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China - State party's report [2013] UNCEDAWSPR 3; CEDAW/C/CHN/7-8 (17 January 2013)


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Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination

against Women

Consideration of Reports Submitted by States Parties under Article 18 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women

Combined Seventh and Eighth Periodic Report of States Parties

* In accordance with the information transmitted to States parties regarding the processing of their reports, the present document was not formally edited before being sent to the United Nations translation services.

** The present document is part of the report of the State Party, which consists of the Report of China (CEDAW/C/CHN/7-8), the Report of Hong Kong of China (CEDAW/C/CHN-HKG/7-8) and the Report of Macao of China (CEDAW/C/CHN-MAC/7-8).

China*,**

[20 January 2012]

Contents

Chapter


Page
Introduction
5
Overview
6
Details Regarding the Implementation of the Convention
14
Part I
14
Article 1 Definition of Discrimination Against Women
14
Article 2 Law and Law Enforcement
15
Article 3 Policy Measures and Mechanisms
17
Article 4 Temporary Special Measures
19
Article 5 The Elimination of Stereotypes and Violence Against Women
21
Article 6 Prohibition of Trafficking in Women
26
Part II
29
Article 7 Promoting Women’s Participation in Political and Public Affairs
29
Article 8 Better Opportunity for Women to Represent Their Governments to Participate
33
Article 9 Nationality
33
Part III
34
Article 10 Women’s Education
34
Article 11 Women’s Employment
38
Article 12 Women’s Health
43
Article 13 Other Economic and Social Rights of Women
48
Article 14 Rural Women
51
Part IV
55
Article 15 Right of Women to Conclude Contracts and to Administer Property
55
Article 16 The Rights of Women in Marriage and Family
55
Figure

1. National Sex Ratio at Birth
23
2. Rate of Leading Bodies of Government Departments at the Provincial Level that Had Female Cadres
32
3. Crude Illiteracy Rates by Areas (Urban vs. Rural) and by Gender in 2008
36
Table

1. Female Students in Schools at All Levels and of All Types in 2010
37
2. Maternal Mortality Rate in the Regions Being Monitored
45
3. The Number of Women Participating in Various Social Insurances
49
Annexes

1. Rate of Leadership or Management Teams at All Levels Having Female Cadres
57
2. Female Chief Leaders as a Percentage of Chief Leaders at the Same Level in 2009
57
3. CPC Membership and Gender Composition
57
4. Number of Female Members of the Democratic Parties and of Their Central Committees in 2008
58
5. Female Representation in Enterprises’ Workers’ Congresses, Boards of Directors, and Boards of Supervisors
58
6. Gender Composition of Residents (Villagers) Committees
59
7. Female Representation in the Associations for Science and Technology
59
8. Enrolment Rates for All Levels of Education Nationwide
59
9. Female Students Enrolment and Their Moving to a Higher level by Region in 2010
60
10. Female faculty and Staff by Type of School in 2010
61
11. Years of Education by Area (Urban/Rural) & Gender (for people at or above the
age of 6) in 2008
63
12. Sex Ratio of the Floating Population Nationwide
63
13. Average Years of Education of the Floating Population by Gender in 2008 Source of Data: Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics
64
14. Professional and Technical Personnel by Category and Number of Women among Them in 2009
64
15. Number and Gender Composition of Professional and Technical personnel by Level
in 2009
65
16. Number of Editors and Journalists of the Press and Publishing System and Female Representation
65
17. Gender Composition of Registered Unemployed Persons in Urban Areas
66
18. Maternity Insurance Coverage
66
19. Number of Cases of Violation of Provisions for Special Protection for Female Workers and Juvenile Workers, Investigated and Handled by Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security
67
20. Percentage of Enterprises that Have Implemented the Regulations Concerning the Labour Protection of Female Staff and Workers
67
21. Number and Gender Composition of Persons with Disabilities in Social Welfare Enterprises
68
22. Average Life Expectancy
68
23. Women’s Health
68
24. Modern Midwifery Rate and Hospitalized Delivery Rate
69
25. Rate of Use of Male Contraceptive Methods
69
26. Incidence of Gynaecological Diseases
70
27. Causes of Maternal Mortality in Monitored Areas in 2009
70
28. Number and Gender Composition of HIV-infected Persons Reported
70
29. Number and Gender Composition of AIDS Patients Reported
71
30. Average Leisure and Recreation Time by Area (urban vs. rural) and by Gender
71
31. Gender Composition of Prosecutors Nationwide in 2009
71
32. Gender Composition of Judges and Jurors Nationwide in 2009
72
33. Number of Lawyers and Female Lawyers Nationwide
72
34. Gender Composition of the Actual Number of Personnel in Public Security Organs
73
35. Number of Legal Aid Agencies
73
36. Number of Elderly people, Minors and Women Receiving Legal Aid
74
37. Number of Various Types of Cases Solved
74
38. Birth Rate, Mortality Rate and Natural Growth Rate of Population by Region in 2009
74

Introduction

1. In accordance with Article 18, paragraph 1, of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (hereinafter referred to as the Convention), the People’s Republic of China hereby submits to the Secretary-General of the United Nations the combined seventh and eighth periodic report on its implementation of the Convention. The present report was prepared in compliance with the Guidelines on Periodic Reports to be submitted by States parties, adopted by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (hereinafter referred to as CEDAW).

2. The present report comprises three parts: the first part presents information on the Chinese Government’s implementation of the Convention during the period from 2006 to 2010; the second part is an account presented by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China on the implementation of the Convention in that region; and the third part is an account presented by the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China on the implementation of the Convention in that region.

3. The preparation of this report was led by the National Working Committee on Children and Women under the State Council (hereinafter referred to as NWCCW); and a working group on the drafting of the report was set up for this purpose, whose members included 29 Chinese institutions, government departments and organizations, namely the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) Central Committee, the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the State Ethnic Affairs Commission, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Health, the National Population and Family Planning Commission, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, the State Press and Publication General Administration, the General Administration of Sport of China, the National Bureau of Statistics, the NWCCW, the Office of the Leadership Group for Poverty Reduction and Development under the State Council, the China National Committee on Ageing and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the All-China Women’s Federation, the China Disabled Persons’ Federation, and the China Association of Science and Technology.

4. In April 2010, NWCCW convened a meeting of the working group, to discuss matters related to the preparation of the report. In November of the same year, it held a workshop on the first draft of the report. To further enhance the understanding of all interested parties regarding the Convention, it provided, on the margins of the workshop, training on the Convention and on gender equality issues. In order to seek comments and suggestions across the board from civil society regarding the report, NWCCW organized a conference in July 2011, to which it invited representatives from the China Disabled Persons’ Federation, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the China Law Society’s Anti-Domestic Violence Network, the Chinese Women Research Society, the China Association of Marriage and Family Studies, the China Association of Women Entrepreneurs, the China Association of Women Judges, the China Association of Women Prosecutors, the Committee on Talented Women of the Chinese Talents Society, the Women’s Federation of Beijing Municipality, Beijing Maple Women’s Psychological Counseling Centre, as well as from the media. The UNICEF Office in China provided financial support for the conference. Moreover, further comments regarding the report were solicited through the website of NWCCW.

5. The report prepared by the Central Government is divided into two parts: Part I is an overview; Part II provides information on the implementation of individual articles of the Convention. Feedback on CEDAW concluding observations is reflected in the sections corresponding to specific articles in Part II, depending on the contents.

6. The Chinese Government wishes to reiterate its continued reservation to article 29, paragraph 1, of the Convention.

Overview

7. Using 0:00 am on November 1, 2010 as the standard point of time, China carried out its sixth national census; some of the key data were released in April 2011. According to the census, the total population of the mainland of China was 1.339 billion; the female population was 653 million, or 48.73 per cent of the total.

8. In 2006, China put forward the goal of building a socialist harmonious society. To achieve this goal, the Central Government and local governments at all levels have taken strong measures, adhered to the people-oriented approach, adopted a concept of comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development, and steadfastly ensured that “the state respects and safeguards human rights” as contained in the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China. Against that backdrop, the promotion of gender equality and the safeguarding of the rights and interests of women have been accorded high priority and more widely promoted and supported, thus becoming an important part of the national development strategy.

9. China has earnestly implemented the Convention, by means of legislation, law enforcement supervision, policy measures, financial support, inter-agency collaboration, social mobilization, participation by civil society as well as international cooperation, inter alia. After the review by CEDAW in 2006, the concluding observations of CEDAW were submitted to the NPC Standing Committee, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and all other relevant government ministries. In May 2007, NWCCW organized a national workshop on those concluding observations, to consider and formulate implementation initiatives.

10. In the implementation of the Convention, gratifying results have been achieved, in terms of gender equality and women’s empowerment, and progress has been unprecedented in many areas.

11. First, relevant laws and regulations have been formulated or amended, providing a solid foundation for the realization of women’s legitimate rights.

12. The Decision on Amending the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women came into effect as of December 2005. The Decision contains comprehensive additions and improvements to the General Provisions section of that law, as well as women’s rights and interests and legal responsibilities. In the General Provisions section, the principle of the implementation of gender equality as a basic state policy and the principle of eliminating all forms of discrimination against women have been added, introducing stronger accountability for the Government, its relevant departments and agencies; the focus on protection of women’s rights and interests has been highlighted, and new provisions have been added regarding issues that have caused general concern in society at large, such as political participation of women, sex discrimination in employment, domestic violence, sexual harassment, and land contracts and related property rights and interests of rural women. New provisions include those prohibiting the abandonment of women, and more explicitly emphasizing the responsibility for the protection of elderly women, young girls, and those who are ill or otherwise unable to support themselves.

13. The implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Compulsory Education, extensively amended in June 2006, began in September 2006. The law sets out goals and measures in relation to the promotion of balanced development in compulsory education, and creates more reliable mechanisms for government financial support for compulsory education, thus providing a solid legal basis for ensuring equal access to education for girls, especially those in rural areas, ethnic minority areas, and economically disadvantaged families and girls with disabilities.

14. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Labour Contracts, which was adopted in June 2007, came into effect in January 2008. According to the law, the conclusion of a labour contract shall be based on the principles of lawfulness, fairness, equality, mutual consent, negotiated consensus and good faith; an employer shall not terminate a labour contract of a female employee because of her pregnancy, childbirth or nursing needs.

15. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Promotion of Employment, which was adopted in August 2007, came into effect in January 2008. According to its General Provisions, the law gives workers the right to equal employment and to freely choose a job; workers seeking employment shall not be subject to discrimination based on such factors as ethnicity, race, gender or religious belief. The law also has a separate chapter on “Fair Employment”, which calls for the elimination of discrimination in employment, in order to ensure that women enjoy equal rights with men. In their recruitment exercises, employers shall not refuse to recruit women or increase the thresholds for recruitment of women. When recruiting female employees, employers shall not include in the employment contract any content that restricts their rights in the areas of marriage or childbirth.

16. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Social Insurance, which was adopted in October 2010, came into effect in July 2011. The law stipulates that workers shall participate in maternity insurance and the maternity insurance premiums shall be paid by the employers in accordance with the provisions of the State. The workers need not pay the maternity insurance premiums. If the employing entity has paid the maternity insurance premium, its worker shall enjoy maternity insurance benefits, including the medical fees associated with giving birth and maternity subsidy. The spouse of the worker who is not employed will be paid the benefit of medical fees associated with childbirth, according to State regulations.

17. The newly amended Organic Law of the Villagers Committees of the People’s Republic of China, which was adopted in October 2010, as well as other laws, all embody provisions for the equality between men and women, including the principle of prohibiting discrimination. The amended Organic Law of the Villagers Committees of the People’s Republic of China made breakthroughs in the areas of developing the rural grass-roots democracy, safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of women and promoting women’s political participation in rural areas. The Law stipulates, inter alia, that there should be female members in the Villagers Committee, and that in the Villagers’ Representatives Assembly, more than one-third of the representatives should be women.

