Court in Nanning Pilots Latest Anti-Domestic Violence Plan

Court in Nanning Pilots Latest Anti-Domestic Violence Plan on July 7. [Women of China]

The pilot work of the new Anti-Domestic Violence linkage mechanism started in Nanning Intermediate People's Court in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on July 7. Huang Ermei, vice-president of China's Supreme People's Court (SPC), said at the launch ceremony that the law has brought domestic violence, through criminal justice, into the process of trial and reform. In future, the judiciary will comprehensively intervene in cases of domestic violence.

According to Huang, criminal offenses involving domestic violence are becoming more and more serious. Around 25 percent of families have suffered from domestic violence, and the vast majority of victims are from vulnerable groups: women, children and the elderly. Ten percent of young offenders are raised in an environment where there is domestic violence.

Chinese have clung on to the traditional thinking that "domestic shame should not be made public". Under the impact of this belief, domestic violence is often regarded as "household trouble". Most of the victims choose to swallow insults and humiliation silently. This also makes the rate of concealment high in China. Statistics show the average victims of domestic violence choose to call the police only after suffering domestic violence 35 times. So, the amount of actual domestic violence far exceeds that which has caused social concern or reached the judicial process.

On the other hand, domestic violence can easily be repeated, worsened, and induced with other crimes of violence. Juveniles who suffered from or witnessed domestic violence are prone to personality disorders and becoming potential perpetrators themselves. All of these points prove that China's Anti-Domestic Violence Law has a long way to go.

On March 2 this year, the SPC released its "opinions on the handling of criminal cases of domestic violence" among the relevant departments, which became China's first guide on comprehensively tackling domestic violence. It standardized the discovery and intervention mechanisms for acts of domestic violence, and established the relevant sentencing scale. At the same time, the supreme law took the "Anti-Domestic Violence linkage mechanism pilot" as an effective device and selected 10 central and grassroots courts to pilot the scheme.

President of Nanning Intermediate People's Court Zhou Teng said, "As one of the pilots, Nanning Intermediate People's Court (NIPC) will clarify problems in the handling, conviction and punishment, and rules of evidence when confronted with domestic violence cases, establish an efficient mechanism to try and settle cases involved in domestic violence, and strengthen the protection of victims."

In addition, NIPC will also strengthen links with public security forces, prosecutors, women's federations, civil affairs, education and other departments, and join hands to do a good job of providing legal assistance and education to women victims, juveniles and other family members.

Domestic violence cannot be resolved through unilateral efforts. First of all, victims should reverse their beliefs and dare to stand up and report abuse. At the same time, the courts, social organizations and police should join forces to help. It is reported that domestic violence is not considered to be merely "household trouble" in Germany. Even neighbors have the right to report incidents. The German government and social organizations have also established a large number of "Women's Homes" to protect victims.

Huang added, "Combating domestic violence is social system engineering. We hope that the Anti-Domestic Violence Law will be implemented through multi-agency cooperation and guided by the government in future. Large-scale patterns should be formed to tackle domestic violence, in order to construct a social situation of 'zero-tolerance on domestic violence'."

(Source: Souhu.com/Translated and edited by Women of China)