A group of Chinese experts from legal, judicial and medical sectors
urged the nation to eradicate domestic violence in a proclamation
over the weekend.
"Domestic violence against women is a worldwide social problem... a
violation against women's human rights as well as a major obstacle
in women's development and social growth," reads the proclamation,
written after a two-day seminar in Beijing.
"We must realize that domestic violence is part of the social
violence that we police must fight against," said Jiang Bo,
vice-president of the China Police Society.
The problem was termed "a matter of grave social concern" by Sun
Wanzhong, vice-president of the China Law Society, which has
co-ordinated the national project to concoct ways to stop domestic
violence in urban communities and villages across the country.
The Women's Rights Department -- established in 1983 within the All-China
Women's Federation -- and its local branches received 155,484
letters of complaints about family and marriage matters from women
last year. Among the letters, 15.5 percent revealed that the women
suffered domestic abuse.
Surveys indicate that domestic violence against women not only
causes mental and bodily harm but also endangers social stability,
said Qiu Zongren, a professor with the Chinese Academy of
Social Sciences.
"Wife battering hurts everybody, from the wife to children," said
Zheng Guohua, a 43-year-old farmer from Hebei, who endured two
decades of beatings from her husband. She sued for divorce three
years ago after a beating left her nearly dead.
The national project, launched last year, is aimed at encouraging
national and local lawmakers to outlaw domestic violence and set up
help agencies for victims. Several experiments have been tried in
urban and rural areas in the 16 months since the founding.
"Preventing and eradicating domestic violence is not a job merely
for women but also an unshakable government responsibility if it
wants to win support from the public and communities," said Wang
Lixian, deputy director of the Furong district government in
Changsha, capital of Central China's Hunan Province. The
district vowed to ensure the communities under its jurisdiction
curb domestic violence in its 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05).
People's congresses in Sichuan Province, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous
Region and Changsha have introduced legislation calling for
intervention and prohibition of domestic violence.
The weekend program also launched China's first website to combat
domestic violence, which can be reached at: www.stopdv.org.cn.
(China
Daily November 12, 2001)