National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2012-2015)

(Xinhua) Updated: 2012-06-11 16:20

(2) Women's rights

China implements the Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests, promotes gender equality, and guarantees the lawful rights and interests of women.

- The state will continue its efforts to promote women's equal participation in the management of state and social affairs. The state will gradually increase the proportion of women representatives in the national and local people's congresses and political consultative conferences, and make sure that the people's congresses, governments, and political consultative conferences at the provincial and municipal levels as well as county-level governments include at least one female member in the leadership. The state will gradually increase the proportion of women holding principal positions in the leadership of local governments and departments at/above the county level, the proportion of women on boards of directors and boards of supervisors as well as the leadership of enterprises, and the proportion of women representatives at workers' conferences and faculty congresses. There should also be a certain proportion of women members in village committees and community committees.

- The state makes efforts to eliminate gender discrimination in employment and realize equal payment for men and women doing the same work. The state will strengthen special labor protection for female workers, timely revise the standards of special labor protection for women workers, and encourage the signing and implementation of special collective contracts for the protection of female workers' rights and interests in enterprises that have established labor unions.

- Women's right to having equal access to economic resources and to participating in economic development is guaranteed. The state will make sure that women in rural areas enjoy equal rights with men in the contracting and management of land, use of rural homesteads and distribution of collective income.

- The level of reproductive health services for women will be raised. The state will improve the maternity service system in urban and rural areas, and make sure that maternity insurance covers all employing units. The state will increase the proportion of women giving birth in hospitals, lower mortality rate during delivery, increase the screening rate of common gynecological diseases, and increase the rate of early diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer and breast cancer to lower the mortality rate in this regard. The state will gradually provide free folic acid and other nutrients to women of childbearing age in rural areas as a pre-gestational and early-pregnancy supplement, promote trial programs of free pre-gestational checkups, and provide free technical service to women who plan for pregnancy in rural areas, including relevant health care education.

- The state will prevent and prohibit domestic violence against women. The state will formulate a law on domestic violence, and improve the inter-departmental cooperative mechanism for the prevention and prohibition of domestic violence, and the integrative work mechanism of prevention, prohibition and assistance.

- The state will crack down on the crimes of abducting and trafficking in women. The state will stick to the principles which stress prevention as the major measure, integrate crackdown with prevention, put people first and exert comprehensive control, improve the vigilance of the whole society against abduction and women's precautionary awareness, provide physical and mental rehabilitation services to rescued women, and help them return to society.

- The state will strengthen the statistical work on gender data, and improve the collecting and publishing of gender-specific data in the fields of economic and social development.

(3) Children's rights

China implements the Law on the Protection of Minors, promotes the legislation process regarding children's welfare, preschool education, family education and other issues, and effectively guarantees children's rights to life, development, protection and participation for their best interests.

- Children's right to health is guaranteed. The state will constantly lower the mortality rates of infants and children under the age of five, and make sure to lower the rate of severe and frequently-occurring birth defects that lead to disabilities, and lower the disability rate due to birth defects. It will control the rate of low birth weight at under 5%. Ninety-five percent of the children in the country's central and western cities, and the entire eastern part will be vaccinated in the national immunization program, and the figure for rural areas in the central and western regions will reach 90%. The state will implement a nutrition enhancement program for students receiving compulsory education in rural areas, and make sure that students in primary and secondary schools generally reach the basic requirements of the National Standard of Students' Physical Health, and that students' endurance, strength, speed and other physical qualities realize significant improvement. During school time, students will be given at least one hour of sports and exercise every day, and the rates of nearsightedness, dental caries, obesity and malnutrition will be put under control.

- Administration of school buses and campus safety will be strengthened.

- Children's right to leisure and entertainment will be guaranteed. Children's services will be established in urban and rural areas to provide venues and facilities for games, recreation, education, health care, social and psychological support for children and their families. The state will make sure that at least one professional or part-time children's social worker is employed in a local community, village or town.

- Children's right to participate will be protected. The state encourages and supports children's participation in family and social life according to the degree of their physical and psychological development, and works to create a favorable social environment for children's participation.

- Discrimination against girls will be eliminated. The state will implement the reward-and-support policy for families with girls only, and try out support schemes for such families in impoverished areas. It bans identification of the sex of a fetus for other than medical purposes and termination of pregnancy in the case of a female fetus.

- The state will gradually expand the coverage of children's welfare. The state will improve the security system for orphans, increase the proportions of fostered and adopted orphans, and gradually bring unsupported children, children with severe or rare diseases and severely disabled children into the security system. The state will increase the emergency rehabilitation rate of disabled children under six years old, and guarantee the rights to life, education, health care and other rights of AIDS-affected children and convicts' children under 18 years old. The state will increase the number of institutions providing professional services for the upbringing and protection of orphans, protection of homeless children and rehabilitation of disabled children.

- Children's personal rights will be protected. The state will crack down on the abduction, maltreatment and abandonment of children, and the forcing of children into begging and other illegal activities and crimes that infringe upon the personal rights of children. The state will protect children from all forms of sexual abuse, and provide physical and psychological services to rescued children before properly resettling them.

- The state will prohibit the employment of child labor and exploitation of children, and will severely punish such illegal activities according to law.

- The legal proceedings in criminal cases involving juveniles will be improved. A conditional non-prosecution mechanism and criminal record sealing mechanism will be established. A good job will be done in community-based corrections of juvenile delinquents, and juveniles will be guaranteed legal service and assistance in accordance with the law.