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 thirteen 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 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 honoured 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.
56th National Day