On March 1, the Supreme People's Procuratorate held a press conference to report on the procuratorial work of minors in 2023 and the effectiveness of the procuratorial organs in cooperating with all parties to strengthen the protection of minors.
A reporter from the "Rule of Law Daily" learned from the press conference that in 2023, the procuratorate provided judicial assistance to nearly 20,000 minors and distributed 190 million yuan in relief funds.
Cooperate with the public security organs and the Women's Federation to promote the construction of a "one-stop" inquiry and assistance mechanism that integrates physical examination, psychological counseling, evidence collection, rescue and other functions, and build 2,053 "one-stop" inquiry and assistance case handling areas, in conjunction with education, civil affairs, and the Communist Youth League , Women's Federation and other departments and social forces should properly carry out psychological intervention, physical rehabilitation, school resumption and transfer, etc., and strive not to let an injured child be left behind.
Strictly crack down on crimes against minors
Data show that in recent years, crimes against minors have generally been on the rise.
In response to the frequent crime of sexual assault against minors, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, together with the Supreme People's Court, issued the "Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in the Handling of Criminal Cases of Rape and Molestation of Minors", which clearly stipulates that the use of the Internet to "obscenely molest" minors shall be severely punished in accordance with the law. Crimes, that is, those who coerce or trick minors to expose their private parts or perform obscene acts through online video chats, or send videos, photos, etc., shall be convicted and sentenced according to the crime of obscenity.
Gong Ming, a member of the Party Leadership Group of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and Deputy Prosecutor General, said that the Supreme People's Procuratorate led the "two highs and two ministries" to issue the "Opinions on Handling Criminal Cases of Sexual Assault on Minors" and held the first training on the handling of sexual assault cases against minors in the same room as the public prosecutor, prosecutor and law Class, further unify standards in terms of substance, procedure and judicial practice, eliminate differences and form synergy.
In addition, judging from the overall situation nationwide, juvenile crime is still on the rise.
Gong Ming said that in response to these new trends and characteristics, the procuratorial organs have actively implemented the policy of "education, reform, and rescue" and integrated the concepts of "protection, education, and control" to determine the nature, subjective malignancy, and harmful consequences of minors' crimes. , take corresponding disciplinary and educational measures.
Minors who have committed serious crimes, are of a bad nature and have no desire to repent will be punished in accordance with the law and severely. 27,000 people were arrested and 39,000 people were prosecuted.
For minors who committed minor crimes and were first-time offenders and occasional offenders, they were lenient. 38,000 people were not arrested and 40,000 were not prosecuted.
"The procuratorial organs insist on conscientiously implementing special procedures for juvenile criminal cases such as social investigations and the presence of suitable adults, and protect the various litigation rights of minors in accordance with the law. Through psychological intervention, observation and education, and other methods, precise assistance and education are throughout the entire case handling , educate and save minors involved in crimes to the greatest extent." Gong Ming said.
Comprehensive performance of duties and comprehensive protection of legitimate rights and interests
Judicial cases have found that some minors have committed crimes or been violated, which is often closely related to the lack of protection of civil and administrative legitimate rights and interests such as support, guardianship, and education.
According to Gong Ming, starting from 2021, the Supreme People's Procuratorate will comprehensively implement the centralized and unified handling of minors' procuratorial work, and bring criminal, civil, administrative, and public interest litigation cases involving minors to the minors procuratorial department for unified handling and overall planning and application A multi-pronged approach is adopted to strengthen the comprehensive judicial protection of the rights and interests of minors through various methods such as review of arrests, review of prosecutions, protests, procuratorial suggestions, and public interest litigation.
In 2023, when handling criminal cases involving minors, procuratorial organs at all levels simultaneously reviewed and discovered clues to other types of cases, comprehensively used various procuratorial functions, and handled 31,000 civil, administrative, public interest litigation and other cases.
