To protect minors, a landmark document in our country has recently been implemented. On May 29, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the National Supervisory Commission, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Civil Affairs, the National Health and Health Commission, the National Women’s Federation, the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League and other nine central departments signed the "Opinions on the compulsory reporting system" (hereinafter referred to as "compulsory reporting opinions") was published.
Many scholars engaged in the research on the theory and practice of the protection of minors told the reporters of China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that the "Compulsory Report Opinions" has effectively solved the previously existing violations against minors with strong accountability. Being afraid to report or unwilling to report this problem has compressed the "private" and concealed space. This kind of real responsibility overwhelmingly helps to mobilize the whole society and weave a social network to prevent and punish violations and crimes against minors.
Who is being sexually assaulted
On the morning of March 17, 2018, Xiao Su, a 14-year-old girl from Hangzhou, Zhejiang, was obscene by the school security officer Lu Mou in the security room by kiss and other means.
Two days later, Lu again took Xiao Su from the school security room to the work shed where he was staying on the grounds of "watching small animals raised", and forced obscenity against Xiao Su by pressing on his chest and touching his chest.
On the morning of March 20, Xiao Su reported the sexual assault to the school teacher, but the school did not call the police. Instead, he concealed that Xiao Su had “privately” through his family.
Under the arrangement of the school, Xiao Su’s sister, Lumou and the teacher signed an agreement in the school, stipulating that the labor company where Lumou is located should compensate RMB 30,000 on behalf of the family. “The victim’s family has settled the matter and will no longer be held accountable.”
Xiao Su was very dissatisfied the next day after learning of the agreement, and demanded that Mr. Lu be held accountable and he took the initiative to call the police. On January 31, 2019, the People's Procuratorate of Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province filed a public prosecution against the defendant Lu for compulsory indecent assault, and made strict sentencing recommendations. Lu was sentenced to two years and three months in prison by the court and was expelled from the school.
The local procuratorate found that Xiao Su suffered two sexual assaults on campus, and the school failed to detect them in time; after learning that they were sexually assaulted, the school teachers also failed to strictly implement the requirements of the compulsory reporting system in Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou Reporting obligations have resulted in their failure to receive timely protection and assistance and severe physical and mental health trauma.
What is shocking is that in this case, the victim’s family also participated in the concealment, and traditional bad habits such as “family ugliness cannot be spread” undoubtedly increased the difficulty of finding violations against minors.
"It is difficult to prevent, find, and obtain evidence in cases of violation of minors." Shi Weizhong, director of the Ninth Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, which specializes in minors' prosecution work, introduced that the judicial discovery practice found that the case was not found in time, which seriously affected The efficiency and effectiveness of fighting crime and helping minors. This is closely related to the characteristics of the case of violation of minors.
Shi Weizhong said that on the one hand, such cases often occur in homes and schools, training institutions, hotels, entertainment venues and other internal places, closed environments, and it is difficult for outsiders to find; on the other hand, minors’ self-protection awareness and ability are not yet Strong, many children are afraid, unwilling or even unaware of seeking help after being abused, which has led to some minors being abused many times, and some of them have even been abused for several years, causing irreparable damage to the minors as a result of.
At the same time, in some cases, even if they were later discovered, due to the passage of time, it has caused great difficulties in investigating evidence and fighting crimes, and some even allow the criminals to escape due punishment because of the loss of evidence.
"Shandong Qi's sexual assault case, Shanghai Xincheng Holdings Wang Zhenhua case, and not long ago the case of Bao Mouming's alleged sexual assault on adopted daughters, every case of infringement on minors is stimulating the public's nerves." Shanghai prevents youth crime Xi Peizhi, deputy secretary-general of the Research Association, said that how to protect our "next generation" is no longer a simple social governance issue, but also an important means of consolidating social consensus to promote social problem resolution, "because nothing is more than children. Can touch everyone's heart."
The data shows that from 2017 to 2019, the prosecution authorities prosecuted crimes against minors of 47,600, 50,700, and 62,900, respectively, an increase of 6.8% and 24.2% year-on-year.
