Escort the healthy growth of minors

Source: People's Daily

Picture (1): Students at Anzhou Primary School in Xianju County, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, do recess exercises.

Wang Shuzhao (People's Vision)

Photo (2): Left-behind children at Zhouyuan Mingde Primary School in Feijiantan Township, Yuanzhou District, Yichun City, Jiangxi Province, waving gloves sent by volunteers.

Photo by Zhou Liang (People's Vision)

Figure (3): The staff of the Judicial Office of Yuduo Town, Qianxi City, Guizhou Province, answers students' legal questions.

Photo by Zhou Xunchao (People's Vision)

Photo (4): In the rural bookstore of Xinzhuang Community, Chengnan Street, Rugao City, Jiangsu Province, the procurator explains the Law on the Protection of Minors to the children.

Photo by Xu Hui (People's Vision)

Source: Supreme People's Procuratorate, Opinions of the State Council Leading Group for the Protection of Minors on Strengthening the Work on the Protection of Minors

Typography: Zhang Fangman

Children and young people are the future of the motherland and the hope of the Chinese nation. The protection of the rights and interests of minors is related to the healthy growth of adolescents and the happiness of hundreds of millions of families, and to social harmony and stability and long-term peace and stability of the country. Judicial protection is an important part of the work of protecting the rights and interests of minors and plays an important role in the healthy growth of minors.

How to fully implement the decision-making and deployment of the Party Central Committee on strengthening the protection of minors, better implement the newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors and the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency, and promote the judicial protection of the rights and interests of minors to a higher level? A few days ago, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference held a bi-weekly consultation forum, inviting some members of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, experts and scholars to discuss and discuss politics around "promoting the judicial protection of the rights and interests of minors", to provide suggestions and suggestions for the healthy development of minors, and to gather consensus.

Enforce the rule of law:

Form linkage working mechanisms for departments for the protection of minors

In recent years, relevant parties have done a great deal of work on the judicial protection of the rights and interests of minors, and positive results have been achieved. On June 1, 2021, the newly revised Law on the Protection of Minors and the Law on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency came into effect. Since then, the "Opinions of the State Council Leading Group for the Protection of Minors on Strengthening the Work on the Protection of Minors" has been issued, strengthening the implementation of the relevant provisions of the Law on the Protection of Minors from the aspects of strengthening family guardianship responsibilities and increasing social protection. However, there are still many blockages and difficulties in the implementation of relevant laws, and there is still a long way to go to strengthen the judicial protection of the rights and interests of minors.

Zhang Ji, deputy director of the Social and Legal Affairs Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, found in the investigation that at present, all departments need to be further improved in terms of coordination, coordination and coordination, the connection between relevant laws and regulations and other policies is not smooth, and the coordination mechanism for the protection of minors has not yet formed an effective linkage work system.

"Judicial protection is the last line of protection for the rights and interests of minors." Zhang Ji suggested that a judicial work system and a scientific evaluation and assessment system that conform to the law governing the growth of minors be established, truly enhancing the professional capacity for judicial protection of minors. At the same time, continue to advance the convergence of judicial protection of minors and the government protection system, forming a linkage work mechanism for departments for the protection of minors, strengthening departmental responsibilities, and truly protecting the lawful rights and interests of minors.

Zhang Ji's suggestion was generally recognized by the members present. Everyone believes that it is necessary to give better play to the leading role of the leading group for the protection of minors, improve the division of labor, coordination, and articulation mechanisms of member units, and promote the integration of the "six major protections" of the family, schools, society, the internet, the government, and the judiciary.

The Law on the Protection of Minors has elevated the entry inquiry system for those in the industry who are in close contact with minors into a legal provision to prevent the occurrence of crimes against minors from the source. Fei Wei, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a first-level inspector of the International Department of the China Disabled Persons' Federation, found in the survey that there are the following problems in the entry inquiry system: the scope of application of the inquiry is narrow, and some illegal acts that have not yet constituted a crime are not included; the inquiry system is not perfect enough, and the local systems are in an "island" state; and the supervision of the implementation of the entry inquiry system in related industries is not enough.

"Promote the entry inquiry system to cover all industries with close contact with minors, and sweep away blind spots in entry inquiry blind spots." Fei Wei suggested that the scope of application of employment inquiries should be further expanded, and all illegal and criminal acts that are potentially dangerous to minors should be gradually included in the scope of inquiries; departmental coordination and information sharing should be strengthened to improve the national unified criminal information database; the supervision and assessment of the implementation of relevant industries should be strengthened, and the judicial organs and relevant departments should jointly create an integrated mechanism for supervision of the prohibition of employment.

Symptoms and Root Causes:

Realize the effective connection between state guardianship and family guardianship

The family is the first classroom in life, and parents are the first teachers of children. Family guardianship is the first line of protection for minors.

"Behind many troubled teenagers, there is often a problem family." Yang Keqin, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and former vice president of the National Academy of Administration, found in the investigation that some families neglected to perform their guardianship duties due to reasons such as their parents' divorce and going out to work, and even abused children, causing physical and mental harm to minors. Yang Keqin believes that although the basic livelihood is guaranteed, it is difficult to implement the guardianship of children's personal safety, psychological status, emotional needs, etc., and it is easy to give birth to juveniles who have lost control and are involved in crimes.

