The new anti-domestic violence law in China
For more than a decade, the NCHR supported the Anti Domestic Violence Network (ADVN), a research-driven organisation advocating for a law against domestic violence in China and in 2016, the new Chinese anti-domestic violence law finally came into effect. The new law provided a great step forward to protect victims of domestic violence in China. However, stereotypical attitudes towards women and lack of knowledge and tools necessary to intervene prevail as obstacles for full implementation of the law. A law alone is unlikely to keep perpetrators away from the victims, a social consensus that ending domestic violence is important and more practical knowledge about how to utilize the law to defend and help victims is needed.
A need for practical measures to implement the law
NCHR is now involved in the production of a series of handbooks/manuals for different Chinese professional groups on how to enforce the law and protect victims in the best possible way. The first handbook focuses on domestic violence against elderly people in China. It is based on a review of the new anti-domestic violence law, the Chinese law on the protection of the rights and interests of the elderly and research on laws and implementation measures of other countries. The handbook provides practical measures and guidelines for relevant Chinese government agencies, social workers, social organisations and researchers on how to help elderly victims of domestic violence. Two more volumes of the handbook series are due in 2019, one about domestic violence against women and one about domestic violence against children.
Violence against women in China
Domestic violence in China is a massive and multi-faceted problem. According to All China’s Women's Federation, 25% of all married women in China have suffered violence in their marriage and almost 90% of the reported domestic violence cases involved abuse of women by their husbands. Chinese media have reported that 15.7 million women commit suicide every year and that 60% of those cases are believed to be linked to domestic violence. See recent interview with the NCHR about violence against women in China (in Norwegian)
More information about Equality and non-discrimination projects at the NCHR