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Opinions
Special> Beijing Forum on Human Rights 2013> Opinions
UPDATED: November 26, 2012 NO. 48 NOVEMBER 29, 2012
Time to Tackle Child Abuse
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(LI SHIGONG)

Child abuse has recently been a topic of widespread discussion in China. Two scandals that occurred this year have sparked renewed calls for legislation.

In one instance, a picture posted on the Internet showed a young female teacher holding up a student by his ears with his feet about 10 cm off the ground in a kindergarten class in Wenling, east China's Zhejiang Province.

The teacher smiled as the boy cried out in pain. The woman was later fired and detained by police, but then set free. The boy is still at home recovering from his injuries. "He is afraid of going to school and has nightmares," his mother said.

In another case, a kindergarten girl in north China's Shanxi Province was slapped in the face repeatedly for more than 10 minutes by her teacher because the child failed to answer a mathematics question. The teacher was detained for 15 days.

People in legal circles say that China's current Criminal Law states that abuse is applicable only among family members. Typically, suspects of child abuse in kindergartens are put under administrative detention for up to 15 days, meaning they will not face criminal charges.

There are many laws against child abuse in China. For example, the Constitution and laws on compulsory education and protection of minors contain items regarding child abuse. But the Criminal Law has no specific crime relating to child abuse. The definition of child abuse is unclear.

Whether or not child abuse should be taken as a crime has been heatedly discussed. The following are excerpts of some opinions.

Ling Ling (www.shangdu.com): The child abuse incident in Wenling is not an isolated case. In just two years, we have seen more than 10 child abuse cases in kindergartens. Methods ranging in severity from the inappropriate to the horrible are employed to torture or harass children.

However, no articles or clauses in China's current Criminal Law are applicable to these child abuse suspects. The problem is that although some abuse is not physical, which provides evidence for prosecution, but rather mental, causing lifelong psychological damage. Nevertheless, those who impose these injuries won't be punished by the Criminal Law, but will only be put under administrative detention. Such kind of punishment will do little to deter these suspects and thus is unlikely to prevent potential child abuse scandals in the future.

Putting forward legislation on child abuse and punishing those found guilty should have already been addressed. Recent years have seen many changes and much improvement in China's legal system. Emergencies and scandals often spur such advances in legislation. When the current laws are no longer able to properly address new issues, then those laws must be modified.

With child abuse scandals unfolding one after another, and when these cases are not prevented or curbed in the current legal environment, then the time has come to make child abuse a real crime.

Pi Yijun (www.cyol.net): It's high time to cover child abuse in the Criminal Law. However, this new crime does not end in preventing teachers from abusing children in kindergartens, and it does not only target physical injuries either. More importantly, this crime is expected to change parents' traditional ideas and mentality. China's Constitution and its laws on compulsory education and protection of minors all ban child abuse, but they are not clear enough to protect children from crimes.

Child abuse refers to more than teachers mistreating children in kindergarten; it covers all kinds of damage done to minors.

China's current law on the protection of minors is not fully capable of dealing with child abuse cases. Worse still, it lacks a set of effective judicial procedures that can put this law into practice. Children are weak and are dependent on the adults present in their lives. They are often not able to ask for help. The existing laws have no explicit stipulations to prevent or solve their cases.

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