China News Agency, Beijing, January 3. Question: What is the significance of China's implementation of the new law in protecting women's rights and interests?
China News Agency reporter Zhang Su
A Chinese court has recently issued the first declaration order for parties in a divorce case to declare their joint property. It is known that this can prevent and curb the behavior of parties involved in divorce proceedings from hiding and transferring their joint property.
The "marital property declaration order" originated from the Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests that came into effect on January 1 this year.
After undergoing a comprehensive "overhaul", this law has been expanded from 61 articles in 9 chapters to 86 articles in 10 chapters, which is of far-reaching significance for protecting women's rights and interests.
——The implementation of the new law will effectively solve the problems of judicial practice.
In the past, in the trial of divorce cases, it was not uncommon for one party to conceal the joint property of the husband and wife. In addition, many parties did not know much about the income and property of the other party, which made it difficult for the court to carry out investigations.
Now that the parties declare the joint property of the husband and wife, it will not only help the court to verify the situation to the maximum extent, ensure that the issue of property division is handled fairly in accordance with the law, but also help save litigation costs and promote honest litigation.
In terms of personal rights, Ye Jingyi, a professor at Peking University Law School, noticed that the Anti-Domestic Violence Law does not include intrusions that occur on the grounds of dating or making friends, or after the termination of a romantic relationship or divorce, into the scope of applying for a personal safety protection order.
Today, the Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests makes up for this deficiency.
——The implementation of the new law facilitates more victims to obtain relief.
The newly implemented Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests provides support for more people to take measures to protect their own safety and rights.
Among them, the original "Legal Remedies and Legal Responsibilities" were divided into two chapters, "Remedies" and "Legal Liabilities", which especially reflected the legislative concept of emphasizing the rights-based relief of victims.
Regarding targeted harassment, the new law not only provides judgment standards and clarifies the relevant types, but also further improves the prevention and handling mechanism, and specifically puts forward the responsibilities of schools and employers in preventing and stopping sexual harassment, so that they dare not shirk sexual harassment complaints casually.
This means that victims have more options for protecting their rights.
Aiming at gender discrimination in employment, the new law lists in detail the typical behaviors that employers are not allowed to implement in the process of recruiting and recruiting, and includes the joint interview mechanism, public interest litigation system, and support for prosecution system as remedies.
Liu Xiaonan, a professor at the Human Rights Research Institute of China University of Political Science and Law, reminded that a specific and detailed implementation plan is still needed to ensure that the relief mechanism is better implemented.
—— Promote the transformation from "formal" equality to "substantial" equality.
The new law introduces a gender equality evaluation mechanism, a gender statistics system, and a basic national policy publicity and education system for gender equality, which are considered to be conducive to promoting gender equality from the source.
In the eyes of legal experts, the transition from "formal" equality to "substantial" equality in the protection of women's rights and interests can only be realized by proceeding from the actual situation and special needs.
For example, the area of public toilets in schools, hotels, supermarkets and other places is divided equally between men and women, but it does not take into account the physiological characteristics and special needs of women.
The revised Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests responds to concerns by requiring people's governments at all levels to "equip public facilities such as public toilets and mother-baby rooms that meet women's needs" when planning and building infrastructure.
"Community elderly care facilities should also consider the special needs of elderly women." Jiang Yue, vice president of the Marriage and Family Law Research Institute of the China Law Society, said in an interview.
Jiang Yue also mentioned the new regulations that medical institutions "should respect women's own wishes" when performing reproductive operations.
In her view, there are differences in women's perception of labor pain, and deepening the understanding of individual differences is a "great progress", and the regulations of related industries should be adjusted in the future.
(use up)