Beijing court issues more personal safety protection orders

A Beijing court issued 14 personal safety protection orders in the first half of this year, taking the total since China's Domestic Violence Law came into effect in March 2016 to 39, a report released on Thursday said.

The orders, which can prevent arguments and assaults by separating violent offenders from victims, are playing a bigger role in preventing domestic violence and maintaining social stability and family harmony, the report by Beijing Xicheng District People's Court said.

The number of orders issued by the court has grown rapidly as people become more aware of the law, the report said, adding the 14 orders it made from January to June compared with three in 2016.

It said domestic violence is a major contributor to broken marriages and divorces.

The report said the court heard 109,162 civil cases from 2014 to 2018, of which 17,096 were related to family disputes, including divorce and property inheritance.

About 60 percent of divorces involved people over 60 years old and about 32 percent were brought by those born in the 1980s and 1990s, it said, adding that child custody was the main source of disputes among young divorced couples.

Compared with other civil disputes, domestic cases required judges to adopt different approaches in seeking resolution, as litigants were sometimes too emotional or had serious arguments with each other, Yang Guilin, a judge at the court, said.

"For example, we offer psychological aid for victims as well as offenders in cases involving domestic violence, and talk with the two sides in different rooms to ensure victims' safety," he said.