With the exposure of some cases of vicious violations against minors, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate’s Ninth Prosecutor’s Office found that the public’s call for establishing a mandatory reporting system and increasing the protection of minors has become stronger, hoping to clarify mandatory reports as soon as possible through regulatory documents The specific procedure of "resolving the problem to whom and how to report after finding the problem".
Who should report
This is not the first time that the mandatory reporting system has appeared in my country's laws, regulations and policy documents.
In December 2014, the Supreme Law, the Supreme Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Civil Affairs jointly issued the "Opinions on Handling Acts of Guardians Infringing the Rights and Interests of Minors". The opinion pointed out that schools, hospitals, village (residential) committees, social work service agencies and other units and their staff found that minors were subjected to guardianship violations, and they should report to the public security organ in time or report. If other units, their staff and individuals discover that minors have been violated by guardianship, they shall also report the case or report to the public security organ in a timely manner.
The Anti-Domestic Violence Law, which came into effect on March 1, 2016, also provides for a mandatory reporting system. To clarify the protection measures for persons without civil capacity and persons with limited civil capacity. When such groups are found to be or suspected of being subjected to domestic violence, schools, kindergartens, residents’ committees, villagers’ committees, social work service agencies, relief management agencies, welfare Institutions and their staff have a mandatory reporting obligation and should report the case to the public security organ in a timely manner. Failure to report the case in accordance with the regulations and causing serious consequences will result in disciplinary action against the persons in charge directly responsible for the above-mentioned agencies and other persons directly responsible.
"After the implementation of the Anti-Domestic Violence Law, we went to the grassroots level and found that some institutions and various organizations that are in close contact with minors at the grassroots level have very low awareness of the mandatory reporting system," said Zhang Rongli, associate professor of the Law Department of China Women's College.
Song Wenzhen, an inspector of the Office of the Women and Children Working Committee of the State Council, shares the same sentiment.
"There are many compulsory reporting subjects who do not yet know that they have an obligation to report. For example, kindergarten teachers, and the traditional concept that victims are often in a weak position, "more is not as good as one" makes current discovery and reporting difficult." Song Wenzhen Say.
Zhang Rongli said that the opinions issued this time have greatly expanded the scope of the obligatory subject of compulsory reporting. "The larger the scope of the subject, the more densely the net for protecting minors may be woven, and the more likely it is to punish the legal net for infringing minors. Big."
The "Compulsory Reporting Opinions" clarifies that state organs, various organizations authorized by the laws and regulations to exercise public power, and public officials prescribed by law, and various organizations and their employees in close contact with the minor industry have the obligation to report on cases of violations of minors .
At the same time, the "close contact with the minor industry" is clearly defined as having special responsibilities for education, care, medical care, rescue, guardianship, etc., or the conditions for close contact with minors although they do not have special responsibilities. Units, enterprises, and organizations, such as education, medical care, child welfare institutions, and rescue agencies; hotels, guesthouses, and residents' (village) committees.
The “Compulsory Reporting Opinions” stipulates nine types of cases of sexual assault, abuse, bullying, and trafficking that should be reported based on the types and common characteristics of cases of violations against minors in practice. For those cases, those responsible should report.
In order to stop crimes in time and effectively protect the legal rights and interests of minors, it is stipulated that those who find "suspicious" situations should also report.
"List as exhaustively as possible of the various situations and situations in which minors may be infringed in practice, in order to avoid the problems of finding minors that have been previously infringed upon," Xi Peizhi said.
Zhang Hongwei, a professor at the Research Center for Juvenile and Family Law of Jinan University, wrote that the "Compulsory Reporting Opinions" stipulates that the scope of the compulsory reporting obligations and the accompanying obligations of the public security organs and procuratorial organs to intervene in time, effectively intervene, the applicant's personal safety protection order and legal supervision, etc. The regulations are more pragmatic.
