Law revised to protect women's rights
4/10/2005 11:38
As if a special gift to the 10th anniversary of the United Nations Fourth
World Conference on Women convened in Beijing in 1995, China is revising its
13-year-old Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests to further
guarantee gender equality in the country.
Enforced 13 years ago in 1992, the
law has won great acknowledgement among experts.
"It is the first law in
China specifically enacted to safeguard women's legitimate rights and interests,
to promote equality between men and women and to enable women to play an active
role in society, and millions of women have benefited from it," says Prof. Wu
Changzhen, director of the group for revising this law, who as a deputy to the
National People's Congress (NPC), was also involved in drafting the law on
women's protection 13 years ago.
"While China's economy develops rapidly in
the past years, Chinese women have obtained higher status both in society and in
the family than in the time when the law first came out. However, new problems
relating to women's rights have cropped up, which the first law might not
foresee," she says.
Meanwhile, women have become more conscious of their
rights, "hence the necessity to ensure their rights with a legal back up," says
Wu. "So in November 2002, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the law,
the national legislature adopted the proposal of revising the law, and three
years later, after several rounds of corrections, this draft amendment finally
came into surface."
The most important provision of the draft amendment of
the law, observes Prof. Chen Mingxia, director of the Center for Gender and Law
Studies, is that "it is the first time for a Chinese law to state explicitly the
equality of women and men as the state policy. "
She notes that the equality
of women and men has been stipulated in the National Program for Women
Development (2001-2010) since 1995 as the Chinese government's commitment to the
Platform for Action adopted at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women.
"In
the past ten years the Chinese government has faithfully honored its commitment,
which has widely won acknowledgement among international community," she says.
"But this commitment has to be woven into legal provision and passed to the
future policy makers."
Another new provision that Prof. Chen speaks highly of
is that the government will take proper measures to iron out the all forms of
discrimination against women.
"It is in accordance with the Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women made by the United
Nations in 1979, which China ratified in 1980," says Prof. Chen. "This is a
major move indicating the Chinese government's responsibility for its commitment
to this international convention, with regard to women's development in a global
perspective."
The amendment to the 1992 law also has stipulations on women's
representation in the country's power structure. For one thing, it requires in
the legal form that the NPC, the country's top legislature, and local people's
congresses at all levels should have adequate numbers of women deputies and
should gradually raise the ratios of women deputies in them. It also stipulates
that at least one woman should be included in each village committee and more
measures should be taken to raise the political status of Chinese women,
including training women officials and promoting them to leading
positions.
Since 1978 the women's representation at the NPC has been stagnant
at 20 percent, against the current international average of 30 percent. This
brings China's ranking in the world in women's political participation down from
the 12th in 1994 to the 37th in 2004.
Also undesirable is women's
representation in administrative power. Among the 198 women deputies to China's
NPC, only five are in the decision making position in the legislature and
central government. By the end of 2003, the women's representation in village
committees was less than 20 percent while only one percent of the village heads
were women throughout China, according to the All-China Women's
Federation.
"It is good news that the central government has seen the gap
between women and men in policy making," says Mo Wenxiu, vice chairwoman of the
All-China Women's Federation. "However, the provision just gives a rather
general guideline than any specific quota as to how many more on earth can women
join the top-level suite."
But Mo is satisfied with the draft amendment for
women's economic right, "It reinforces the women's rights to property by
stipulating that female farmers enjoy the same right to contract, to purchase or
to own the farmland," she says. "Economic independence is the most basic and
crucial step to achieve gender equality. So this provision is very inspiring."
The amendment also enhances women's equality with men to enjoy the same
rights to education and to work. Such equality should sustain from the beginning
of the schooling throughout the education, employment, promotion to opportunity
to continuing education and awards.
The revised law pays special attention to
the job discrimination against women. It stipulates that sex should not
constitute a pretext for refusing to hire a woman, and the statement that
certain positions "are unfit for women" will be made illegal. The principle of
"equal pay for equal work" is retained, which is substantiated to equal
treatment concerning housing assignments, material benefits and
remuneration.
Despite these encouraging new provisions, Dr. Xia Yinlan,
president of China Family Law Association and also vice chairwoman of Beijing
Women's Federation, regrets that the amendment fails to state that women and men
must retire from work at the same age.
The amendment says it is in accordance
with relevant government stipulations regarding the age of retirement, notes Dr.
Xia. "But the only government stipulation concerning this point is made by the
Ministry of Personnel, which differentiates the age for retirement at 60 for men
and 55 for women." Xia calls this "inequality" and says the amendment acquiesces
it by doing nothing about it.
Another highlight is that sexual harassment,
for the first time, is made unlawful through legislation. The revision draft
states unequivocally that it is illegal to subject women to sexual harassment
and it also urges all the enterprises and government institutions to take steps
to prevent the occurrence of sexual harassment.
But Prof. Chen Mingxia views
it only in a very initial stage and thinks lots of points need to be put into
the law against sexual harassment, including a clearer definition of sexual
harassment and more specific stipulation on the issue of evidence. Additionally,
"a heavy penalty of compensation for psychological sufferings of victims should
also be put into practice," she says.
Abortion remains another thorny issue
for lawmakers. Selective abortion of female foetus and female infanticide are
prohibited in the draft amendment to address China's gender imbalance for
newborn, with a ratio disproportioned at 100 female to 117 male babies,
according to China's fifth national census compiled in 2004.
Yet some legal
experts are unwilling to take legal action against such abortions, believing
women should have freedom of choice in childbearing. "It is urgent to redress
this discrepancy, but selective abortion cannot be controlled without blanket
restrictions on all terminations, as there is no way to prove why a woman
decides to have an abortion," says Dr. Xia.
Beyond the academic circles, the
draft amendment also sparks concern among general public. Yan Xiaoxing, a
50-year-old Nanjing civil servant, thinks that the society has provided many
opportunities for women in the past decades and women's social status has been
raised a lot.
"The key issue is that we as women ourselves should broaden our
horizons, learn hard to be more knowledgeable, increase our awareness of gender
equality and self-confidence as well," she says. "If you are not ready and
competitive, no one is to blame but yourself."
The expression of "glass
ceiling" has been coined for the last two decades, but to date it is still
difficult for women to climb up on the corporate ladder, says 32-year-old Ma
Ning, who works for an English newspaper in Beijing. " A workplace which fosters
gender equality will surely foster profitability, owing to the team-building and
communication skills of women. So specific measures should be mentioned in the
revised law to protect women's rights in workplace," she says.
Gu Mingliang,
a 27-year-old software engineer in Nanjing, holds that the equality between
women and men is not that they are the same, rather, "the merit of each gender
can be shown into full fledge." "Women are neither men in skirts nor ribs of
men. They are the unique human beings like us men on this planet," he
says.
Indeed, the simple word "equality" does imply deep meanings. Above all,
observes Tan Ling, director of Women's Studies Institute of China, the
evaluation on the work done by women and men should be equal. "In a
male-dominant society, specifically, women should be empowered. This revised
law, hopefully, will make the ball start to roll," she says.
Xinhua News
|