18. Other laws enacted since 2006, such as the Law on the Mediation and Arbitration of Rural Land Contract Disputes and amendments to laws such as the Law on the Protection of Minors, the Law on the Protection of Disabled Persons, as well as other laws and regulations, have provided more comprehensive legal support regarding women’s rights, leading to further strengthening of China’s legal system for protecting women’s rights.

19. China has earnestly implemented the Beijing Declaration and Programme of Action adopted at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, and has made further efforts to safeguard the legitimate rights of women by acceding to and implementing various relevant international conventions. It ratified the International Labour Organization (ILO) Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention of 1958 in January 2006; the ILO Occupational Safety and Health Convention of 1981 in January 2007; the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in June 2008; and the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, in December 2009.

20. Second, policy measures have been strengthened and breakthroughs have been made in the fields of women’s rights and women’s career development.

21. In its efforts to eliminate discrimination against women and to promote women’s rights, the Chinese Government has taken full account of the Programme of Action of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, the Millennium Development Goals and other important United Nations conference outcome documents.

22. The Outline of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development (2006-2010) of the People’s Republic of China has a separate section on “the Protection of Women’s and Children’s Rights and Interests,” in which it has provided that efforts should be made to implement the basic state policy of equality between men and women, to implement the Outline for the Development of Chinese Women, and to protect women’s equal access to education, their rights in relation to employment, social security and marital property, and their right to participate in social affairs.

23. Since 2006, the annual Report on the Work of the Government has always called for specific arrangements for women’s development and the protection of their rights and interests. For instance, in 2009, the Central government proposed, in the report on its work, to “conduct regular ob-gyn exams for rural women”.

24. In December 2007, the Chinese Government issued the China National Plan of Action on Combating Trafficking in Women and Children (2008-2012). The plan covers various aspects, namely prevention and suppression of trafficking, victim rescue, repatriation and rehabilitation, and international cooperation, and provides for a long-term anti-trafficking mechanism to minimize the trafficking of women and children in criminal activities and minimize the physical and psychological harm suffered by trafficked women and children.

25. In July 2008, the State promulgated “Opinions on Preventing and Deterring Domestic Violence”, which put domestic violence under the coverage of the “110” police emergency number, encouraged and supported legal services organizations to provide legal aid to victims of domestic violence and to carry out medical identification and social assistance related to domestic violence, and specified responsibilities of various departments in curbing domestic violence.

26. In April 2009, the State Council adopted the National Human Rights Action Plan (2009-2010). The Plan covers issues such as the protection of the rights of women, ethnic minorities, the elderly, and disabled persons, and promotes women’s enjoyment of equal rights with men in all respects.

27. In March 2010, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Justice jointly issued the Opinions on the Punishment of the Crimes of Abduction of and Trafficking in Women and Children, in an effort to strengthen judicial protection of the legitimate rights and interests of women and children.

28. In July 2010, the Chinese Government issued and implemented the National Outline for Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020), emphasizing the need to foster fairness as a basic state education policy, and to accelerate the narrowing of gaps among regions and the gap between urban and rural areas, so as to help further improve the quality of women’ education.

29. The Outline for the Development of Chinese Women (2001-2010) was the Government’s plan designed to guide China’s gender equality affairs in the first decade of the twenty-first century. The Convention and the general recommendations of CEDAW have provided valuable input for the formulation and implementation of the Outline. In 2006, the mid-term evaluation of the implementation of the Outline was conducted. According to the assessment, the elements of the Outline were implemented well in general, with the main goals basically achieved. Further arrangements were also made to tackle the key issues and difficulties in the implementation of the Outline, including increased funding and better collaboration to ensure that all goals will be achieved as planned.

30. In order to translate policies into action and results, the Chinese Government has taken a series of measures.

31. In order to promote women’s political participation, an emphasis has been placed on training and selecting women cadres. Since 2006, there have been 10,040 female participants in training programmes at institutions above the county level alone, including the Central Party School, the National School of Administration and the China Executive Leadership Academy of Pudong, the China Jinggangshan Cadre College and the China Yan’an Cadre College. Efforts have been made to strengthen development of female cadres at the grass-roots levels, adhering to a practice of giving preference to selecting and using female cadres, all other things being equal. Since 2006, the proportion of women among the newly hired civil servants of the Central Government has stayed above 40 per cent.

32. In order to promote women’s health, efforts have been made to strengthen services and medical assistance. In recent years, the central and local governments have cumulatively invested over 2 billion yuan in the Project on the Reduction of Maternal Mortality Rate and the Elimination of Neonatal Tetanus. From 2008 to 2010, the central government allocated 7 billion yuan in a nationwide bid to subsidize delivery of babies in rural hospitals. Since 2009, folic acid supplements have been provided free of charge to women of childbearing age in rural areas across the country; rural women were given breast cancer and cervical cancer screening, also free of charge; poor women patients were given assistance and necessary treatment.

33. In order to promote the employment of women, efforts have been made to strengthen collaboration with civil society. The Government has cooperated with civil society organizations in more than 200 cities to carry out the “Spring Breeze Action”, offering jobs and services to unemployed women, migrant women workers from rural areas and female university graduates. In 2009 alone, 1.8 million women received training and 1.08 million women found employment. To solve the problem of bottlenecks created by insufficient venture capital for women, since 2009 a policy of providing small secured loans with government interest rate subsidies to urban and rural women has been put in place. As of the end of December 2010, women nationwide had received 23.686 billion yuan in small secured loans, with the central and local governments providing a total of nearly 989 million yuan for interest rate subsidies, thus enabling 543,200 urban and rural women to become entrepreneurs, benefiting more than 3 million people.

34. In order to safeguard the rights and interests of women, efforts have been made to strengthen the development of the rights protection mechanism. Courts at all levels have set up collegial panels for women’s rights, or collegial panels against domestic violence, with nearly 8,000 cadres from women’s confederations acting as people’s jurors. More than 12,000 complaints stations and alert-the-police locations have been established for reporting domestic violence; rescue and assistance stations in nearly 60 cities have set up shelters for domestic violence victims. Counselling and complaints networks have been improved, with unimpeded channels for lodging complaints; the “12338” women’s rights hotline was opened in the country’s

31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities); by 2010 more than 2,800 counties nationwide had opened a hotline.

35. In order to obtain facts to inform the formulation of policies, efforts have been made to strengthen the work on gender-disaggregated statistics and the survey on the status of women. The Chinese Government attaches great importance to the work on sex-disaggregated statistics; it has made efforts to overcome the difficulties encountered in statistical work and constantly improve the national statistical system, expand the fields and contents of gender-disaggregated statistics, achieving many breakthroughs. In order to enhance understanding of the situation regarding gender equality and to provide an important basis for policy-making, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has edited and released several publications on gender statistics, including Women and Men in Chinese Society, No. 4, published in 2007, and Statistics on the Status of Women and Children, an annual publication since 2008. In addition, the Chinese Government has set up a special evaluation system for the implementation of the Outline for the Development of Chinese Women, and has established statistical index for monitoring the key goals of the Outline.

36. In September 2010, following the first and the second surveys conducted in 1990 and 2000, the National Bureau of Statistics and the All-China Women’s Federation jointly launched the third Chinese Women’s Social Status Survey, the purpose of which was to objectively account for the social status of women over the preceding 10 years across China’s different regions and different social strata, and to arrive at an in-depth understanding of the most direct and most practical problems that women are most concerned about, so as to provide a basis for the government at all levels to further develop the principles, policies and planning frameworks for promoting gender equality. The third survey attached great importance to men and women’s survival and development at different stages of the life cycle, covering nine aspects: health, education, politics, economy, social security, marriage and family, lifestyle, legal rights and interests and awareness of these rights and interests, and gender-related ideas and attitudes. At the same time, in light of China’s national conditions, the status of five typical groups (girls, female college students, elderly women, women affected by migration, and highly successful women) was also the focus of a special survey.

37. Third, efforts to disseminate basic legal knowledge have been stepped up, so as to create a more favourable social environment for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

38. In 2006, the Chinese Government began to implement its fifth five-year plan for the education on the rule of law among its citizens. The Plan places laws and regulations on the rights and interests of women and children at the centre of a public awareness campaign, through which an improved understanding of the importance of the rule of law is expected in government organs, in villages and communities, schools, businesses, and other organizations. Since 2008, a series of 100 presentations by 100 law experts have been organized across the country. Herders living on a plateau with an elevation of more than 4,000 meters above the sea level in Yunnan Province have also been acquainted with their legal rights and responsibilities.

39. Different departments of the Government have worked in close collaboration to develop a model for raising awareness of the importance of the rule of law, featuring a combination of regular publicity campaigns with more focused activities, and a combination of activities aimed at general audience with those focused on specific groups, so as to constantly improve the whole society’s awareness of the need to combat discrimination and promote gender equality.

40. In recent years, key CPC and government leaders of the country’s 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have written articles or done interviews in the Chinese mainstream media, including in People’s Daily and China Women’s News, on the basic state policy of equality between men and women, thus further enhancing the Government’s sense of responsibility in this regard.

41. The Government gives full play to the positive role of social forces in raising awareness of the importance of the rule of law, and has invited professionals to join public campaign teams and has organized lectures on related topics. The Chinese Women’s Legal Aid Action, for instance, has specifically provided legal advice to women and female migrant workers from poverty-stricken areas of Central and Western China.

42. The Chinese Government promotes through media outlets the understanding of the Convention in the society at large; the Convention has been included in the required reading list in legal education and training for government officials, judges, prosecutors, police officers and other public workers and has been incorporated in the various training programmes at all levels. In ethnic minority areas, earnest efforts have been made to promote the Convention.

43. Fourth, the unique needs of various groups of women have been given special attention and consideration, in order to ensure the common development of all women.

44. In recent years, China has suffered frequent and severe natural disasters. Women in affected areas have been both important participants and builders in the reconstruction process and a major group receiving relief. The Chinese Government has emphasized women’s participation in reconstruction decision-making, and paid careful attention to their concerns, needs and aspirations. A post-disaster women’s development fund has been established to provide financial support to women who want to start their own businesses. The mental health of women in disaster-affected areas has been a focus of attention, as is evidenced by the establishment of women’s psychological rehabilitation clinics and Child-friendly Spaces. For instance, the number of projects for women in Wenchuan implemented by women’s federations has reached 128.

45. Efforts have been made to address the special difficulties encountered by mothers living in poverty. The Happiness Project, whose purpose has been to help poor mothers to get out of poverty and receive medical treatment and health services, invested a total of 730 million yuan between 1995 and 2010, supporting 240,000 poor mothers and benefiting 1.08 million people in total. The Housing for Mothers Project has been implemented all over the country. For three consecutive years, between 2009 and 2011, the government of Liaoning Province included poor single mothers without a home of their own or living in dilapidated houses in the provincial government’s housing project planning, with earmarked funds; in 2009 alone, 981 poor mothers moved into new homes. In 2011, Guangdong Province invested 569 million yuan to better meet housing needs, giving priority to the renovation of dilapidated buildings for destitute mothers. The All-China Federation of Trade Unions allocated 40 million yuan in special funds to address the difficulties of single-parent female workers.

46. Women with disabilities have been given special attention and support. The newly amended Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Disabled Persons was adopted in April 2008. The law prohibits discrimination based on disability and abuse and abandonment of women with disabilities. To ensure the development of persons with disabilities, including women, the Chinese Government has implemented the Outline of the Work for Persons with Disabilities during the Eleventh Five-year Development Programme Period (2006-2010) in an effort to further enhance the social security system and the service system for the disabled. The Chinese Government has put in place a policy of special support for persons with disabilities, including women with disabilities, making sure that persons with disability are not disproportionately disadvantaged in terms of employment opportunities and providing policy support and tax/fee relief to self-employed disabled individuals. From 2009 to 2010, an additional 625,000 people with disabilities were employed in urban areas. Vigorous efforts have been exerted to develop special education and to provide community-based rehabilitation services, so that more people with disabilities may enjoy basic rehabilitation services in their own communities. From 2006 to 2010, through the implementation of key rehabilitation projects, 10.379 million disabled persons received varying degrees of rehabilitation services. In June 2011, the China Library for the Blind became operational.

