Jiangxi public welfare lawyer Wang Hui remembers that four years ago, she handled a case.
A father took his daughter to petition in various functional departments. Every time he arrived, he forced the child to tell the story of being sexually assaulted by a neighbor when he was 9 years old.
The girl was only 12 years old and was always scolded by her parents.
While scolding her daughter, the mother also blamed herself for not taking good care of her daughter, fell into severe depression, and cried all day.
This case has many characteristics of children's sexual abuse cases in recent years: acquaintances commit the crime, the victims are left-behind children in rural areas, the abuse is hidden and difficult to detect, and it is difficult to preserve evidence.
After the neighbor was arrested by the public security organs, he wrote down a letter to admit the sexual assault and expressed his willingness to compensate.
However, since the relevant direct evidence has long been lost, the case was withdrawn due to insufficient evidence after two supplementary investigations.
As the director of Jiangxi Zhicheng Legal Aid and Research Center (hereinafter referred to as "Jiangxi Zhicheng"), after Wang Hui intervened in the case, she found that the girl's mental state had problems, and immediately stopped her father's "secondary injury" behavior.
She found a professional psychological counselor for the girl, "billed by the hour".
"The consultant said that Mr. Wang, you are doing public welfare, and will give you a public welfare price of 1,000 yuan/hour, otherwise it will be 3,000 yuan." Wang Hui recalled that this money was not only "unbearable for victims from rural areas", but also felt very uncomfortable as a public welfare organization. strenuous.
In 2016, she established the first non-profit law firm in Jiangxi Province to provide free legal aid to disadvantaged groups such as migrant workers, women, children, the elderly, and the disabled, "taking a lot of money".
Under her promotion, the case of the aforementioned girl has received attention from many departments.
A large number of visits and investigations by the public security organs found that the criminal suspect had repeatedly shown off the "9-year-old girl who slept" when he went out to work. These peripheral evidence, the confession of the criminal suspect and the identification of the victim formed a chain of evidence. 7 years in prison for rape.
After hearing about the case, a teacher in Nanchang, together with her daughter who studied psychology, provided free psychological assistance to the victim girl and her mother.
After a long period of counseling, the mother and daughter gradually got out of the psychological predicament.
Wang Hui realized that professional psychological counselors were very important in handling cases of minors being violated, but she could not afford it.
The turning point happened in April this year, when the Beijing Juvenile Legal Aid and Research Center launched the “National First Batch of Minor Protection Demonstration Organization Cultivation Projects” (hereinafter referred to as “Cultivation Projects”), and Wang Hui’s team was selected.
"The rights and interests of minors are violated, including parental abuse, school bullying, and serious sexual assault. Faced with multiple problems in life, spirituality, and judicial procedures, let a minor child go to the community, civil affairs, and Public security department? This is unrealistic, and he (she) does not have the knowledge in this area." Tong Lihua, director of the Beijing Juvenile Legal Aid and Research Center, said that there should be professional social organizations to help minors solve problems through legal means.
Led by Tong Lihua and funded by the Beijing ByteDance Public Welfare Foundation, the "training project" selects experienced and capable social organizations in various places, and provides the salary and case handling of 3 lawyers, 1 psychological consultant and 1 social worker Financial support and the formation of a three-party protection service model for minors, three forces are indispensable.
What they were trying to build was a stable triangle.
The three sides are connected end to end and interact to protect the victimized child.
Among the first batch of 6 social organizations selected for the project, 4 have legal backgrounds and 2 have social work backgrounds, and have provided services in Beijing, Guizhou, Sichuan, Jiangxi, Hebei and Jiangsu.
The team of lawyers has psychological counselors and social workers, and a stable "triangle" is established.
"I was also doing it when I had no money. Now that I have project support, of course my team and I have to make it our best." Wang Hui said.
Social organizations have "weapons"
To form that triangle guarding the minor, each side awaits the other.
"A year ago, I was bullied by the father of my classmate who lived downstairs. That person was sentenced to one year in prison and will come out at the end of this year. When I think of him, I was terrified." One day in May, Sun Zhehe A colleague heard a secret.
The chairman of the Guiyang Juai Student Aid Center (hereinafter referred to as "Guiyang Juai Center") has just finished a publicity activity on the Protection of Minors in a school, and he found that his colleague Zhao Jin was quietly pulled by a girl. A corner of the school playground.
