New laws being considered could take guardianship from bad parents
Print Edition
People who fail to meet their obligations as parents could lose guardianship of their children under new laws being considered by Chinese authorities.
Provisions in the Criminal Law aimed at protecting children are expected to be amended within the year.
The current law is vague in terms of the duties of guardians and also makes it difficult to punish those who have done wrong, said Zhang Yanhong, an official with the All-China Women’s Federation.
Huang Er’mei, deputy director of the Supreme People’s Court, said a number of incidents involving infringement of the rights and interests of minors by their guardians exposed a large gap in relevant regulations.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Supreme People’s Court and the Ministry of Public Security are working together to establish a system covering the guardianship of minors.
Officials said they aim to achieve a coordinated system of administration and law for the transfer of guardianship.
“The key of administrative intervention is to lift the guardianship after lawsuit procedures, if guardians fail to fulfill their responsibilities and harm minors seriously, to deter similar practices,” said Zhang Shifeng, director of the Ministry of Civil Affairs’ social affairs division.
There have been a number of cases in which parents have been blamed for the neglect of their children.
The latest incident occurred on Friday at a village in Xi’an, capital of Shaanxi Province, where a seven-year-old girl died. An initial investigation showed that the girl had starved to death and her mother, who has been detained, was suspected of being mentally ill.
Neighbors said the woman, who was divorced, behaved strangely and did not allow the child to go out.
In September, a 22-year-old mother whose daughters were found starved to death after she left them at home alone was sentenced to life in prison in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province.
She left a little food for the girls and then locked them at home for nearly two months between April and June. The toddlers, aged one and two, were found dead by a police officer.
She had been detained previously for taking drugs, while her boyfriend had served time in jail for drug abuse.
The case raised concerns over how to protect children from similar incidents.
Experts have long called for clearer and detailed provisions on the duties of guardians, such as the circumstances under which they could be deemed as not meeting their obligations.
Laws on child protection should specify details on what can be defined as abuse, violence, exploitation and negligence, they said.
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