47. Attention has been given to the needs of elderly women. To ensure the livelihood of all elderly people, including elderly women, the Chinese Government has continuously improved its pension and social security system. In September 2009, the State Council released Guidance Regarding the Pilot Project for the Development of a New Type of Rural Social Pension Insurance; by the end of 2010, 256.73 million people had participated in the national urban basic pension insurance plan, and 37.45 million people had begun to receive basic pension benefits. Thus the new social pension insurance system has benefited hundreds of millions of women. China has established an old-age service system, based on what is provided by family members, supported by community services and supplemented by the institutional old-age service arrangements, thus offering various forms of old-age services. In 2010, there were a total of 39,904 elderly welfare institutions nationwide, housing 2.426 million elderly people. In the country as a whole, there were 18,295 legal aid centres of various kinds for the elderly, 88,216 organizations for the coordination of the protection of the rights of the elderly, and more than 400,000 associations of the elderly. They have all played an important role in, inter alia, helping elderly women to serve themselves, to safeguard their own rights and interests and to participate in social development. All provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have in place a system of old age (longevity) allowances, which provides livelihood subsidies for the elderly; they have all actively implemented the Opinions on Strengthening the Work of Care for Senior Citizens, providing elderly women with preferential or priority services to satisfy their medical care, transportation, travel, tourism and other needs. In 2011, China carried out pilot pension insurance projects for urban residents.

48. Fifth, efforts have been made to strengthen the functions of the Government, with the establishment of a working model with the Government playing a leading role and the whole society collaborating.

49. NWCCW is a coordinating agency for promoting gender equality and facilitating women’s development in China. Its membership, consisting of various government ministries and social organizations, quickly grew from the initial 19 to 23, and has now reached 33. Since 2006, NWCCW and local Working Committees on Children and Women (WCCW) have witnessed a continuous growth in their staffing and working funds; the WCCW mechanism has been strengthened.

50. In 2008, the State Council established an inter-ministerial joint conference to fight trafficking in women and children, which consists of 31 government ministries and civil society organizations, in order to enhance efforts against trafficking in women and children. Currently, the majority of the Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government have set up coordination mechanisms for the protection of the rights and interests of women and children, which have started to be extended to the county level. These coordination mechanisms hold regular meetings, carry out joint research on key issues, exchange information in a timely manner, and work together to solve difficult problems.

51. The Chinese Government attaches importance to the role of non-governmental organizations, actively cooperates with women’s organizations, enterprises and the media, and jointly promotes women’s rights and interests and their development, leading to the creation of a working model in which the Government plays a leading role and the whole society collaborates.

52. Despite this important progress made in the implementation of the Convention, China still faces many problems and challenges in eliminating discrimination against women, safeguarding women’s rights and interests and promoting the overall development of women. Discrimination against women still exists in society; relevant laws are yet to be fully implemented in reality; women are not represented in significant numbers at senior levels of decision-making; women are still subjected to unequal treatment in village rules and customs in some rural areas in terms of resource allocation and benefits-sharing; many rural women’s job skills need to be further enhanced; women’s health services in remote areas need further improvement; violence against women still occurs; and there are still some women living in poverty. Therefore, the Chinese Government will spare no effort to take more effective measures to step up the implementation of the Convention. The Chinese Government firmly believes that, with the implementation of various policies and measures and with the support of Chinese society as a whole, the promotion of Chinese women’s development and gender equality will continue to yield positive results.

Details Regarding the Implementation of the Convention

Part I

Article 1

Definition of Discrimination against Women

53. China attaches great importance to Article 1 of the Convention and the concluding observations of CEDAW regarding China’s combined fifth and sixth report. In response to Recommendation 1 of CEDAW, the legislative body of China and the Chinese Government have conducted in-depth research on gender discrimination and its definition, and incorporated or strengthened the spirit of the Convention in anti-discrimination laws and legal amendments enacted subsequently.

54. The Chinese Government has consistently adhered to the principle and notion of promoting gender equality and eliminating gender-based discrimination, a commitment that is fully reflected in the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, the Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China and other legal instruments. In 1995, at the opening ceremony of the Fourth World Conference on Women, the Chinese President at the time declared to the international community a commitment “to achieve equality between men and women as a basic state policy for promoting social development”. After that, the Chinese Government has employed, inter alia, legal, administrative and economic means, and mobilized public opinion, in its efforts to eliminate discrimination against women in all its forms, and to carry out the basic state policy of equality between men and women.

55. According to the General Provisions of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, which was amended in August 2005, “Women shall enjoy equal rights with men in all aspects of political, economic, cultural, social and family life. Equality between men and women is a basic State policy. The State takes the necessary measures to gradually improve the systems for protecting the rights and interests of women, in order to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women.” According to Chapter 1, Article 4 of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Compulsory Education, which was amended in September 2006, “All school-age children and adolescents of the nationality of the People’s Republic of China shall, in accordance with law, enjoy the equal right, and fulfil the obligation, to receive compulsory education, regardless of sex, ethnic status or race, family financial conditions, religious belief, etc..” The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Promotion of Employment, which came into force in January 2008, clearly stipulates in its General Provisions that “the workers shall not be subject to discrimination because of their ethnic backgrounds, races, gender, religious beliefs, etc.” These provisions have well embodied the spirit of the Convention as to the principles of gender equality and non-discrimination.

Article 2

Law and Law Enforcement

56. The Chinese Government has made gender equality a basic state policy for promoting national social development, and has stressed the coordinated development of men and women as an important part of building a harmonious society. When formulating laws and policies, China always follows the principles of men and women’s equal participation, common development as well as mutual benefit, and has used a variety of means to strive for the elimination of discrimination against women in all its forms.

57. Since 2006, China’s system of laws and regulations for the protection of rights and interests of women has become robust, with the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China at the core and the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women as the main building block. Article 48 of the Constitution stipulates, “women in the People’s Republic of China enjoy equal rights with men in all spheres of life, in political, economic, cultural, social and family life. The State protects the rights and interests of women, applies the principle of equal pay for equal work to men and women alike and trains and selects cadres from among women.” This has provided a constitutional basis for the development and improvement of various laws and policies promoting the equality of men and women.

58. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women has made more specific provisions on equality between the sexes. For instance, according to Article 25 of the law, “in such aspects as promotion in post or in rank, evaluation and determination of professional and technological titles, the principle of equality between men and women shall be upheld and discrimination against women shall not be allowed.” According to article 27, “no entity may discriminate against women for the reason of gender when implementing the retirement system of the state.” According to article 34, “women’s equal right, with men, of succession to property shall be protected by law. Among the statutory successors in the same order, women shall not be discriminated against.” The law has also further enhanced protection of women’s political rights, cultural and educational rights and benefits, labour and social security-related rights and benefits, property rights, personal rights as well as marriage and family-related rights and interests, and strengthened rescue measures for women victims. As of September 2010, all 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have revised or otherwise improved measures for the implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women.

59. Other laws and regulations that have been formulated or amended in recent years have further provided for the protection of the rights of women. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Land Contracts in Rural Areas (August 2002) provides that “the legitimate rights and interests of women shall be protected in contracts. No organizations or individuals may deprive them of their right to contractual management of land, which they are entitled to, or infringe upon such a right.” The law has specific provisions regarding the protection of the land contract-related rights and interests of married women, divorced women, and widowed women. The Electoral Law of the National People’s Congress and Local People’s Congresses of the People’s Republic of China (amended in 2010) provides that among deputies to the National People’s Congress and local people’s congresses at various levels, there shall be an appropriate number of women deputies, and the proportion thereof shall be raised gradually. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Penalties for Administration of Public Security (August 2005) clearly stipulates that if the person is pregnant or breastfeeds her own baby who is not one year old, the penalty of administrative detention shall not be executed against the person who has committed an act against the administration of public security, although such a penalty should be imposed on him/ her according to the provisions of this Law. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Compulsory Education (amended in 2006) places emphasis on the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of the girls in terms of their access to education and in other aspects. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Protection of Minors (amended in 2006) states that no female [......] minors may be discriminated against. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Narcotics Control (December 2007) provides that drug-addicted pregnant women who breastfeed babies less than one year old are not appropriate for isolated compulsory drug rehabilitation. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Promotion of Employment (August 2007) stipulates that the state shall ensure that women enjoy labour rights equal to those of men. When an employer recruits employees, it shall not refuse to recruit women or increase the thresholds for recruitment of women on gender grounds, in violation of relevant laws. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Social Insurance (October 2010) provides that the spouse of the worker who is unemployed will be paid the benefit of medical fees associated with giving birth, according to State regulations. These legal provisions, which have fully embodied the principle of fairness, protect the rights and interests of women, and prohibit or eliminate discrimination against women, are more focused and operational. They basically cover the whole scope of the definition of discrimination as contained in the Convention, and therefore, to a large extent, are capable of ensuring the attainment of the aims and objectives of the Convention.

60. In the law enforcement process, the people’s courts protect the rights of women, especially women victims, in accordance with law. In high-profile cases, some grassroots people’s courts hire full-time rights advocacy personnel from women’s federations to act as people’s jurors and participate in the trial of criminal cases involving violations of women’s human rights. When it comes to the filing of lawsuits involving civil offences, the courts will also give full consideration to the situation of female victims and minimize their economic losses.

61. In adjudicating labour disputes involving labour contracts, labour compensation, work injury and maternity insurance, where the employer illegally terminates the labour contract with a female worker on the grounds that she has given birth, the people’s courts will make efforts to engage with the employer in accordance with law, and taking account of the affected female worker’ wish, order the employer to honour the labour contract or pay economic compensation. As to violations of provisions regarding women workers’ “four periods” (menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth and lactation), efforts will be made to mediate between the two parties, and by doing so, to urge the employer to fulfil its statutory duties.

62. In trials, the people’s courts employ a variety of measures to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the women involved. For instance, the courts have established collegial panels for safeguarding the rights and interests of women. They coordinate with civil authorities, villagers committees, urban residents committees, trade unions and women’s federations and other organizations so as to provide timely help to women with economic difficulties to apply for financial aid. They travel to hard-to-access remote mountainous regions and pastoral areas to handle cases on-site, and go to factories and businesses, institutions, and rural areas to popularize legal knowledge, and to introduce the women’s rights advocacy hotline.; The courts have strengthened cooperation with competent government departments for labour and social security, industry and commerce, and taxation, etc., so that violations of women civil rights or of relevant administrative directives by any government agency or any business can be brought to the attention of their respective superior administrative authorities, together with recommendations for applicable judicial and administrative penalties.

63. China has continued to increase financial support for legal aid, for which the Central Government and most provincial governments have earmarked funds. Legal aid funding in 2010 amounted to 1.006 billion yuan, a 32.8 per cent increase over the year before. As of the end of 2009, a total of 58,031 legal aid workstations had been established and the total number of staff in legal aid agencies had reached 13,081, an increase of 4.2 per cent and 2.4 per cent over 2008 respectively. In 2009, a total of 737,000 people nationwide received legal aid, including 182,000 women, accounting for 25.7 per cent of the total. The number of legal aid cases in which the recipients were women amounted to 144,697, accounting for 22.6 per cent of the total.

Article 3

Policy Measures and Mechanisms

64. In order to ensure that women and men enjoy and exercise human rights on an equal basis, the Chinese Government has developed and implemented a number of national plans and a series of measures, covering the political, economic, social, cultural and other fields, that protect women’s rights and promote women’s development, and has continued to strengthen the relevant agencies and enhance institution-building.

65. NWCCW has been further strengthened, and the number of its member organizations has increased to 33. Since the previous review, NWCWC institutions at and above the county level have been further improved, with increased staffing and funding across the country. In addition to participating in the formulation and amendment of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women and other relevant laws and regulations, as well as in the inspection of their enforcement, WCCWs at all levels have coordinated with and encouraged government departments to fulfil the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international conventions, and to implement the Outline for the Development of Chinese Women(2001-2010).