After confirming that there was no one around, the girl trembled and expressed her long-buried thoughts.
Having been engaged in children's public welfare service for more than ten years, Sun Zhe has encountered similar requests for help.
A local public welfare team specializing in the protection of girls also told him that some parents listened to the lecture and asked how to deal with this kind of thing, and some families were either out of indifference to children’s rights, or had a feudal sense of shame and sin. , concealing the case for a long time, so that the victimized children cannot get help.
In some remote areas, the handling of juvenile cases is not standardized enough, and the judicial organs directly intervene, which "is not necessarily more friendly to children."
Wang Hui has also been exposed to similar cases.
"A lot of the crimes are committed by acquaintances, such as parents playing mahjong, children playing on the side, and the boss of the nearby canteen pretending to 'take care of the children for you' and taking the children to a secluded place to infringe." Wang Hui introduced that the experience of left-behind children in rural areas is even more severe. Concealment: "Children don't know what sexual assault is. The villagers can lure them with a few yuan and a little snack. It takes a long time to be discovered, and it is difficult to fix the evidence."
"Guiyang Juai Center" has been registered with the civil affairs department for 10 years. It has a professional social worker team, which has long been working on helping students in need and caring for left-behind children. However, when the girl asked for help, Sun Zhe felt powerless, "We have no weapons (referring to legal weapons)”.
Similar cases often involve complex legal relationships. The Juai team lacks professional legal talents and can only report the situation to the civil affairs, women's federation and other departments. "There is no way to provide children with more direct and powerful protection and assistance."
In March of this year, Sun Zhe was moved when he learned that Tong Lihua's project was in the process of selecting partners. He released the recruitment information through the provincial and municipal lawyers' associations and received more than 20 resumes in two days.
"I made this condition very clear from the beginning. If you have the will to do this, within three years of signing the contract, you can no longer do any commercial charging cases as a lawyer, and you can only do the protection of minors in our institution. related public welfare cases." Sun Zhe said.
Three lawyers and trainee lawyers joined Guiyang Juai Center.
In the past 3 months, they have provided legal advice to 20 minors who have been violated, and represented 8 legal aid cases.
Among the four cases of minors being sexually assaulted by the local procuratorate, three minors were sexually assaulted by their biological fathers, stepfathers and neighbors, and the other was sexually assaulted by netizens.
"In the first month of the project, every day I saw the case file, I was scolding my mother." Sun Zhe said.
At present, his team is promoting the first case in Guizhou Province in which a minor was violated because a hotel failed to fulfill its mandatory reporting obligations.
The suspect tricked the victim into having sex at the hotel, took a video, threatened her to have sex at the hotel many times, and extorted money.
The victim later suffered a nervous breakdown, cut his wrists and committed suicide, and was discovered by his father, which was the case.
Article 57 of the newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors stipulates that accommodation operators such as hotels, guesthouses, hotels and other accommodation operators shall inquire about the contact of parents or other guardians when they accept minors, or accept minors and adults to stay together. The method, the identity relationship of the occupants, etc.; if there is any suspicion of illegality or crime, it should be reported to the public security organ immediately.
"They came more than once, but the hotel didn't even ask about basic identity information, and the explanation given was 'she looks like an adult', and the responsibility was completely pushed." Sun Zhe said that while the prosecution was handling criminal cases , the team provided legal aid for the victimized girls and let the hotel bear civil liability.
"There must be some economic compensation, the amount of money is not important. If we win this lawsuit and make it a case, we can carry out propaganda work in the accommodation industry in the province from the perspective of law popularization in the future, and let the staff of every hotel and hotel work. , all tighten the string, and when minors arrive at the store, they must check their ID information and get in touch with their guardians.”
The role of the lawyer is not only reflected in the case
The power of "law" has a broader space for exertion. It is not only the case of "infringement" that requires a "lawyer".
Last year, a middle-aged woman went to Zhicheng in Jiangxi and cried when she saw Wang Hui. Her brother was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer and had two children to support.
Two years ago, the siblings' father died of liver cancer, costing 300,000 yuan in medical expenses, and their mother was also frail.
The younger sister-in-law has long since divorced her younger brother, and her financial conditions are also poor, and she has never fulfilled her support obligations.
