China News Service, March 3. On the 3rd, the Supreme People's Procuratorate held a press conference on "Continuing 'Looking Back' for Full Coverage of Cases-2021 Public Interest Litigation Prosecutions".
Gong Ming, a full-time member of the Procuratorial Committee of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said that in 2021, procuratorial organs across the country will file a total of 169,000 public interest litigation cases, a year-on-year increase of 12.3%.
Among them, 20,000 civil cases were filed, accounting for 12% of the total; 149,000 administrative cases were filed, accounting for 88% of the total.
Through case handling, we urge the restoration of 430,000 mu of damaged forest land, arable land, grassland and wetlands; urge the restoration of 478,000 mu of contaminated soil; protect more than 9,000 kilometers of rivers; clean up 158,000 mu of polluted water area; ; 590 million yuan in compensation for environmental damages from polluting enterprises and individuals.
Supervise and investigate the sale and recovery of 480,000 kilograms of counterfeit and shoddy food, and more than 1,400 kilograms of counterfeit and smuggled medicines.
Gong Ming introduced that, on the whole, the public interest litigation and procuratorial work in 2021 will continue to maintain a good development trend: First, the number of cases handled has steadily increased, and public welfare protection has achieved remarkable results.
In 2018, the number of public interest litigation cases filed by procuratorial organs nationwide exceeded 100,000, reaching 113,000, 127,000 in 2019, 151,000 in 2020, and 169,000 in 2021.
Second, there is a dynamic balance in various fields, and new fields are expanded in an orderly manner.
Continue to make ecological environment and resource protection and food and drug safety the top priority of public interest litigation, handling 87,000 cases in the field of ecological environment and resource protection, accounting for 51.6% of the total number of cases; handled 30,000 cases in the field of food and drug safety The two fields accounted for nearly 70% of all public interest litigation cases.
New fields continued to expand, and 45,000 public interest litigation cases in new fields such as public security and protection of special group interests were handled, accounting for 26.7% of the total number of cases filed.
In addition, 7,000 public interest litigation cases were handled in the fields of state-owned property protection, assignment of state-owned land use rights, and protection of heroes and martyrs, accounting for 4.2% of the total number of cases filed.
The third is the continuous improvement of institutional norms.
In March 2021, the Supreme People's Procuratorate took the lead and 7 departments including the Supreme People's Court and the China Consumers Association jointly issued the minutes of the meeting on punitive damages for food safety civil public interest litigation, effectively promoting the implementation of the punitive damages system.
In July of the same year, the Supreme People's Procuratorate issued the Public Interest Litigation Case Handling Rules, which is the first judicial interpretation since the official establishment of the procuratorial public interest litigation system to standardize the whole-process case handling procedures of procuratorial organs.
Fourth, the service for the overall situation has been continuously deepened.
Deepen the implementation of public interest litigation procuratorial measures to serve and guarantee the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, scientifically deploy the strategy of serving the Yellow River, formulate and issue opinions on serving the ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, and focus on major clues reflected by the central environmental protection inspector. There were 361 clues, keeping an eye on rectification and development; comprehensively serving the rural revitalization strategy, and intensifying the handling of cases in the fields of "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" such as rural land protection, rural living environment improvement, and edible agricultural product safety protection.
Fifth, the mechanism construction is more complete.
Deeply promote the cross-regional jurisdiction mechanism for public interest litigation, explore the establishment of a cross-regional administrative public interest litigation jurisdiction cooperation mechanism for important rivers and lakes in the country, and a countersignature cooperation mechanism for all 21 provincial cross-sections in the Yangtze River Basin. Collaborative comments.
Sixth, the public participation is more adequate.
Formulate detailed implementation rules for public interest litigation hearings, carry out pilot projects for the transformation of representative suggestions, CPPCC proposals and public interest litigation prosecutorial suggestions, promote the construction of a national public interest litigation expert consultation platform and volunteer service platform, and provide a wide range of platforms for all sectors of society to participate in public welfare protection. .
Seventh, the support of science and technology is more powerful.
Further deepen the application of technical means such as drones, big data, and satellite remote sensing in case-handling practice, hold national procuratorial organs public interest litigation investigation and evidence collection skills competitions, and strengthen the construction of public interest litigation technical support systems.
Eighth, international cooperation has become more extensive.
The Supreme People's Procuratorate introduced the experience of China's procuratorial public interest litigation system at important international conferences such as the World Conservation Congress, which was well received by the international environmental protection and judicial circles.