66. In promoting women’s development and protecting women’s rights, the Chinese Government has established national coordinating bodies, such as the Leading Group for the National Exercises of Women “Double Learning-Double Competition” and “Accomplished Women”, the Coordination Group for Safeguarding the Rights and Interests of Women and Children and for Creating the “Safe Family”, the Coordination Group for Creating the “Five-good Model Family”, and the Steering Committee for Cultivating Civic Virtues in Children and Carrying out National Education and Publicity Regarding the “Dual Eligible Family”, etc.

67. The Outline for the Development of Chinese Women (2001-2010), as the overall plan for women’s development in the new era and the national programme of action that serves to further fulfil relevant international commitments, has identified six priority areas of development, namely, women and the economy, women’s participation in decision-making and management, women and education, women and health, women and law, and women and the environment, with specific details as to the main objectives and policy measures. According to the mid-term evaluation report on the implementation of the Outline for the Development of Chinese Women (2001-2010), which was released in May 2007, targets in relation to the proportion of women in employment, compulsory education, life expectancy, and women’s health have been achieved ahead of schedule. At present, China has finished its final evaluation of the implementation of the Outline. On July 30, 2011, the Chinese Government issued the new guiding document for the next 10 years, i.e., the new outline for the development of Chinese women in the 2011-2020 period. On top of the six priority areas set by the previous outline, the new outline added the area of “women and social security”. The new Outline takes into account China’s national conditions, regional differences and urban-rural gaps, in its focused endeavour to deal with new situations and new problems emerging in women’s efforts for survival and development.

68. The goals set by the Outline for the Development of Chinese Women (2001-2010) have been fully incorporated into national development policies and plans. Chapter 36 of the Outline of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China (2011-2015), for instance, devotes a section to the promotion of women’s full development, stating that “we will implement the basic state policy of equality between men and women, carry out the Outline for the Development of Chinese Women, fully develop women’s human resources, effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of women, promote women’s employment and entrepreneurship, and improve women’s ability to participate in economic development and social management. We will step up our efforts in such areas as women’s labour protection, social welfare, health care, poverty elimination and legal aid, improve gender statistics systems and the environment for the development of women, and adopt drastic measures to crack down on violence against women, abduction of and trafficking in women, and other violations of laws and criminal offences.”

69. In April 2009, the State Council released the National Human Rights Action Plan (2009-2010), which has been the first-ever programmatic document of the Chinese Government in its work to promote and provide guidance for the cause of human rights. The plan specifically provides for the protection of the rights of ethnic minorities, women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities, and stresses that the State will promote women’s enjoyment of equal rights with men in all respects and protect the legitimate rights and interests of women; in particular, the State will further promote the participation of women in national and social affairs, improve women’s education, health, employment and access to economic resources, prevent and combat the crime of trafficking in women and curb domestic violence.

70. As the highest power organ of the State, the NPC has a Committee for Internal and Judicial Affairs. As an organ participating in the deliberation and administration of State affairs, the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference has a Committee for Social and Legislative Affairs. These two committees are responsible for providing comments and suggestions to the Government on major issues such as the rights and status of women. To strengthen the monitoring and evaluation of the existing laws and policies, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress organized and carried out in 2010 an exercise to inspect the enforcement of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, focusing on labour and social security, land and property rights and interests and women’s participation in politics, which has served to enhance the implementation of relevant provisions.

71. The Chinese Government also places an emphasis on strengthening its close cooperation with the All-China Women’s Federation, the Women Workers Committee under the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the China Association of Women Entrepreneurs, the China Association of Women Judges, the China Women Scientific and Technological Workers Association, the China Disabled Persons Federation, the China Aging Association and other NGOs, seeking their comments and suggestions on, inter alia, women’s development and the protection of their rights.

Article 4

Temporary Special Measures

72. In order to accelerate the realization of equality between men and women, the Chinese Government has taken a series of special measures in fields such as women’s employment, political participation and health care.

73. In 2009, in order to effectively deal with the funding bottleneck encountered by women in their entrepreneurial activities and in their search for employment, and to effectively safeguard the fundamental interests and benefits of women’s entrepreneurial development, the Chinese Government formulated and issued the Circular on Improving the Policy of Providing Small Secured Loans with Government Interest Rate Subsidies in Order to Promote Women’s Entrepreneurship and Employment, and adopted various preferential policies to support urban and rural women’s entrepreneurship and employment. The policies give preferential treatment to women in terms of loan amount and loan coverage, e.g. raising the ceiling for women’s small personal guaranteed loan from 50,000 yuan to 80,000 yuan and raising the ceiling for per-person loan amount for women’s joint ventures to 100,000 yuan. As of the end of December 2010, small secured loans with government interest rate subsidies for women nationwide totalled over 23. 686 billion yuan, and interest subsidies provided by the Central Government and local governments added up to 989 million yuan, which helped 543,200 women to open their businesses or find employment, benefiting over 3 million people.

74. Due to limited access to medical services, combined with the lack of knowledge about health care, common gynaecological diseases, mainly cervical cancer and breast cancer, have posed a serious threat to the health of the majority of rural women. In order to ensure rural women’s right to health and improve their health, in 2009 the Chinese Government allocated special funds for a plan to provide, within the three years from 2009 to 2011, free cervical cancer screening to 10 million rural women throughout the country and free breast cancer screening to 1.2 million rural women. Based on the success of pilot projects, the coverage of free cervical cancer and breast cancer screening will be continuously expanded. At present, this work is progressing steadily. By the end of December 2010, the number of rural women who had received free cervical cancer and breast cancer screening had surpassed the planned targets, with 7,681,000 rural women having received cervical cancer screening and 907,000 rural women having received breast cancer screening. In addition, the Government has provided funds for the establishment of the Poor Women Cancer Relief Fund; each year, the Ministry of Finance withholds from public welfare lottery funds an amount of 50 million yuan, to be used on women who suffer cervical cancer and breast cancer, in order to help women patients, especially poor women and families in rural areas, to deal with challenges that they face in seeking medical treatment.

75. The National Natural Science Foundation of China has adopted a series of policies and measures to increase the proportion of women among researchers receiving funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China. For instance, the upper age limit for women to apply for funds from the Young Scientists Fund was raised from 35 to 40. In the project review process, as a principle, preference is given to women, all other conditions being equal. For female scientists and technicians, the completion of projects may be postponed for childbirth-related reasons.

76. Since 2006, in order to promote Chinese women’s effective participation in social management and decision-making, the Central Government has specifically required that the senior management teams of the CPC committees, the people’s congresses, governments and the CPPCC committees at the provincial and city levels, and the CPC committees and governments at the county level must include at least one woman member. Any proposal for the composition of a new senior management team which does not meet the requirement of the minimum number of women members would not be approved in principle. If no suitable candidate can be found locally, the option of personnel exchange with other places could be pursued. Any vacancy occurring when a women official leaves office before her term expires should be filled promptly.

77. In order to facilitate the promotion of outstanding female cadres, some provinces have introduced proactive measures. For instance, in 2009 during the open process of selecting deputy-director-general-level managers for offices of the provincial government and of enterprises under the provincial government, Heilongjiang Province decided to change the requirement of experience at the director level from three years to one year for women candidates, and to relax the promotion criteria for outstanding female candidates currently at the deputy-director level, so that those who meet the age requirement can be recommended to be put on a roster of candidates for deputy-director-general-level vacancies, thus enabling a considerable number of outstanding women to be added to the pool.

78. With the sustained rapid development of China’s rural economy, the majority of rural women have become the main force in rural development. However, women are still underrepresented on villagers committees: the number of women members is not in proportion to their share of the population. To enhance the participation of women in village self-government, China amended, in October 2010, the Organic Law on Villagers Committees of the People’s Republic of China, by adding provisions such as “promoting equality between men and women”, and “ensuring that there are women members on villagers committees”, and that “women village representatives should account for more than one-third of the members of the villagers’ representatives assembly. China has also issued the Opinions on Further Strengthening Women’s Participation in the Work of the Villagers Committees under the New Situation, which calls for incorporating the requirement of the participation of women in the rural villagers’ self-government into the relevant local laws and regulations, women’s development plans and the work plan for the election of the new villagers committee. At the same time, in some places, measures have been introduced to add an extra seat on villagers committees reserved for women in addition to the existing seats, and this seat can only be filled by a woman. In other places, the practice of second round elections has been adopted, meaning that in case female candidates are defeated in an election, a second round will be held for them, so as to ensure that a woman will be elected to the villagers committee. At present, in all 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), the participation of rural women in villagers committees, in terms of their proportion, has been significantly improved, and some provinces have managed to ensure there are women cadres in each and every village.

Article 5

Elimination of Stereotypes and Violence Against Women

79. In response to the Committee’s recommendations No. 31 and No. 32, the Chinese Government has further strengthened publicity, education and training, in order to enhance the awareness of citizens about gender and gender equality. In reforming the curriculum at the stage of compulsory education, the Chinese Government has increased the gender equality content in the curriculum and teaching materials, so as to guide students towards a better understanding of the fact that gender inequality still exists in Chinese society and of the harm it does, with an emphasis on the elimination of social stereotypes and prejudices regarding the roles of men and women, highlighting the important role and contribution of women in human progress. It has also added women’s studies courses to the curriculum in universities and colleges, in an effort to strengthen women’s studies.

80. The Government supports media coverage of the achievements and contributions of women from all walks of life, so as to foster an environment in which women are respected and cared for. Launched in 1995, CCTV’s Banbiantian (“Half the Sky”) Programme has broadcast more than 3,000 episodes. In 2009 alone, a TV series running nearly 50 episodes was produced and broadcast, covering many aspects of women’s rights and development. During the 6 years from 2004 to 2009, a total of 22,115 different book titles on Chinese women were issued, with the total circulation reaching 259 million copies. These publications on women have served as the main platform for promoting gender equality and protecting women’s rights.

81. Regarding the high sex ratio at birth, in 2006 Chinese President Hu Jintao pointed out, in his speech at the Central Government’s symposium on population, resources and environment, that we should pay close attention to the rise in the sex ratio at birth and take special corrective initiatives accordingly, step up publicity and awareness activities, expand the “Care for Girls” campaign, promote a new culture of gender equality and preference for fewer and healthier children, improve our policies, so as to allay the worries of families into which girls are born, strengthen accountability, by evaluating population-related targets together with sex ratio-related targets, and strive to rein in the momentum of the rising sex ratio at birth in a period of three to five years. In 2011, President Hu Jintao once again emphasized that efforts must be made towards a comprehensive solution to the issue of high sex ratio at birth, effectively promoting gender equality and protecting the legitimate rights and interests of women, strengthening the protection of minors, developing economic and social policies that are conducive to the healthy growth of girls and the development of women, and promoting an all-round advancement of the interests of women and children.

82. In order to address the issue of high sex ratio at birth, the National Population and Family Planning Commission and the Central Party School established in early 2008 the National Gender Equality Policy Advocacy Research Group to conduct research on how to remedy gender imbalance at birth in Henan, Anhui, Hubei, Hebei and Jiangsu provinces, and provide city and county officials and instructors within the Party School system nationwide with training at the National Party School. The project focused on correcting the stereotyped preference for boys and amending village rules and customs.

83. In an attempt to tackle in a comprehensive manner the problem of high sex ratio at birth, the Chinese Government has been making efforts, through inter-agency collaboration and participation by civil society actors, combining education, financial incentives and integrated services, with such measures as harmonizing rules and regulations, and vigorously investigating cases of foetal sex identification for non-medical needs and sex-selective artificial termination of pregnancy.

84. In December 2005, the Chinese Government issued the Circular on the Wide-Ranging Implementation of the Action Plan for the “Care for Girls” Campaign and the Imperative to Comprehensively Deal with the High Sex Ratio at Birth, and carried out extensive and in-depth “Care for Girls” activities across the country. Meanwhile, education activities aimed at bringing about a change in the stereotyped conceptions that value boys over girls, sponsored jointly by thirteen ministries, have been unfolding at the national level for the thirteenth consecutive year. These activities have served to further clarify the responsibilities of relevant ministries and to guide people in changing stereotypes and prejudices such as “male superiority”, “having kids because they will take care of us in old age” and “boys carrying on the family line”, thus contributing to a more favourable social environment for the healthy growth of girls.

