Protection Through Legislation
2 min readFor many years，China has striven to protect children’s legitimate rights and interests through legislation，endeavoring to place such protection on a legal and normal footing.In accordance with the actual conditions in China and by reference to relative legislation in other countries, especially to the laws and international documents on the protection of children’s rights and interests, China has worked out a series of laws concerning children’s sur-vival, protection and development.
With the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China as the core, these provisions include the Criminal Law, the General Principles of Civil Law, the Marriage Law, the Education Law, the Compulsory Education Law, the Law on the Protection of Disabled Persons, the Law on the Protection of Juveniles, the law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests, the Law on Health Protection of Mothers andInfants, the Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases, and the Law on Adoption, in addlition to a great number of other relevant regulations and measures. Hence a fairly complete legal system for the protection of children’s rights and interests has been formed.
The Constitution of China clearly specifies:”The state promotes the all round moral, intellectual and physical development of children and young people,””.. child are protected by the state,”and “maltreatment of children is prohibited.”Formulated according to the Constitution, China’s relevant laws include comprehensive and systematic provisions on children’s right to life, survival and development, as well as basic health and health care. Provisions also address children’s family environment and substitutional care, education, free time and cultural activities and the special pro-tection of disabled children. It is specified that criminal acts, such as maltreating, abandoning and deliberately killing children, as well as stealing, abducting and trafficking, kidnapping, selling and buying in children, should be severely punished.
In addition, China’s Constitution, laws and relevant administrative legislation also include comparatively complete provisions on the government’s functions, the society’s participation, work principles and corresponding legal responsibilities in the protection of children’s rights and interests. From these it can be clearly seen that China’s legal framework for the protection of children’s rights and interests and its social guarantee mechanisms are effective in practice.