Prior to this, the mandatory reporting system did not expressly impose mandatory reporting obligations on hospitals, schools and other units and their staff when they encountered cases of violations of minors by non-guardians in the Minor Protection Law and the Anti-Domestic Violence Law.
The new system of "growth of teeth"
In order to effectively reduce and prevent children from being sexually assaulted, Fang Yan, deputy chairman of the National People's Congress and vice president of the Shaanxi Provincial Lawyers Association, proposed at the two sessions of this year that, in the revision of the Law on the Protection of Minors, the jurisdiction for compulsory reporting should be clearly defined.
Fang Yan believes that the current stipulations that the main body of the report should report to the relevant authorities, which makes the reporting jurisdiction not clear. Unclear jurisdiction will lead to a significant discount in the implementation of the mandatory reporting system.
Therefore, Fang Yan proposed to clarify the jurisdiction of the compulsory report and amend the "relevant organ" to "public security organ".
The specific expression is: "State organs, various organizations authorized by the laws and regulations to exercise public power, and public officials prescribed by law, as well as various organizations and their employees who are in close contact with the minor industry, found that the minor's physical and mental health in their work Anyone who has been violated or faced other dangerous situations shall immediately report to the public security organ."
Fang Yan believes that from a practical perspective, the specific implementation of this system needs to be further refined in two ways: to further clarify the main body of the report, so that more institutions and staff in the whole society can have obligations and responsibilities Joining the child's mandatory reporting system to prevent sexual assault and discovering clues about the child's sexual assault as soon as possible is also more conducive to fighting such crimes. Based on the existing basis, the reporting authority is further clarified, so that the public can clearly report to the public security organs, and at the same time, the public security organs have the responsibility and obligation to implement this system.
However, this "Opinions on Compulsory Reporting" clearly stipulates that "you should report the case or report to the public security organ immediately."
"It is attributed to the acceptance of the public security organs and the cooperation of other departments. This approach is conducive to solving the problem of minor cases of minor violations in real life. It is difficult to file a case." Xi Peizhi said that it is also helpful to crack the protection of minors. The dilemma of "water management in Kowloon".
Article 6 of the Law on the Protection of Minors stipulates that “Protection of minors is the joint responsibility of state organs, armed forces, political parties, social groups, enterprises and institutions, urban and rural grassroots mass autonomous organizations, guardians of minors and other adult citizens. ."
Xi Peizhi said, "Problem caused by the protection of minors is the responsibility of the whole society is that there is no responsible agency. After the problem occurs, it changes from "everyone is responsible" to "everyone is not responsible." And " More than a quarter of the "Compulsory Reporting Opinions" stipulates legal responsibility, which really makes this "Compulsory Reporting Opinion" grow a "teeth", allowing the responsible agencies and the responsible agencies that perform, fail to perform, and neglect to perform the mandatory reporting system The staff really feel the pressure, and then do their due diligence in the work.
Among them, Article 17 of the "Compulsory Reporting Opinions" provides for the use of supervisory power to urge the exercise of administrative power, and Article 18 provides for the use of procuratorial power to supervise the exercise of administrative power. arms".
Shi Weizhong also said that the "Compulsory Reporting Opinions" has established a supervision and accountability mechanism for the implementation of the system. The relevant functional departments should supervise and guide the implementation of the mandatory reporting system in the competent industry and field. The procuratorial organ shall carry out legal supervision on the implementation of the "Compulsory Reporting Opinions".
The reporter noted that the State Supervisory Committee attaches great importance to the improvement of the mandatory reporting system for cases of violations of minors, and has participated in the formulation and signing of documents. The "Compulsory Reporting Opinions" clarifies the next step. "If public officials do not attach importance to mandatory reporting work for a long time, and do not implement the mandatory reporting system as required, the supervisory committees at all levels will be held accountable and investigated and dealt with in accordance with the law. "These highlight the "compulsory" of the system, so as to ensure the implementation of the system." Xi Peizhi said.
China Youth Daily · China Youth Daily reporter Geng Xueqing Wang Yijun Source: China Youth Daily