85. Thanks to such persistent and comprehensive efforts of governance, China’s sex ratio at birth has dropped from 120.5 in 2005 to 118.06 in 2010, slowing the momentum of the increase. See the figure below for details.

Figure 1

National Sex Ratio at Birth

115

119

121

2006

120.5

119.3

120.2

120.6

119.5

118.06

112

113

114

116

117

118

120

F=100

122

2005

2007

2008

2009

2010 (Year))

Source of Data: Statistics from NBS.

86. While the Chinese Government has made unremitting efforts towards the elimination of stereotypes and prejudices against women, with a history of feudalism that lasted several millennia, traditional ideas and gender stereotypes such as male superiority and men belonging outside the home and women belonging inside the home cannot be completely eliminated in a short period of time, and inequalities still exist, in terms of the rights, resources and opportunities enjoyed by men and women. To eliminate the prejudices against women, the Government will continue to take a variety of measures, including publicity and education.

87. In accordance with concluding observations No. 21 and No. 22 and general recommendation No. 19 of the Committee, the Chinese Government has taken effective measures to better protect women against domestic violence.

88. Preventing and combating domestic violence is one of the priorities of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection the Rights and Interests of Women, which was amended in 2005. Article 46 of the law stipulates that “domestic violence against women is prohibited. The State takes measures to prevent and stop domestic violence. The departments of public security, civil affairs, judicial administration, etc., as well as urban and rural mass organizations of self-government at the grassroots level and public organizations shall, within the scope of their respective duties, prevent and stop domestic violence, and provide assistance to female victims.” All the provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have also amended or enacted measures for implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, incorporating provisions for the prevention and suppression of domestic violence.

89. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Minors, which was amended in 2006, has added a provision stating that “domestic violence against minors is prohibited”. The General Principles of the Civil Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China, Law of the People’s Republic of China on Penalties for Administration of Public Security have all added provisions for preventing and curbing violence against women.

90. In July 2008, the Chinese Government issued the Opinions on Preventing and Combating Domestic Violence. The document further highlighted the responsibilities of the Government, and, by the sequential order of various aspects of the work against domestic violence (namely preventing, intervening, stopping, punishing, rescuing and providing services), defined the duties and division of Labour of different departments of the government (namely, publicity, the judiciary, public security, the prosecution, public health, civil affairs and women’s federations), and their coordination.

91. The National Human Rights Action Plan (2009-2010), which was adopted in 2009, explicitly emphasizes “the prevention and suppression of domestic violence” as an important part of the protection of human rights, and the need to “prohibit all forms of domestic violence against women, and to explore the possibility of establishing a anti-domestic violence working mechanism that combines prevention, suppression and rescue.”

92. For cases of domestic violence that involve criminal offences, the prosecutors will carry out their duties regarding the review of arrests, the review of prosecutions and the supervision of litigations; and the courts shall take up the cases in accordance with law without delay, in order to minimize the harm to the victims. For civil cases involving domestic violence, some of the people’s courts have set up special trial chambers or collegial panels in such chambers, in order to safeguard the rights and interests of women and children, and efforts have been made to involve women’s federations and other organizations in the handling of the cases.

93. Public security institutions have been actively involved in handling domestic violence cases, accepting in accordance with the law complaints, accusations and reports regarding violations against women’s rights. Public security institutions in most provinces have included the reporting of domestic violence in the coverage of the “110” police emergency number. More than 10,000 police stations and community policing offices have established complaints stations or anti-domestic violence alert-the-police locations. In 2010, in Liaoning Province, a total of 5,093 alerts of domestic violence were received, and the number of police responders totalled 11,255, effectively resolving family disputes and bringing the perpetrators to justice. In some places, the fight against domestic violence has been incorporated into the police assessment system. Training has been an on-going activity throughout the country to raise the awareness of police officers of the importance to prevent and curb domestic violence as well as to enhance their skills in handling anti-domestic violence cases.

94. In 2008, the Institute of Applied Law under the Supreme People’s Court issued the Guide for Handling Matrimonial Cases Involving Domestic Violence, which advised grassroots courts to incorporate a gender perspective in their judicial practice, and has tried to protect women victims’ personal and property safety by introducing the personal safety protection order. The Institute has also provided training to judges, in order to improve their skills for handling matrimonial cases involving domestic violence in a gender-sensitive manner. Currently, 72 courts across the country have carried out such a pilot project against domestic violence, and the personal safety protection order has been effectively implemented in preventing and curbing domestic violence, with remarkable results.

95. Civil affairs authorities have actively explored the possibility of establishing a rescue mechanism for women victims of domestic violence. Rescue management stations in about 100 cities in nearly 20 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have set up domestic violence shelters, providing medical treatment, psychological support, rehabilitation and livelihood for women and children victims.

96. Twenty-eight out of the country’s 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have promulgated local anti-domestic violence laws and regulations. At present, relevant government departments, the All-China Women’s Federation and other relevant organizations are actively promoting anti-domestic violence legislation at the national level, pushing the Government towards establishing and improving the anti-domestic violence working mechanism and raising social awareness against domestic violence. The Legislative Affairs Committee of the NPC Standing Committee has begun to conduct research in this regard.

97. Since 2006, in cooperation with the Australian Human Rights Commission, the All-China Women’s Federation has organized training courses on human rights issues in several provinces of China for more than 500 people, including law enforcement officers, lawyers, and local government officials at various levels. From 2006 to 2010, in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund, it implemented a gender equality project, which involved pilot exercises on violence against women in Hunan and Hebei and other provinces. From 2009 to 2012, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Health cooperated with each other to implement projects of the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, in order to further improve cross-departmental cooperation in providing services to victims.

98. In recent years, cross-departmental cooperation for interventions has been further enhanced. Relevant government ministries established in 2001 the National Coordination Group for Safeguarding the Rights and Interests of Women and Children and for Creating the “Safe Family”, which now has 20 member organizations. Twenty-eight provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have also established coordinating bodies for the rights and interests of women and children; there are about 2,600 coordinating bodies below the provincial level. Many grassroots courts have set up collegial panels for the protection of women’s rights; some places have set up anti-domestic violence collegial panels; nearly 8,000 cadres from women’s federations have served as the people’s jurors at the courts; procuratorates have set up women prosecutors’ groups, which handle cases involving domestic violence in accordance with law; and judicial and administrative authorities have established Women’s Legal Aid Stations within Legal Aid Centres.

99. Public security, health and other relevant authorities have cooperated among themselves in providing medical assistance to victims and identifying victims. According to incomplete statistics, 21 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have established a total of 258 domestic violence injury identification centres. Medical records of victims prepared by doctors in hospitals which are partners on the question of combating domestic violence can be used as evidence in courts.

Article 6

Prohibition of Trafficking in Women

100. In response to CEDAW concluding observations No. 19 and No. 20, the Chinese Government has stepped up its fight against the crimes of trafficking in women and children and forcing women into prostitution as well as other violations of personal rights of women and children.

101. Chinese laws and regulations as well as policy documents enacted or revised in recent years have paid more attention to the issue of trafficking in women and children and forcing women into prostitution. The Decision Amending the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, which was adopted in 2005, added provisions that prohibit any action that “obstructs the rescue of women who are abducted, trafficked, or kidnapped”, or any action that “arranges for, forces or lures women to give obscene performances”.

102. The Outline for the Development of Chinese Women (2001-2010) and the Outline for the Development of Chinese Children (2001-2010) both set the prevention, suppression and reduction of trafficking as important goals in the protection of women and children.

103. In December 2007, the Chinese Government issued the China National Plan of Action on Combating Trafficking in Women and Children (2008-2012), which calls for establishing a long-term mechanism combining prevention, suppression, rescue and rehabilitation in a comprehensive anti-trafficking effort, and clearly lays out the guiding principles, the overall objectives, strategic measures, organizational structures, safeguards as well as the division of responsibilities in relation to China’s anti-trafficking work in the ensuing five years, covering all aspects of the work, i.e., prevention, suppression, rescue, relief, rehabilitation and international cooperation. In March 2008, the Government issued Rules for the Implementation of China National Plan of Action on Combating Trafficking in Women and Children (2008-2012).

104. In March 2010, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Ministry of Justice jointly issued the Opinions on Legally Punishing the Crimes of Abducting and Trafficking in Women and Children. In addition, the Supreme People’s Court has formulated the Explanatory Note on Issues Related to Applicable Laws in Handling Cases of Trafficking in Women; and the Ministry of Public Security has formulated the Opinions on Issues Related to Applicable Laws and Policies in Combating the Crime of Trafficking in Women and Children.

105. Since the review of the previous report to CEDAW, anti-trafficking efforts in China, led by the Ministry of Public Security, have gradually evolved into a comprehensive exercise of social governance; and the inter-departmental working mechanism has continued to improve. As requested by the China National Plan of Action on Combating Trafficking in Women and Children (2008-2012), China has established the mechanism for the State Council’s joint inter-ministerial conference on action against trafficking in women and children, which has 31 member organizations, including government departments and social organizations. In January 2008, the Government formulated and issued the Inspection and Appraisal Standards for the Work Against Trafficking in Women and Children, and made it part of the comprehensive social security governance appraisal of the governments of all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities). At present, all local governments have established anti-trafficking cooperative mechanisms, which are led by relevant government offices and joined by social organizations and relevant agencies.

106. In 2009, the relevant authorities of the Chinese Government, together with the All-China Women’s Federation and other organizations, jointly carried out in 15 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) the “Prevent Trafficking and Ensure Safe Childhood” campaign, which involved trafficking prevention advocacy and services along railways and other traffic thoroughfares and in communities with a large floating population, targeting migrant women and children. On March 8 of both 2009 and 2010, anti-trafficking advocacy activities were carried out across the country on the theme of “Care for Women and Fight against Trafficking”.

107. Aware that it is extremely important that anti-trafficking efforts start with children and young people, the Chinese Government has focused many of its activities in this field on children and young people, both women and men. In 2007 and 2010, with the support of the Chinese Government, the All-China Women’s Federation and the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund and other organizations cooperated with each other in holding the first and second sessions of the National Forum Against Trafficking in Children and Youth, which were attended by children and young people from all over China, whose self-protection awareness and sense of responsibility in anti-trafficking greatly improved through dialogue with senior government officials, and by taking part in lectures and seminars given by experts. Subsequently, they took ownership of the anti-trafficking work, and actively and effectively participated in spreading anti-trafficking messages to their peers, classmates, family members, relatives, neighbours and so on.

108. Since April 2009, China has been taking special nationwide anti-crime measures to combat trafficking in women and children, featuring a combination of different strategies, and has achieved remarkable results. From 2009 to 2010, China successfully handled 5,409 cases of trafficking in women, rescuing a total of 3,899 trafficked women.

109. While fighting against those criminal activities, the Chinese Government has also been paying attention to providing quality relief, rehabilitation and resettlement services to rescued women and children. Civil affairs, public security and other authorities have strengthened identification, rescue and protection of the victims while providing mental and physical rehabilitation as well as vocational skills training and aid in kind to victims of trafficking. Women’s federations and other social organizations have actively provided victims with psychological counselling and livelihood support. In October 2010, the Ministry of Public Security and the All-China Women’s Federation jointly issued the Circular on the Establishment of the Communication Mechanism for Trafficked Women and Children and Those Subsequently Rescued Whose Places of Origin are Unknown, which further enhanced the development of the mechanism for the rescue work.

110. In a number of priority regions, transit, training and rehabilitation centres have been established for women and children rescued, and a number of pilot projects have been in place. For example, in 2005, a transit centre was established in Dongxing, Guangxi for foreign women and children rescued, which has been put in charge of their resettlement and relief work before repatriation. In February 2006, at Ningming County of Chongzuo City, Guangxi, a rescue and assistance centre was established for women and children, with the help from international projects, government subsidies and contributions from civil society actors as well as from a variety of other sources, to provide rescue and assistance to women.

