A new effort to better protect the rights and interests of women
has raised concerns about gender equality in Shenzhen.
A law-drafting group led by the Shenzhen Women's Federation has
been revising the regulation on how Shenzhen Special Economic Zone
implements the Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of
Women, which came into effect in 1993.
The fifth version of the revised draft stipulates that divorced
women should get no less than 60 percent of the couple's shared
assets in the event that the husband is responsible for the
breakup.
Husbands found to have engaged in bigamy, illegal cohabitation
with a third party, abuse or abandoning family members will be
found at fault in cases of divorce.
If a husband attempts to hide, transfer, sell or destroy the
couple's shared assets, or tries to misappropriate his wife's
assets by fabricating debts, the court could raise the wife's share
of the shared assets to no less than 70 percent, according to the
revisions.
Shenzhen is the first city in China to attempt to prioritize
women in the division of shared assets, said Liu Fang, a lawyer
with Shenzhen-based Guangdong Dena Law Firm.
"It's unacceptable. The revision isn't in line with the legal
principal of equality," Liu told China Daily.
She has been involved in recent discussions of the
revisions.
"What if a man was put into the same situation? Will he get only
half of the couple's shared assets? I don't think judges should
support this measure, nor should the legislative body pass it."
Liu, who has more than 20 years of experience working as a
lawyer, said she hoped the focus of the revision would be on how to
classify the seriousness of family abuse.
"Family abuse cases are increasing, and usually women are the
victims. But in most of the cases, women cannot get compensation
because the concept of abuse is not clearly spelled out," she
said.
Li Jianyong, a lawyer with the China Commercial Law Firm, also
doubts the fairness of the revision.
He said he hoped the revision would make the existing rules more
practical, allowing the fault-free party in divorce cases to be
reasonably compensated.
"It's hard to collect evidence. For example, illegal
cohabitation means a long-term, stable extramarital relationship in
which the two parties have been living together for at least three
months," Li said. "If the situation continues, changing the
proportion of the division of assets is meaningless."
The women's association said the revised approach to dividing
assets was aimed at protecting the legal rights of the fault-free
party in a divorce. These people occasionally receive 10,000-50,000
yuan ($300-$1,500) in extra compensation.
The law-drafting group is welcoming suggestions from the public
and legal experts, said the association.
The draft will be handed to the legislative body by the end of
this year.
(China Daily July 12, 2007)