As the child's aunt, this woman is in pain. She also has 3 children to support. Once she invests a lot of time and money in her brother's family, her family may be in trouble.
Wang Hui gave a solution: file a lawsuit to revoke the qualifications of parental guardian for the two children, and apply for subsidies for de facto unsupported children.
According to the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Protection of De facto Unsupported Children" issued by the Ministry of Civil Affairs in 2019, de facto unsupported children refer to the fact that both parents meet the requirements of severe disability, serious illness, serving a sentence in custody, compulsory isolation for drug rehabilitation, and execution of other restrictions on the person. Children under one of the conditions of freedom measures or missing contact; or one of the parents is dead or missing, and the other is severely disabled, seriously ill, serving a sentence in custody, compulsory isolation for drug rehabilitation, being subjected to other measures restricting personal freedom, or a child who is missing one of the conditions .
"Many families have very complicated circumstances, and it is difficult for the civil affairs department to determine that the guardian has lost the guardianship ability. We helped to propose the revocation of the guardian's qualifications and obtained the court's ruling, and the civil affairs department can quickly allocate the money." Wang Hui introduced that during the processing process , the female judge who handled the case went to the child's village to conduct an on-the-spot investigation to prove that her application was true.
According to local standards, the two children receive a subsidy of 1,200 yuan per month, which is "a little higher than the minimum living allowance, which allows the children to live a little better, and the aunt's side also relieves the pressure."
It is not easy to make up the "law" side.
Many families in need do not understand the country's policies, and child directors and child supervisors in some places also lack relevant legal knowledge.
"For example, what are the obligations of long-term caregivers under the Law on the Protection of Minors, and what is included in the mandatory reporting system?" Wang Hui was often invited to do legal popularization training, and someone asked her to represent her on the spot to revoke the guardian's application.
Many local social work organizations will also invite her to cooperate when they encounter difficult legal problems.
"There are many social work organizations serving minors at the grassroots level, which can provide psychological support and comfort, but when the rights and interests are truly harmed, a lawyer must be represented to file a lawsuit, go through judicial procedures, and have an equal dialogue with the procuratorial and public security organs. According to Yu Xukun, executive director of Beijing Juvenile Legal Aid and Research Center, the project design of "3 lawyers, 1 psychological counselor and 1 social worker" stems from the center's practice over the years: there are many cases involving the protection of minors All need to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of minors through judicial procedures. Lawyers must represent minors in sorting out evidence, requesting compensation, organizing mediation, participating in litigation, and providing other legal services.
Yu Xukun has long realized that in some cases, lawyers also need the participation of psychological counselors and social workers, and the relationship between the three sides needs to be closer.
She remembers that a few years ago, the team received a case for help. A 9-year-old girl in Hebei was sexually assaulted by her grandfather, and the case has not been filed for more than half a year.
"No matter how the police asked, the girl refused to speak." Yu Xukun instructed the guardian to contact the psychological counselor of a local social organization through the group organization. Under the guidance of professionals, the little girl told the experience of being sexually assaulted.
"But the psychologist did not have the awareness of evidence preservation, nor did he make audio and video recordings, so he could not form evidence in the case."
Later, the psychologist went to work in another place. "After the change, the girl didn't want to talk anymore, and the trust relationship that was finally established had to be restarted again." Yu Xukun introduced.
It is a little reassuring that the grandfather was finally sentenced to 8 years in prison for child molestation and a repeat offender of previous fraud crimes.
"If a professional psychological counselor intervenes early, it may be able to achieve better results." Yu Xukun said, "This requires social organizations to reserve talents in different professional fields."
Affected minors urgently need psychological support
Wang Hui soon felt the power of that "triangle".
More than two months ago, Jiangxi Zhicheng received a request for help from the Women's Federation of a county in the province. Xiaohua, a 13-year-old girl in the second year of junior high school, was found by her mother to be five months pregnant.
Xiaohua's mother told Wang Hui that their husband and wife were divorced, and Xiaohua had been living with her grandmother in the countryside. She had a puppy love with Xiaogang, a boy in her class, and stole the forbidden fruit.
Wang Hui contacted the parents of both parties for mediation, and found that Xiaogang had two older sisters, and his parents were divorced. The father only paid child support, and the family was supported by the more than 2,000 yuan that Xiaogang’s mother earned from working in the supermarket every month.