111. In order to improve the ability and professionalism of anti-trafficking staff, the Ministry of Public Security has organized in more than 10 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) across the country nearly 20 law enforcement training courses at the provincial, regional and county levels respectively; the total number of public security police responsible for cracking down on trafficking who have received such training exceeded a thousand. The Ministry of Civil Affairs, NWCCW and other government agencies have carried out their own special anti-trafficking training of civil servants within the civil affairs system, heads of assistance stations and county governors as well.

112. The Chinese Government has cooperated with UNICEF, ILO, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and other agencies as well as the British NGO Save the Children, the International Organization for Migration and other international non-governmental organizations to carry out a series of anti-trafficking projects, including The Project on Trafficking in Women and Children in the Mekong Subregion, the Project on Trafficking in and Violence against Women and Children, the Project on Prevent Trafficking in Girls and Young Women for the Purpose of Labour Exploitation in China, and the Project Against Forced Labour and Human Trafficking. China has also organized, together with countries such as Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos, a number of joint anti-trafficking law enforcement training sessions.

113. In 2007, the Chinese Government hosted the Second Ministerial Mekong Sub-regional Consultation & Fifth Senior Official Meeting against Trafficking. Ministers of six countries, China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand, signed the Joint Declaration on Mekong Sub-regional Cooperation in the Anti-trafficking Process.

114. China and neighbouring countries have continued to strengthen the anti-trafficking cooperation mechanism. At China’s borders with Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos, anti-transnational human trafficking law enforcement liaison offices have also been established to strengthen cooperation in terms of information exchange, victim repatriation and the handover of suspects. On 11 November 2009, China and Myanmar signed in Beijing the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of the Union of Myanmar on Strengthening Cooperation in Combating the Crime of Human trafficking, which has served to further strengthen anti-trafficking cooperation between China and Myanmar. On 15 September 2010, China and Vietnam signed, in Beijing, the Agreement on Preventing and Combating the Crime of Human Trafficking, which has served to further strengthen anti-trafficking cooperation between China and Vietnam.

115. In China, prostitution is illegal. In order to prevent and combat forced prostitution of women and to strengthen the protection of women, China has put in place a mechanism to regulate entertainment venues, aiming at punishing by legal means organizers, behind-the-scene masterminds and key members of schemes of forcing and luring women into prostitution or involved in child prostitution, and organizers as well as operators of illegal premises of pornography-related businesses, facilitating quick action to rescue women who have been forced into prostitution by criminals by means of trafficking, rape, beating and illegal detention, and providing those women with education on their legal rights, labour skills training, job placement services, as well as AIDS and STD tests. Meanwhile, Chinese police have actively cooperated with their counterparts in countries such as France, Britain, the Congo and Australia in order to pursue transnational cases of trafficking in women and forced prostitution in a timely way.

Part II

Article 7

Promoting Women’s Participation in Political and Public Affairs

116. In light of CEDAW concluding observations No. 25 and No. 26 regarding the previous report, the Chinese Government has adopted active enabling measures in various fields such as women’s participation in decision-making at all levels, training of women cadres and mandating the minimum number of female members in villagers committees. The level of women’s participation in the management of State and social affairs has been on the rise.

117. In 2006, the Chinese Government held a national forum on training and selecting women cadres, which stressed the importance of duly evaluating the dual contribution of women cadres to the society and the family alike, and the need to adopt appropriate preferential polices and give preference to selecting and appointing women cadres when they are equally qualified in other aspects.

118. In order to promote the participation of women in all levels of management and decision-making, the Outline of the 2009-2013 National Programme for Building CPC and Government Leadership Teams and the Outline of the 2009-2020 National Programme for Building CPC and Government Leadership Reserves as well as other documents have put forward specific demands for the presence and proportion of female cadres within the leading bodies of local CPC committees and governments at or above the county level, and within Central and State organs as well as all levels of CPC organs and government departments, including among the reserve cadres. The Opinions On Strengthening and Improving the Work of Villagers Committee Elections issued by relevant government departments has made it clear that more female villagers, especially the head of the villagers committee of women’s representatives should become members of villagers committees.

119. The National Human Rights Action Plan (2009-2010) sets a specific target regarding the proportion of women in politics at all levels, i.e., “Peoples’ congresses, political consultative conferences and local governments at all levels should have at least one female member in their leadership. The proportion of women civil servants in state organs at all levels will be increased, and in professions and industries where women are in the majority the number of women holding managerial posts should be in an appropriate proportion to the number of total women workers. An appropriate number of women members will be included in community committees and village committees.”

120. In order to effectively promote women’s participation in political affairs, the State has adopted a series of strong measures to ensure that the training and selection of female cadres are put on an institutionalized and standardized track. At the end of 2007, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee introduced the annual work report system and the work bulletin system regarding the training and selection of women cadres, in order to review, supervise and guide the work on the ground.

121. In order to promote the development of high-level talented women, the Chinese Government has implemented the Project on Examining the Status of Development of High-level Female Talent and Policy Advocacy. The project, which was launched in 2009, has now completed studies regarding the status of development of high-level women talent and related policies in some provinces and municipalities, and on that basis, submitted proposals for consideration by the National People’s Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Encouraged by the project, studies on related sub-topics are in full swing in the relevant institutions. For instance, the Ministry of Science and Technology has developed and implemented the policy for the development of women talent in science and technology; the Ministry of Education and other government institutions have made the facilitation of the growth of female talent as a priority theme to be examined.

122. In order to improve women’s ability to take part in political affairs, the Government has created opportunities for female cadres to receive various types of training, so as to obtain knowledge in the economic, political, cultural, technological, legal and other fields and to continuously improve their professionalism and leadership skills. Study tours have been organized for women cadres to visit economically developed regions at home as well as abroad, so as to broaden their horizons. Training courses for women mayors and female diplomats and courses on the art and role of leadership have been launched, with an emphasis on the relevance and effectiveness of training.

123. Governments at all levels have attached importance to assigning female cadres, especially young women cadres, to work on either a long-term or short-term basis in offices at grassroots levels, or higher up in the command chain, in economically underdeveloped or developed areas, or with key projects, so that they can hone their leadership skills and ability through experience.

124. Governments at all levels have adopted a preferential policy towards the selection and use of female cadres, adhering to the principle of giving priority to the selection and use of female cadres when they are equally qualified in other aspects; selections have been made more widely, going beyond CPC and government organs to State-owned enterprises, universities, research institutes, as well as other sectors where women are more concentrated. For both open selections and competitive selections, positions and quotas ear-marked for female cadres have been increased as appropriate.

125. The Government has emphasized the need for capacity-building and the development of a grassroots management talent pool, so as to ensure there are a required number of female cadres in the talent pools at the provincial, city and county levels as well as in the leading bodies of Party and government organs.

126. In order to promote women’s political participation at the grassroots level and enhance women’s involvement in the villagers’ self-government, the Government has been actively promoting women’s participation in the leadership of villages’ CPC branch committees and villagers committees. It has incorporated the promotion of rural women’s participation in the villagers’ self-government into local laws and regulations, women’s development plans and plans for electing a new villagers committee. Various measures have been taken to ensure that female members are elected into the villagers committee (see article 4 on temporary special measures), including a seat reserved for female candidates and a second round of elections for female candidates. The proportion of rural women in villagers committees has increased significantly, from 15.1 per cent in 2004 to 21.5 per cent in 2009.

127. In the process of promoting the practice of urban community residents’ self-government, the Government has given effective play to women’s positive role at the grassroots level in terms of management, services and protection of rights of the residents. As of now, over 85,000 residents committees have been established in urban communities in China. As of the end of 2009, there were a total of 431,000 members of residents committees, of which women accounted for half, or 212,000.

128. Changes in women’s political participation are reflected by relevant statistics. The total number of female deputies at the Tenth Session of the National People’s Congress (2003) was 604 (20.3 per cent), compared to 638 (21.4 per cent) at the Eleventh Session (2008). Among the 27 candidates for heads of ministries and commissions under the State Council, as approved by the First Meeting of the Eleventh Session of the National People’s Congress in 2008, there were 3 women candidates for ministers (11.1 per cent), while there was no woman minister in the previous administration.

129. As a result of an election in March 2008, a total of eight women now occupy the top posts of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, the State Council, and the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, one more than during the previous session, including three Vice-Chairmen of the NPC Standing Committee, one State Councillor, and four Vice-Chairmen of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

130. Statistics also show an upward trend of the overall proportion of female cadres in China. In 2009, at the provincial and prefecture (director-general) levels, female cadres accounted for 11.0 per cent and 13.7 per cent respectively of the total number of cadres at the same level; and female cadres above the county level accounted for 16.4 per cent of the total number of cadres at the same level. The rate of leadership teams of governments at the provincial, municipal and county levels that had female cadres in 2009 were 90.3 per cent, 89.5 per cent, and 88.4 per cent respectively, 3.2, 4.9 and 3.5 percentage points more than in 2004 respectively. The rate of leading bodies of the government departments at the provincial level that had female cadres in 2009 was 56.8 per cent, an increase of 2.9 percentage points over the previous year (See Figure below).

Figure 2

Rate of Leading Bodies of Government Departments at the Provincial Level that Had Female Cadres

51.6

54.5

53.9

56.8

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

%

70.0

2006

2007

2008

2009

year

Source of Data: Statistics from the Organization Department of CPC the Central Committee.。

131. Among the newly recruited civil servants of the Central State organs, more than 40 per cent were women. The proportion of female civil servants nationwide is higher than 23 per cent. In the two years of 2008 and 2009, a total of about 160,000 college graduates were selected and recruited as officials at the village level, including more than 80,000 women, accounting for 50.8 per cent of the total. In 2009, for the country as a whole, women accounted for 24.6 per cent of prosecutors, 24.8 per cent of judges and 22.5 per cent of lawyers.

132. Ethnic minority women’s political participation has improved significantly. The proportion of ethnic minority women in NPC, CPPCC and local governments has increased. 137 deputies at the Eleventh Session of National People’s Congress were ethnic minority women, accounting for 21.5 per cent of the total of female deputies. In the Tibet Autonomous Region for example, as of December 2008, women accounted for more than 20 per cent of the total of Tibetan NPC deputies and CPPCC members; women cadres accounted for 38 per cent of the total number of cadres; and more than 80 per cent of leadership teams at the prefecture and county levels had women cadres. The number of ethnic minority cadres in Xinjiang has exceeded 330,000 as of 2009, accounting for 52 per cent of the region’s total number of cadres, while ethnic minority women cadres accounted for more than 66 per cent of the total of the region’s women cadres.

133. Chinese women’s participation in political and public affairs remains a challenge, in spite of marked improvement, considering the proportion of women in the population versus the role they play in China’s economy and society. For instance, the overall proportion of women in politics is low; there are more women who are deputies than chiefs, especially in Party committees and governments at the city and county levels; and the policy and social environment for women’s participation in political affairs needs further improvement. The Chinese Government will continue to strengthen the training and selection of women cadres by promoting and stepping up the implementation of relevant policies.

Article 8

Better Opportunity for Women to Represent Their Governments to Participate in International Affairs

134. Chinese women have full equal rights with men to represent their Government and to participate in international exchanges and international organizations.

135. The number and proportion of women in Chinese delegations to international conferences and meetings have been on the rise continuously.

136. According to March 2010 statistics, the total female diplomats in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was 1,639, accounting for 30.8 per cent of the total number of diplomats. Among those women diplomats, 14 were ambassadors, 9 were Consuls General, and 103 were Counsellors, accounting for 8.4 per cent, 14.3 per cent and 25.8 per cent respectively of the total number of diplomats at the same level. Among female first secretaries in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 135 were in China and 227 were stationed abroad, accounting for 33.2 per cent and 34.3 per cent respectively of the total number of diplomats at the same level.

137. There were 9 women who were working in international organizations on behalf of the Chinese Government, accounting for 20 per cent of the total of such personnel from China, one of which was above the level of Deputy Director (D level).

138. The Chinese Government has created conditions for female diplomats to participate in the affairs of international organizations, by strengthening their training. Since 2006, in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a total of 132 women cadres have had academic training, 141 have been sent abroad for training, and about 2,100 women have participated in various theoretical and professional training sessions.

