China Says 'No' to Domestic Violence

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, November 27, 2002

China Says 'No' to Domestic Violence

Nov. 25 marks the International Day of no violence in families. China has put up an intervention mechanism in many sectors at the provincial, regional and municipal levels. And with the public security, law and judicial department, women's federation and social communities as well as other sectors to take an active part in, attention of the whole society has been roused and paid to the domestic violence.

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Nov. 25 marks the International Day of no violence in families. For days on end, the provincial women's federation of Hubei has been conducting large-scale activities for propagation and consultation on opposing domestic violence at Hongshan Square and other places in Wuhan. In the meanwhile, the women's federation of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region brought out a "booklet of opposing family violence", a practical booklet for people of the country to read and related activities were also conducted in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and some other places. All this indicates that domestic violence has once again become a spotlight arresting the attention of the people from all over.

New symptoms of domestic violence

An investigation by All China Women's Federation tells that in around 30 percent of the 270 million families in China there sees family violence in one way or another and 90 percent of the violence-doers are the male. An investigation report on the violence imposed on women from the three provinces of Zhejiang, Hunan and Gansu shows that among the conflicts between man and wife, man not to have breath with his wife represents some 65 percent and husband "cursing" wife some 28 percent. When clash occurs between man and wife, husband "kicking" wife accounts for 12.1 percent and 9.7 percent to "hit wife with something by hand" and 5.8 percent imposing sexual abuses.

However, a deeper investigation reveals that the present-day family violence goes far beyond the corporeal slapping and maltreatment, revealing some new symptoms.

Spiritual maltreatment, a new symptom

The numerical data from the recent "international forum on opposing domestic violence against women" prove, say the family violence consists of three types, we may come to a conclusion that the spiritual violence witnesses the highest happenings, bodily violence the next and sexual violence the lowest.

The recent years see the spiritual violence in families on the rise. The reason is that the bodily violence is easily detectable when developed to a certain extent whereas the spiritual violence is somewhat in the dark and so it gradually comes to take the place of the bodily one.

Another new symptom of family violence is that the female in profession is also faced with threat of family violence, which is spreading out into different social stratums. Numerical data from the Hongfeng Women Psychology Consultation Service Center in Beijing indicate that among husbands doing maltreatment to wives those received education of a college undergraduate account for 64 percent, of which 5 percent are of master or doctoral degrees. Among those "bad husbands", some of them are state civil servants, teachers, doctors, and some are scientists and technicians, company employee or white-collars from enterprises of joint venture, foreign-owned or of other types.

Legislation to protect the maltreated

Violence in families is now becoming a social pest. The recent years have seen the Chinese government together with all walks of life in society pay great attention to the problem. It has assumed an active attitude in promoting the legislation work and perfecting policies, conducting teamwork between different organizations and trans-institutional researches so as to actively prevent and control the occurrence of family violence.

The new "Marriage Law" enforced in 2001 has added amendments to the clause, permitting "no domestic violence", stating explicitly that domestic violence is a criminal behavior which is followed with the working out of the punishment for it in detail.

Researchers of the "Chinese Law Society" have recently brought forward a proposal on the "preventive law against domestic violence". The contents include the definition about domestic violence, social relief and assistance, administrative measures, legal alleviation and assistance and legal liabilities, etc. Chen Mingxia, research-fellow with the Law Society of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences participating in the drawing-up of the proposal said, to put forward the draft proposal is aiming at "pushing ahead the legislation of the relevant law".

Active intervention

During recent years, China has put up an intervention mechanism in many sectors at the provincial, regional and municipal levels. And with the public security, law and judicial department, women's federation and social communities as well as other sectors to take an active part in, attention of the whole society has been roused and paid to the domestic violence.

As pointed out in the UN "Declaration on elimination of domestic violence against women" in 1999, the domestic violence meant for the violent behavior as happened in families in connexion with body, mind and sexes. It includes sexual maltreatment to girls, offensive rape of spouse and other violation and injuries to traditional habits and customs of women. We can see from this that domestic violence is in violation of human rights, a public pest to society. Its influence has gone far beyond the confines of a family, requiring the attention of the whole society. Therefore, it is liable for the state, the whole society to oppose and eliminate the domestic violence and moreover, it is a long and arduous task for us to fulfill.

By People's Daily Online

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