Puer (a city in Southwest China's Yunnan Province) People's Procuratorate, Puer Women's Federation and the Office of Puer Municipal Working Committee for Children and Women recently released a document on establishing a cooperative mechanism. According to the document, the mechanism is intended to promote cooperation among the three departments in filing and handling public-interest-litigation cases concerning women and children's rights and interests. The mechanism involves nine aspects of work –– including personnel training, protection and assistance, cooperation in handling cases, supervision and holding multi-department conferences.

The document clarifies several situations in which procuratorial organs can give advice on prosecuting or filing public-interest-litigation cases. The situations include: Governmental departments and/or public institutions involve gender-based discrimination in personnel recruitment; organizations and/or individuals demean women and infringe women's property rights through public media outlets or other channels; relevant departments fail to perform their duties in preventing and stopping domestic violence and other behaviors that infringe women's rights and public interests; and, minors' rights and interests are infringed because relevant departments fail to scrutinize job applicants before they enter education, daycare and other industries in which employees have close contact with minors.

(Women of China English Monthly April 2022 issue)