financial help since April this year.
To monitor the fund, each of the donors will be kept informed of the use of the money, and students are advised to keep in touch with the donors, according to Zhang Hu, a sophomore at the China Agriculture University, who has been helped by the project since last year and is now working as a volunteer for the project in his spare time.
The cost of higher education began to soar with reforms in the mid-1990s, when the Chinese government stopped fully subsidizing it from the state budget. Tuition fees shot up from a few hundred yuan a year in the 1980s to from 3,500 yuan to 8,000 yuan (about 960 US dollars), not counting room and board.
Such a cost made higher education an unattainable luxury for students from families living below the poverty line, whose per capita monthly income is less than 200 yuan (about 25 US dollars).
CFFPA statistics indicate that about 20 percent of the country¡¯s 16 million college students are from poor families.
(From xinhuanet)
More disabled people find jobs in NW China province
Chen Xiaoli, a 17-year-old blind girl, found a job as a massage in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China¡¯s Gansu province, several days ago after she completed a month-long training course.
Chen is paid 1,000 yuan (about 120 US dollars) a month and she said she was contented to have a job.
A total of 76,000 disabled people like Chen in Gansu have found jobs since 1998, according to statistics from the provincial federation of the disabled people on August 25. The ratio of disabled who have found jobs has risen from 56.2 percent in 1998 to the current 82 percent.
Over the past five years, 210,000 rural and urban disabled people were trained in practical technical skills and cultural knowledge, according to Yao Zhenhua, vice-chairman of the board of directors of the provincial federation of the disabled.
At present, more than 30,000 disabled people in the province are employed by designated enterprises or welfare enterprises especially founded for the disabled people. More handicapped people now run their own businesses.
Tian Chunyan, 33, opened a bookstore with an investment of 3,500 yuan back in 1996. Now the bookstore has developed into a 1-million-yuan (more than 120,000 US dollars) culture and sports goods company, which employs 21 disabled people. Tian pays more than 40,000 yuan (4,836.75 US dollars) in taxes to the state annually.
The Gansu provincial federation of the disabled plans to help 5,000 more disabled people find jobs and 25,000 disabled run private businesses and collective businesses in the next five years.
(From xinhuanet,china.org.cn)
Tibet to Carry out Environmental Promotional Activities
A meeting was convened to launch an environmental promotional campaign in Tibet. The campaign is designed to protect the blue skies, water and mountains in the region. It expects to enhance supervision by the law, public opinion and the masses, raise the environmental awareness of the people and promote the ecological construction and environmental protection in Tibet.
There will be two groups of environmental inspectors that will begin to work on August 30. They will check the implementation of the nation¡¯s laws concerning environment protection, forestry, water and soil conservation and rules governing environmental management in construction projects and return of farmland to forested land whenever it is necessary in the localities in the region.
(From china.org)
More Tibetan women find employment
More women in Tibet are able to learn new skills and find jobs, improving local economic development, said Gama, chairman of the Women¡¯s Federation of Tibet Autonomous Region.
Gama was attending a five-day national women¡¯s congress that was held in Beijing from August 22 to 26.
A report on women¡¯s development in Tibet from 1998 to 2003 shows that 210,000 women in this southwestern Chinese plateau region have learned to read and write, bringing down the illiteracy of females from 60 percent to 40 percent
During the same period of time, over 110,000 Tibetan women have mastered some practical skills. Women technical workers make up 43 percent of the region¡¯s technical workforce.
According to Gama, relevant government departments have trained about 70 female drivers in Lhasa, the regional capital, and in Damqu. The women drivers will be held responsible for transporting earth and stone in building the Qinghai-Tibet railway, the highest railway in the world.
Many women of Tibet have also opened eateries or beauty parlors along the 1,956-kilometer railway that starts in Xining, capital of southwestern China¡¯s Qinghai Province in the east and ends in Lhasa, capital of Tibet, in the west.
Training classes on home economics have been set up in Lhasa and Xigaze, and more than 300 women have completed the course. The Women¡¯s Federation of Tibet will work in cooperation with the UNDP and Finnish Government in investing over 400,000 US dollars in financing training courses on home economics for women in Tibet, said Gama.
By 2003, women officials made up 35 percent of the total number of officials in Tibet, and 98 women have been elected to people¡¯s congresses at different levels in Tibet, accounting for 22 percent of total number of congress delegates in the region.
(From xinhuanet)
Guangdong to build new disease prevention and control center
South China¡¯s Guangdong province will build a new disease prevention and control center, according to a provincial public health official. The new center, will cost the provincial government 506 million yuan (about 60 million US dollars), and will cover an area of 55,000 square meters.
The government will spend another 48 million yuan (5.78 million US dollars) on advanced facilities for research and treatment.
The existing disease prevention and control center in the city of Guangzhou occupies an area of barely 20,000 square meters, far less than the minimum of 50,000 square meters required by the Ministry of Health.
The official said that the shortage of space will inevitably affect research and experiment.
According to the design, the new center will have six buildings with advanced facilities for physiochemical examination and research of toxicology and microorganism.
The new center, which currently has a staff of 300 people, is expected to recruit more workers and experts. It will also recruit consultants on epidemic research and laboratory experts from overseas, according to the official.
(From xinhuanet)
Guangzhou Sets New Rule to Help SOE Workers
Guangzhou will begin to try a new rule to help employees of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) with bad economic performances to enjoy basic medical insurance.
Most SOEs hard up for money failed to pay medical insurance for employees including retirees. About 35,000 retirees from Guangzhou¡¯s 148 SOEs short of money did not have basic medical insurance.
According to the law, all enterprises must provide medical insurance for all employees, including retirees.
The new rule stipulates that SOEs provide partial medical cover if they are short of money. Large shareholders of SOEs should pay at least one-third of the money needed for medical insurance for retirees if the SOEs are hard up.
The new rule, to expire June 30, 2008, also applies to collectively owned enterprises.