Knowing that the lawyer was coming to discuss compensation, Xiaogang's mother called her ex-husband, hoping that he could bear some of it, and was told: "If you ask me for money again, give my phone number to others, and I will not pay child support. ." Xiaogang saw his parents quarreling and felt that it was all his fault. He ran out of the house in the dark and couldn't find anyone for several hours.
It was raining heavily that day, and Xiaogang was found standing at the gate of the police station by a security uncle, soaked all over his body.
Xiaogang later told Wang Hui that he wanted to take responsibility, and thought of going to the police station to surrender himself, "the sentence will be judged as he should", so as to save his parents from quarreling.
But outside the police station, he dared not go in.
"Actually (by age) he does not constitute a criminal offense at all." Wang Hui said.
The next day, the two mothers "knocked on the table and the bench" as soon as they met.
Wang Hui explained to them the relevant provisions of the law on the responsibilities of guardians and the law on the protection of minors. In the end, Xiaogang's mother was willing to pay a few thousand yuan for the cost of Xiaohua's abortion and nutritional supplements.
"It's not that she didn't want to talk about it at the beginning, but she didn't think it would cost so much money for the operation." Wang Hui said that according to the past situation, the dispute was resolved and the lawyer's job was over.
But she found that the law was not doing enough for cases involving minors.
After Xiaohua's surgery, she was scolded by her mother who found out that she still had information exchanges with Xiaogang.
After the contact between the two was cut off, Xiaohua felt sad again.
At this time, the new psychological counselors and social workers who joined Wang Hui's team began to provide follow-up services.
"If you are a child and have had an abortion, and the boy doesn't care about it, will you feel that the boy is ruthless and unjust, is it difficult to accept?" The consultant has done several psychological counseling for Xiaohua's mother, and she no longer rejects And hate Xiaogang.
The social worker helped Xiaogang transfer to another school, and took a leave of absence for Xiaohua, so that she could leave the original atmosphere when she re-entered the school.
"We not only help girls, but also provide psychological counseling to boys, who are under a lot of pressure." In Wang Hui's view, this method tries to maximize the rights of minors.
With a psychological counselor, Wang Hui has more confidence to take the initiative to help some minors.
As a hearing officer for the Jiangxi Provincial People's Procuratorate, she was exposed to a work-related death case.
The deceased's 10-year-old son liked to play computer games at ordinary times. After his father's death, he was immersed in the world of games and did not want to go out or take a bath.
Wang Hui asked the team to intervene for psychological intervention. After more than 10 consultations, "he is willing to take a bath. We are all very happy, but this kind of intervention requires a long process." Wang Hui said.
The aforementioned girl who asked Guiyang Juai Center for help was diagnosed with severe depression, and it cost several thousand yuan per month to see a doctor and take medicine.
Her parents came from the countryside to work in the city, and her mother didn't understand her daughter's condition, thinking that the child was "just hypocritical."
The team also handled a case where a girl was sexually assaulted by her stepfather. After the incident, the girl "didn't go to school if she was beaten to death" and had already been suspended from school.
"The child may gradually develop from the initial post-traumatic stress disorder to a mental illness." Sun Zhe said that after the professional team intervened, the girl was repeatedly asked to seek medical treatment and provide financial help.
The girl then went to the hospital for her first strict mental health diagnosis, which resulted in severe depression and severe anxiety.
"In this case, our psychological counseling must give way to professional treatment of mental illnesses. Drugs are the mainstay, and psychological services, psychological support, and psychological counseling are supplemented." Sun Zhe said that the girl did not cooperate with the treatment and was very resistant to taking medicine. , Fortunately, there is a mother willing to cooperate.
But her recovery still requires a long process, "at least dozens of consultations".
Become a professional social support force
"One centimeter wide, one kilometer deep." The more he came into contact with minor protection cases, the more Sun Zhe felt his professional requirements.
Although salaries are slightly lower than those of their fee-based counterparts, lawyers in his team are confident in their career prospects, especially in the growth of professional skills.
Sun Zhe remembered that the handling of the sisters' custody had sparked a team discussion when handling the case of the sisters Xiaofeng being sexually assaulted by their biological father.
The incident happened in an ethnic minority village in Guizhou. The parents of the child did not have a marriage registration, and the mother ran away from home early because of domestic violence. The sisters are currently being temporarily fostered in the house of their uncle and aunt.