When the Zhejiang Procuratorate attached conditions to non-prosecution of minors involved in drug abuse, a simultaneous review found that the relevant administrative agencies failed to fully perform their duties of supervising drug operation and circulation in accordance with the law, resulting in minors being able to purchase and abuse drugs at will, infringing upon minors. In the public interest of adults, the procuratorial organs have strengthened the source control of drug abuse by formulating and issuing pre-litigation procuratorial recommendations for public interest litigation and urging functional departments to issue relevant opinions.
In the past year, in response to the problem that minors have weak litigation abilities and are unable to effectively exercise their litigation rights, procuratorial organs across the country have increased their support for prosecutions on issues involving custody, support and other issues in accordance with the law, handling more than 7,700 support prosecution cases involving minors; There were 24,000 public interest litigation cases for the protection of minors, and the legitimate rights and interests of minors were fully protected in the rule of law.
Promote purification of the growth environment for minors
"Handling cases involving minors cannot stop at handling individual cases. More importantly, we must continue to follow up on the reasons for the occurrence of individual cases and similar cases, manage the source of litigation, and strictly prevent the recurrence of related cases." Gong Ming said that in the past, Over the past year, procuratorial organs across the country have continued to work hard to promote the implementation of the system. They have carried out "every case must be investigated" for cases of abuse of minors, implemented follow-up supervision and reverse review, and handled more than 3,700 cases through mandatory reporting, and those who refused to report 557 people were urged to be held accountable, and those suspected of duty-related crimes were held criminally responsible in accordance with the law.
In response to the hidden dangers to the healthy growth of minors brought about by the rapid development of new business formats, the Supreme People's Procuratorate has promoted the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Public Security to issue the "On Strengthening the Management of E-Sports Hotels" through special seminars, case releases, exchanges and consultations, etc. "Notice on the Protection of Minors", urging the State Administration for Market Regulation and other departments to formulate relevant opinions on regulating blind box operations and strengthening the management of scripted entertainment, so as to promote the healthy development of new business formats and better growth of minors.
According to Gong Ming, procuratorial organs at all levels conscientiously implement the deliberation opinions of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress on the People's Procuratorate's report on the procuratorial work of minors, and promote the coordinated efforts of various functional departments with judicial protection of procuratorial duties.
In terms of family protection, procuratorial organs at all levels, together with the All-China Women's Federation and the China Related Work Commission, will release typical cases of family education guidance for minors involved in the case in 2023, promote the orderly expansion of the scope of family supervision and supervision, and issue 57,000 "supervision and supervision orders". Promote "hands-off parents" to take care of their children in accordance with the law.
In terms of school protection, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Education jointly formulated the "Opinions on Establishing a Cooperation and Cooperation Mechanism for the Accusation of Dropouts of Minors Involved in Cases" and jointly built the "Supreme Procuratorate's Legal Education Practice Base for Minors" to guide local procuratorial organs to work with relevant departments 2,120 rule of law education practice bases have been built, and 43,000 prosecutors have been promoted to serve as deputy principals of rule of law in nearly 80,000 primary and secondary schools, making school protection stronger.
"In the information network era, the growth of minors is deeply integrated with the Internet. While the Internet has brought great convenience to minors' study and life, illegal infringement on the Internet has also seriously affected the healthy growth of minors." Ninth Procuratorate of the Supreme People's Procuratorate Director Lin Jie said that the prosecutors found that using the Internet to commit crimes against minors is complex and diverse, and the methods are constantly being renovated; some minors are exposed to violence, vulgarity and other bad information through the Internet, forming unhealthy values and even becoming addicted to the Internet. Illegal and criminal road.
Some Internet companies unilaterally pursue economic interests while ignoring Internet social responsibilities, which has brought certain hidden dangers to industry development and information security.
In this regard, procuratorial organs at all levels have conscientiously studied, publicized and implemented the "Regulations on the Internet Protection of Minors", held a press conference on strengthening the comprehensive performance of duties for the online protection of minors in conjunction with the Central Cyberspace Affairs Office and the Office of the State Council Women and Children's Working Committee, and formulated and strengthened regulations in the new era. The opinions of the procuratorial organs on the Internet legal work, and joint efforts to build a strong defense line for the protection of minors on the Internet.
Report from our reporter in Beijing on March 1st: Dong Fanchao