Article 9

Nationality

139. According to the Nationality Law of the People’s Republic of China, except for the provision that state officials and military personnel on active service shall not renounce Chinese nationality, men and women citizens who are eligible, as well as their children, are equally entitled to acquire, renounce or restore Chinese nationality. There are no discriminatory or restrictive provisions against Chinese women and their children as far as their right to acquiring, renouncing or restoring Chinese nationality is concerned.

Part III

Article 10

Women’s Education

140. Since the consideration of the previous report by CEDAW, in order to protect gender equality in education, the Chinese Government has made earnest efforts and achieved significant progress in the areas of legislation, development of policies and measures and their implementation.

141. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Compulsory Education, which was amended in 2006, stipulates as follows: The State implements a system of nine years of compulsory education. Compulsory education means education which is uniformly provided by the State and which all the school-age children and adolescents must receive, and constitutes a public welfare undertaking which must be guaranteed by the State. No tuition or miscellaneous fees shall be charged for provision of compulsory education. The State establishes a mechanism for guaranteeing funds for compulsory education, to ensure implementation of the system of compulsory education (article 2). All school-age children and adolescents of the nationality of the People’s Republic of China shall, in accordance with law, enjoy the equal right, and fulfil the obligation, to receive compulsory education, regardless of sex, ethnic status or race, family financial conditions, religious belief, etc. (article 4). These provisions have provided a solid legal basis for ensuring that girls, especially those in rural areas, ethnic minority areas and those from economically disadvantaged families can complete nine years of compulsory education.

142. In July 2010, the Chinese Government issued the National Outline for Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020), which clearly states that in the 10 years to follow, it would steadfastly maintain education in a strategically important position, give priority to its development, and work for the full implementation of student-oriented education, placing an emphasis on enhancing fairness and focusing on the improvement of the quality of education. The document lays out further comprehensive plans for pre-school education, compulsory education, senior middle school education, vocational education, higher education and continuing education, education for ethnic minorities and special education over the 10 years to follow.

143. Since 2008, China has fully implemented the policy of compulsory education free of tuition and fees for both urban and rural areas. The Government has not only included compulsory education in the public budget, but also adopted a series of measures, including the establishment of an education grants system for students at the stage of compulsory education and senior middle school and intermediate vocational school, and university students from urban and rural families with financial difficulties, so that in the distribution of public education resources, priority will be given to girls from the rural areas, ethnic minority areas and economically disadvantaged families, thus increasing opportunities for girls and women to enjoy equal access to education.

144. In order to prevent and reduce school dropouts among rural girls, the Government has made a series of interventions, including the following: establishing a system of accountability for controlling the school dropout rate at the stage of compulsory education, which holds all levels of governments and schools accountable; improving girls’ schooling conditions through the creation of boarding schools; adopting the policy of financial support for girls from needy families; providing an allowance to economically disadvantaged girls at boarding schools; incorporating the status of girls’ education in the national social development monitoring objectives and the acceptance index system regarding the universal implementation of nine-year compulsory education; and establishing and improving the statistics system for girls’ compulsory education.

145. Efforts have been further intensified to ensure that children of farmers turned migrant workers and girls with disabilities receive compulsory education. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Compulsory Education, which was amended in 2006, stipulates that for children whose parents belong to the floating population, including children of farmers turned migrant workers, the local governments shall provide equal conditions for them to receive compulsory education. In 2009, the General Office of the State Council transmitted the Opinions on Further Accelerating the Development of Special Education adopted by eight relevant departments of the Chinese Government, including the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the China Disabled Persons’ Federation, which put forward specific requirements regarding how to develop special education and ensure the protection of the right to education of children with disabilities. As required by relevant laws and policies, all levels of governments have included compulsory education for children of farmers turned migrant workers and children with disabilities into their education development planning as well as their education budgets. In 2011, the Central Government allocated 4.568 billion yuan, earmarked to be used to provide incentives to those places that have found good solutions to the issue of compulsory education for children living with their parents who are farmers turned migrant workers in cities.

146. In recent years, China has strengthened the duties of the Government in women’s literacy and vocational training. Since 2007, the Central Government has made annual allocations of funds earmarked for eliminating illiteracy in the amount of about 50 million yuan, focusing on the literacy of women in Western China as well as ethnic minority women. Governments at all levels have managed to combine literacy activities closely with women’s day-to-day work and life, incorporating literacy into other activities such as planting, breeding, textile and embroidery, sewing, family financial management, health care and family education and so on. The Government has also dispatched technology personnel to visit remote and poor villages, so as to bring scientific knowledge and practical techniques to the great number of women there, enabling them to learn technology and achieve literacy at the same time.

147. Literacy initiatives focusing on ethnic minority women have been carried out earnestly and effectively across China. For instance, in Longsheng Multi-ethnic Minorities Autonomous County, Guangxi, various flexible measures have been taken, such as providing a choice of centralized classes, decentralized classes, and night school classes, as well as classes during off-seasons; it has also made use of folk songs and real life experiences, enabling participants in the literacy activities to have fun. As a result, the literacy rate of ethnic minority women in that county has reached 99.7 per cent. To this end, in 2005, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization approved the selection of Longsheng County as a location to carry out the county-level pilot project of “Rural Community Education Administration Centre”.

148. By 2008, the illiteracy rate of adult women over the age of 15 had dropped to 9.91 per cent (see figure below), which means that the target, formulated by the State, of reducing adult women’s illiteracy rate to less than 12 per cent by 2010 has been achieved ahead of schedule.

Figure 3

Crude Illiteracy Rates by Areas (Urban vs. Rural) and by Gender in 2008

3.53

1.95

4.85

9.91

6.41

12.92

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

National

Urban

Rural

Male

Female

%

14

Source: Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

149. Remarkable progress has been achieved in eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education, thanks to unambiguous legislation, combined with appropriate policies and effective measures. The net enrolment rates of primary school boys and girls increased from 99.16 per cent and 99.14 per cent in 2005 to 99.68 per cent and 99.73 per cent in 2010 respectively, and the girls’ net enrolment rate in 2010 was 0.05 percentage point higher than that of boys. The five-year retention rates of primary school boys and girls were both 99 per cent; the three-year retention rate of junior middle schoolgirls was 94.63 per cent, 1.54 points higher than that of boys. According to the Report on China’s Progress Towards the Millennium Development Goals (2010), China has achieved the Millennium Development Goal of eliminating gender disparity in primary and secondary education, and is expected to achieve the target of eliminating gender disparity in all levels of education no later than 2015.

150. The proportion of girls receiving education at all levels and of all types has stabilized at a high percentage. In 2010, girls in regular primary schools accounted for 46.23 per cent of the total number of students in those schools; girls in regular junior middle schools accounted for 47.21 per cent of the total number of students; girls in regular senior middle schools accounted for 48.62 per cent of the total number of students; girls in general universities and colleges accounted for

50.86 per cent of the total number of students; and female graduate students accounted for 47.86 per cent of the total number of graduate students (see table below).

Table 1

Female Students in Schools at All Levels and of All Types in 2010

(persons)




Female students

Aggregate
number
Female
Number
As a share of the total number of students (%)





I. Higher Education




(i) Post-graduate
1 538 416
802 186
736 230
47.86
Doctoral
258 950
167 063
91 887
35.48
Master’s
1 279 466
635 123
644 343
50.36
(ii) Regular Undergraduate
22 317 929
10 966 948
11 350 981
50.86
Four-year University
12 656 132
6 369 152
6 286 980
49.68
Two-year College
9 661 797
4 597 796
5 064 001
52.41
(iii) Adult undergraduate
5 360 388
2 512 717
2 847 671
53.12
Four-year University
2 250 457
1 014 973
1 235 484
54.90
Two-year College
3 109 931
1 497 744
1 612 187
51.84
(iv) Other types of higher education




1. Part-time Doctoral and Master’s
420 294
266 386
153 908
36.62
2. On-line Universities and Colleges
4 531 443
2 348 070
2 183 373
48.18
Four-year University
1 640 403
807 811
832 592
50.76
Two-year College
2 891 040
1 540 259
1 350 781
46.72
II. Secondary Education




(i) Senior Middle School




1. Senior Middle School




Regular Senior Middle Schools
24 273 351
12 471 903
11 801 448
48.62
Adult Senior Middle Schools
114 970
60 158
54 812
47.68
2. Intermediate Vocational Education




Regular Intermediate Specialized Schools
8 777 141
4 154 588
4 622 553
52.67
Adult Intermediate Specialized Schools
2 123 974
1 180 593
943 381
44.42
Vocational Senior Middle Schools
7 263 332
3 859 569
3 403 763
46.86
Technical Schools
4 220 529
2 998 431
1 222 098
28.96
(ii) Junior Middle School




1. Regular Junior Middle Schools
52 759 127
27 850 604
24 908 523
47.21
2. Vocational Junior Middle Schools
34 173
17 900
16 273
47.62
3. Adult Junior Middle Schools
630 032
330 971
299 061
47.47
III. Primary Education




(i) Regular Primary Schools
99 407 043
53 454 347
45 952 696
46.23
(ii) Adult Primary Schools
1 946 573
913 179
1 033 394
53.09
Including literacy classes
1 080 807
515 462
565 345
52.31
IV. Special Education
425 613
278 356
147 257
34.60
V. Preschool Education
29 766 695
16 240 664
13 526 031
45.44

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Education.

151. In terms of the proportion of women in the total number of teachers, in 2010 it was 46.48 per cent in colleges and universities, 47.66 per cent in regular senior middle schools, 49.48 per cent in regular junior middle schools and 57.95 per cent in regular primary schools (see annex 10 for details).

Article 11

Women’s Employment

152. In response to some of the concerns raised and recommendations put forward by CEDAW on the issue of the employment of women in its concluding observations No. 29 and No. 30, relevant departments of the Chinese Government have made active efforts to integrate all resources, strive to eliminate gender discrimination in the labour market, strengthen labour inspection, and guide and support urban and rural women’s employment and entrepreneurship through a variety of channels. The total employed population in China reached 780 million in 2009, of which 45.4 per cent was women. The total number of people employed in urban areas nationwide was 126 million, of which women accounted for

46.79 million or 37.2 per cent. The scope and variety of jobs available to Chinese women has continued to expand, with more and more women entering finance, commerce, communications, biological sciences, aerospace, energy and other high-tech fields. According to 2009 statistics, the number of scientific and technological workers nationwide reached 318 million people, of which women accounted for nearly 790,000 or 24.8 per cent.

153. In order to eliminate discrimination in employment and occupation, in January 2006 China ratified the International Labour Organization’s Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention of 1958. Then, on 30 August 2007, the NPC Standing Committee considered and adopted the Law of the People’s Republic of China On Promotion of Employment, which dedicated a separate chapter to fair employment, stipulating that when an employer recruits employees, it shall not refuse to recruit women or increase the thresholds for recruitment of women under the excuse of gender, in violation of the law, and that workers may lodge a lawsuit in the people’s court against anyone who is deemed to have violated the law by resorting to discriminatory employment practices. This clearly provides for the legal remedies for employment discrimination and provides judicial protection to women whose employment rights have been infringed upon. Hebei, Jilin, Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong, Tibet and Shaanxi, inter alia, have further clarified the provisions regarding fair employment of men and women, in their respective Measures for the Implementation of the Employment Promotion Law and Regulations on Promotion of Employment.

154. For the implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Promotion of Employment, the former Minister of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (now Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security) signed in November 2007 Order No. 28, stating that from 1 January 2008, the Provisions on Employment Services and Employment Management would be implemented. These provisions reiterate the imperative for fair employment and further stipulate that workers seeking employment shall not be subject to discrimination based on such factors as ethnicity, race, gender, religious belief, etc., and that when an employer recruits female employees, nothing in the employment contract shall restrict the right of female employees to marry or have children. Articles 40 and 41 of the Labour Contract Law, which came into effect in 2008, specify circumstances under which the employer can terminate a labour contract or lay off employees; however, article 42 and article 45 stipulate that an employer may not revoke a female worker’s labour contract by applying the provisions in articles 40 and 41, when that worker is pregnant, giving birth to a child or lactating, and that at the expiration of a labour contract, the term of the labour contract shall be extended until the necessary conditions cease to exist.