"Father, as a criminal suspect, will definitely be deprived of his guardianship, but who will it be given to? At first, our idea was very simple. Uncles and aunts are willing to accept it, and it's enough to transfer it."
However, during repeated discussions with the Beijing Juvenile Legal Aid and Research Center, Sun Zhe realized that deprivation of guardianship is simple, but choosing who is responsible can make the life development of these two children smoother in the future, and a lot of research is needed.
The social workers of Guiyang Juai Center conducted visits and research in the village where the sisters lived, and made more than 20 interview transcripts.
They found that in the village, sons were preferred over women, girls had no right to speak, and the male family had a strong desire to possess the children of the clan, and regarded them as a resource.
"We suspect that (staying in the village) is really good for the children?"
Sister Xiaofeng also has a younger brother who did not go to primary school. Her mother, who is working in other provinces, has a meager income and lacks the ability and courage to take her children to raise them.
The patriarch also made it clear that the mother could take away the two sisters, but it was absolutely impossible to take away the male in the family.
In the end, the team determined that by helping Xiaofeng's mother apply for judicial assistance and social assistance, her parenting ability and willingness to support will be increased, "We also clearly told her that you are legally obligated and cannot back down. If there is any difficulty, let's all come together. To find ways to."
In a sense, the judiciary also needs the support of that "triangle".
"As case handlers, we are based on the judiciary, but work such as psychological counseling and family education guidance has professional requirements, and indeed requires the intervention of social organizations to achieve better case handling results." Guizhou Provincial People's Procuratorate No. 9 Song Xiaoqiong, deputy director of the Procuratorate, told China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily that starting last year, in order to strengthen comprehensive and comprehensive judicial protection for minors, the Supreme Procuratorate's deployment will involve minors' criminal, civil, administrative and public interest litigation prosecutorial functions. It will be handed over to the juvenile procuratorial department for centralized handling.
Song Xiaoqiong introduced that in Guizhou Province, more than half of the cases of juveniles committed crimes handled by the unexamined departments have been accounted for.
On the basis of social organizations participating in social investigations and tracking assistance and education of minors involved in crimes in the past, the areas of cooperation between non-inspection departments and social organizations have been continuously expanded. Social organizations can provide psychological counseling for victims and their families, apply for judicial assistance and social assistance , criminal incidental civil compensation, and the provision of public interest litigation clues to provide more help.
"The contradiction between the number of people and the small number of cases in the procuratorial organs is still relatively prominent. A large amount of work outside the case must be done by relying on social organizations as a professional force. We can concentrate on handling cases. Everyone performs their own duties and does their own work well." Song Xiaoqiong said that although the procuratorial organs have a lot of needs, there are no relevant social organizations at the grassroots level, especially in the county area.
"I hope that through cooperation with social organizations such as Juai Center, we can explore a mechanism, explore the establishment of an index evaluation system, and evaluate and purchase the services of social organizations, so as to incubate and cultivate more social organizations at the grassroots level."
"There are 13 references to 'social organizations' in the Law on the Protection of Minors. According to the law, social organizations can participate in the government's hotline for the protection of minors, cooperate with the government to provide family education guidance services, and provide psychological counseling and rehabilitation for minors. Provide professional services such as rescue, guardianship and adoption assessment, and assist judicial organs to participate in minors’ psychological intervention, legal aid, social investigation, etc.” In the view of Song Yinghui, a professor at the Law School of Beijing Normal University, social workers and psychological consultants of social organizations should be allowed to The participation of professionals in the protection of minors can not only provide practical samples to promote the development of social organizations, but also improve the efficiency and effectiveness of minors protection services, and promote the diversified development of professional social organizations in my country.
Wang Hui hopes that the "triangle" that has just been built will become more stable and sustainable.
She remembers that 15 years ago, when she first started her career as a public interest lawyer, she only received a salary of 2,500 yuan per month, and there was no case allowance.
In 2016, when she established a public interest law firm, she hoped to train more young lawyers to join the public interest team.
At that time, she made a wish: "Let people see that lawyers who help disadvantaged groups are not lawyers without cases and incompetence, but lawyers with high standards, slightly higher incomes and respected lawyers."
(Minors in the text are pseudonyms)
China Youth Daily, China Youth Daily reporter Liu Yan Source: China Youth Daily