When minors encounter these problems, how should the government and the judiciary intervene? How to avoid the situation that some irresponsible parents "only have children and do not raise"?

"The Civil Code and the Law on the Protection of Minors have established institutional arrangements for the guardianship of minors based on family guardianship and the guardianship of the State as the bottom." Yang Keqin said, "It is recommended to introduce relevant supporting policies as soon as possible, strengthen the supervision and guidance of family guardianship, consolidate the main responsibility of family guardianship, refine the temporary guardianship and long-term guardianship work system, give full play to the role of state guardianship, and achieve an effective connection between the two." ”

Yang Keqin also suggested: "Increase the intensity of punishment for guardians who do not perform family guardianship duties in accordance with law, and on the basis of existing disciplinary mechanisms, consider including failure to perform family guardianship duties in accordance with law into the scope of public security punishment and joint disciplinary action mechanisms for untrustworthiness." Where juveniles commit crimes or are harmed due to situations such as lax discipline or lack of guardianship, the procuratorial organs are to issue a 'supervision and guardianship order' to the guardian. ”

Tong Jianming, deputy procurator general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, responded on the spot: "In the future, we will continue to strengthen the supervision of family guardianship issues, and solidly promote the implementation of the 'Supervision and Guardianship Order' and the guidance of family education for minors involved in the case." ”

The Law on the Protection of Minors clearly stipulates a compulsory reporting system for violations of minors, however, Yan Huiying, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and deputy secretary-general of the China Group Company Promotion Association, found in the survey that most people do not understand the compulsory reporting system, and the scenes of harm to minors in daily life are considered "household affairs" in traditional concepts.

"The key to protecting minors from harm lies in early detection, early stopping, and early punishment." Yan Huiying believes that preventing minors from being violated is the common responsibility of the whole society, and a unified and efficient mechanism for the acceptance and handling of compulsory reports should be established. In this regard, she suggested that the legal responsibility of the relevant responsible entities for non-performance of the reporting obligation should be clarified, and the relevant functional departments should supervise and guide the implementation of the mandatory reporting system in the competent industry and field, and support the use of discipline and industry management norms to pursue responsibility for non-performance of mandatory reporting obligations and do not constitute illegal crimes.

Social Co-Governance:

Provide strong support for juvenile justice work

One of the important contents of strengthening the judicial protection of minors is to cultivate minors' concept of abiding by discipline and the law and their awareness of self-protection in accordance with law. At present, some primary and secondary schools have problems such as the marginalization of rule of law education, the inability of teaching materials and teachers to keep up with the needs of practice, and the uneven coverage of vice principals for rule of law.

In this regard, Guo Guirong, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and vice chairman of the Xiamen Municipal Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, suggested that the popularization of the law on the protection of minors and the law on the prevention of juvenile delinquency should be strengthened, the role of schools as the main channel for popularizing the law should be brought into play, the teaching materials and legal teachers should be optimized, and the awareness of minors in studying the law, understanding the law, abiding by the law, and using the law should be enhanced.

"Further promote the 'introduction' of rule of law resources and the 'going out' of students' rule of law education, and in accordance with the principle of 'hierarchical selection, nearby locality, and two-way selection', absorb outstanding legal talents as vice presidents of the rule of law." Make full use of rule of law education bases, periodically carry out immersive rule of law education practice activities, and meticulously carry out all-round rule of law education. Guo Guirong said.

As a social force, judicial social workers (hereinafter referred to as judicial social workers) have unique professional advantages and play an important role in preventing juvenile delinquency, correcting the bad behavior of juveniles involved in crimes, and reducing re-offending. Li Lijuan, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and an associate professor at the Normal College of Qinghai University for Nationalities, who has long been engaged in social work education, found that due to the relatively weak social forces at the current stage, the judicial organs have to undertake a lot of socialization work in the work of judicial protection of minors.

In Li Lijuan's view, the intervention of judicial social workers can effectively increase the rate of relevant minors returning to school and returning to work, and reduce the re-offending rate of juveniles who have committed crimes. To this end, she suggested that national standards for juvenile judicial social work services be introduced as soon as possible, judicial social workers should be included in the public legal service system, and full-time judicial social workers should be piloted. "We should also strengthen the professionalization and specialization of the judicial social worker team, and colleges and universities should strengthen the connection and cooperation with the courts, procuratorates and other departments in the cultivation of judicial social worker talents, so as to make the talent training more 'supply and demand matching', and at the same time improve the judicial social worker rank promotion, salary system and commendation and reward system." Li Lijuan said.

For Li Lijuan's suggestion, Fei Wei, who has been engaged in social organization work for a long time, has the same feeling: "Graduates of social work, sociology and psychology can play a very good role in social organization. She suggested that more opportunities should be given to young people in the linkage mechanism of juvenile protection work, so that they can play a role in the front end of juvenile protection work.

"The construction of judicial social work is an important aspect of the combination of professionalization and socialization of procuratorial organs." Tong Jianming said that the Supreme People's Procuratorate will take the introduction of the national standards for judicial social work services as an opportunity to continue to build a platform and provide support, promote the continuous development and growth of the social work team, and provide more powerful support for juvenile judicial work. (Reporter Yang Hao)

People's Daily (February 10, 2022, 18th edition)