155. Chinese law ensures that women workers are entitled to paid maternity leave. According to the provisions of the Labour Law of the People’s Republic of China, after childbirth, female workers shall be entitled to no less than ninety days of maternity leave with pay. The Special Regulations Concerning the Labour Protection of Female Staff and Workers include further provisions for maternity leave: a woman can take a prenatal leave of 15 days within the 90-day maternity leave; in cases of dystocia, maternity leave will be extended by 15 days; in cases of multiple births, maternity leave will be extended by 15 days for every additional baby. Provisional Measures for Maternity Insurance of Staff and Workers of Enterprises has provisions on the source of remuneration during maternity leave as follows: childbearing female workers are entitled to maternity leave in accordance with the law, during which an allowance will be provided by the Maternity Insurance Fund calculated on the basis of the average monthly wages for the workers of the same enterprise during the previous year, while the female workers’ expenses related to check-ups, delivery, surgery, hospitalization and medicines shall, as appropriate, also be paid from the Maternity Insurance Fund.

156. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Population and Family Planning, which came into effect in China in 2002, clearly stipulates that “Citizens who marry late and delay childbearing may be entitled to longer nuptial and maternity leaves or other welfare benefits” and authorizes local governments to develop policies that provide incentives for late marriage and delayed childbearing. At present, the Population and Family Planning Regulations of 30 provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) stipulate that for couples who marry late, female employees will be given extra 30-90 days of maternity leave in addition to the normal maternity leave that they are entitled to as stipulated by the State, and male employees may enjoy 3-30 days of paternity leave.

157. In promoting the principle of equal pay for equal work for men and women, the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China clearly stipulates that the State protects the rights and interests of women and applies the principle of equal pay for equal work for men and women. Accordingly, in the Labour Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Labour Contract Law of the People’s Republic of China and the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, there are provisions on equal pay for equal work. In 1990, China ratified the ILO Convention concerning Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value of 1951. In recent years, competent departments of the Government have made efforts to guide enterprises to establish their internal income distribution system based mainly on post salary, to ensure men and women are given equal pay for equal work and equal results. According to research on special topics conducted in the second half of 2009 in Guangdong, Shanxi, Chongqing, Jilin, Shanghai, Hubei and other places, the enterprises surveyed have all established a fairly standardized remuneration management system, implemented post-based remuneration and observed fairly well the principle of equal pay for equal work for men and women.

158. In recent years, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security has continued to further promote the contract system in the private sector, with the implementation of the Rainbow Plan, which focuses on collective wage negotiations in private and labour-intensive enterprises. The ministry is vigorously promoting the development of the private sector contract system in the whole country, in an effort to create a functioning mechanism for jointly establishing pay scales and the normal increase of workers’ wages. Vigorous efforts have been made to promote the signing of special contracts for the protection of women workers’ rights and interests in enterprises, so as to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of women workers as well as their unique interests.

159. In order to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, which was amended in August 2005, stipulates for the first time that “sexual harassment against women is prohibited”, clearly defining the corresponding rights of women victims and the responsibility of the relevant agencies; accordingly, in the vast majority of the Measures for Implementing the Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women (as amended) formulated by all the provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), there are anti-sexual harassment provisions.

160. In 2005, relevant government departments worked in cooperation with the International Labour Organization to carry out the Project of Improving Gender Mainstreaming Capacity under the “3 +1” Mechanism, and held the International Symposium on Workplace Harassment in Beijing, which marked the first time discussions were held at the national level from the legal and human rights perspective on how to fight sexual harassment in the workplace. In 2008, the Women’s Legal Research and Services Centre of Peking University Law School worked in cooperation with an enterprise in Hebei to develop the first-ever system to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace in enterprises; in 2009, it cooperated with the Women’s Federation in Haidian District of Beijing to assist two enterprises in introducing a system of sexual harassment prevention.

161. Efforts have been made to strengthen the supervision of law enforcement and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of women workers. Local governments have strictly implemented the relevant provisions of the Law of the People’s Republic of China On Promotion of Employment as well as the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, intensified the supervision of law enforcement and guided enterprises to earnestly implement the provisions of the laws and regulations relating to equal employment, and regulated recruitment and employment practices and corrected gender discrimination in the human resources market, safeguarding women’s right to equal employment. To date the country had established 3,291 labour and social security supervision institutions, with 23,000 full-time labour and social security ombudsmen and 25,000 part-time ombudsman, and hired labour and social security law monitors through women’s federations, trade unions, and the Youth League and other organizations, in order to supervise compliance with the Labour Protection Law and to strengthen the protection of labour rights and interests of women workers. By carrying out routine inspections, handling complaints and conducting special inspections and providing written reviews, including other various forms of enforcement monitoring activities, human resources and social security authorities at all levels have implemented to a great extent the relevant national laws and regulations, in an effort to regulate employment practices in accordance with law and to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of women workers.

162. Efforts have been made to improve the regulatory system of labour and employment and to actively prevent the occurrence of violations. Those efforts include guiding and urging enterprises to abide by the principle of gender equality; defining the implementation of special protection of women workers as an important criterion in the assessment of corporate labour security credibility level; clearly providing that in the assessment exercise of the creation of harmonious labour relations in enterprises and industrial parks, the strict implementation of the Special Regulations Concerning the Labour Protection of Female Staff and Workers has been listed as an important criterion of eligibility for participation; promoting the labour security supervision grid and network management, so as to gradually establish a regulatory system of labour security supervision covering both urban and rural employers; and correcting, investigating and punishing, in accordance with law, infringements on the legitimate rights and interests of women workers.

163. Efforts have been made to broaden the channels of urban and rural women’s employment and entrepreneurship. In order for women to have full and decent employment, China has provided employment information, career guidance, job referrals and other public services in relation to employment to different women’s groups with good results. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China has, together with the Women’s Federation, carried out in more than 200 cities in China the “Spring Breeze Action” campaign, providing women, especially unemployed women, female migrant workers from rural areas and new female university graduates with an interest in entrepreneurship and employment with information about policies, job opportunities, projects and services. In 2009 alone, the campaign held 14,000 job fairs, made available more than 4.03 million jobs, trained 1.8 million women for the purpose of improving various skills, and helped 1.08 million women to find jobs.

164. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and other government departments have coordinated with each other in actively creating jobs, especially public service jobs, in an effort to arrange for the employment of women over the age of 40 who have difficulty finding jobs. From 2005 to 2009, the number of people with difficulty finding jobs who have been employed by using public service job vacancies and other arrangements reached 7.37 million, of which women accounted for a large proportion.

165. Policy support has been stepped up for the employment of female college graduates. Inspired by the success stories of women entrepreneurs, female college students are encouraged to start their own businesses as a means to boost employment. The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the All-China Women’s Federation, and the China Association of Women Entrepreneurs have jointly launched the National Entrepreneurship Mentor Action for Female College Students and the National Entrepreneurship Support Action for Female College Students, with a plan to establish, in the three-year period between 2009 and 2012, a number of entrepreneurial practice bases for female college students, providing entrepreneurial guidance and employment services to 100,000 female college students. As of the end of 2010, the total number of entrepreneurial practice bases for female college students established nationwide exceeded 6,000; more than 10,000 women entrepreneurs have been recruited as entrepreneurship mentors; 160,000 internship positions have been created for female college students; and 30,000 female college students have received help in finding employment. This exercise helps female students participate in entrepreneurial practice and improve their entrepreneurial ability.

166. Financial support for women’s employment and entrepreneurship has been provided. In response to the impact of the international financial crisis on China’s employment situation and to solve the issue of insufficient funding as the bottleneck in women’s entrepreneurship, the Chinese Government promulgated in 2009 the policy of providing women with small secured loans with government interest rate subsidies (see article 4 on temporary special measures).

167. Trade unions have gradually improved the mechanism for the protection of the rights and interests of women workers. With support from the Government, the trade unions’ women workers committees have strived to actively protect the legitimate rights and interests of women workers through the tripartite labour relations consultation mechanism, the workers’ congresses and the signing of special contracts for private sector women workers. Currently, in 20 of the country’s provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), the Federation of Trade Unions and the Department of Labour and Social Security, the Association of Enterprises or the Association of Entrepreneurs have jointly issued a document, putting forward specific requirements regarding the introduction of the special contract for female workers.

168. Due to strengthened special labour protection for female workers, there has been an increase in recent years in the proportion of enterprises that have implemented the provisions of labour protection for female workers. The proportion of enterprises that have implemented the Regulations Concerning the Labour Protection of Female Staff and Workers was 46 per cent in 2009, compared to 34 per cent in 2004; the proportion of enterprises that have implemented the Provisions on the Scope of Forbidden Work Assignment for Female Employees was 46 per cent in 2009, compared to 32 per cent in 2004. In some places, efforts have been made to ensure that there are provisions on special protections for women workers in all labour contracts, including private sector contracts. As of the end of 2010, more than 592,500 special contracts have been signed for the protection of the interests of women workers, involving more than 978,200 enterprises and 49.439 million women workers.

169. Despite the above-mentioned progress, the Chinese Government is soberly aware of the fact that China is still facing many obstacles in promoting women’s employment and the protection of the rights of women workers. Gender discrimination in employment still exists. Even though with the implementation of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Promotion of Employment, open gender discrimination in employment has decreased and employers will no longer directly refuse to employ women, hidden gender discrimination is not uncommon, making it harder for women to find jobs than men. For instance, a high proportion of women workers are employed in non-formal sectors; some small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) continue to violate labour rights and interests of women workers despite repeated prohibitions. Equal pay for equal work, annual leave entitlement and labour protection for female workers as well as their other fundamental rights are yet to be fully realized and many private enterprises have not participated in the social pooling for maternity insurance. The Chinese Government attaches importance to solving these problems, and will continue to guide and supervise employers’ compliance with relevant laws and regulations, strengthen law enforcement and inspection and improve the social security system, so as to solve the problems earnestly and pragmatically.

Article 12

Women’s Health

170. Legislative work regarding maternal and child health care (MCH) has been strengthened. China has carried out work in this field by following the guidance of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Maternal and Child Health Care and measures for its implementation, with a series of measures taken to improve relevant laws and regulations. In 2006, the Ministry of Health issued the Guidance on Further Strengthening the Work on Maternal and Child Health Care, in a vigorous effort to promote maternal and child health care; and in the same year it issued the Measures for the Management of Maternal and Child Health Care Institutions, which has played a positive role in improving the maternal and child health care service system. Since then, China has also developed a series of related laws, regulations and technical specifications, such as the Measures for Neonatal Diseases Screening, in order to standardize maternal and child health care technical services.

171. Access to maternal and child health care services has been improved. After years of development, the number of maternal and child health care institutions across the country has reached over 3,000; the number of personnel working in this field has reached 500,000; and a three-tier maternal and child health care network covering the county, township and village levels has been created. In recent years, maternal and child health care services coverage has been expanded, ensuring general access to pre-marriage, pregnancy, maternal health care, hospitalized child delivery, reproductive health services as well as child health care. Meanwhile, health authorities have actively carried out personnel training and promoted appropriate technology, leading to the continued improvement of the ability of grassroots maternal and child health care personnel to provide services.

172. Beginning in 2009, China has been implementing the basic public health services project and various major special public health projects across the country, through which pregnant women can enjoy, free of charge, at least five pregnancy-related checkups and 2 postpartum visits, and which provide health care for people above the age of 65; projects of folic acid supplementation for rural women before pregnancy and during early pregnancy and the rural maternal hospitalized delivery grant have been included in the list of major public health projects. In 2009 alone, the Central Government has allocated 3.06 billion yuan for the National Rural Maternal Hospitalized Delivery Grant, directly benefiting more than 11 million rural pregnant and childbearing women. The national annual per-capita basic public health services funding level has increased from 15 yuan in the past to 25 yuan at present, enabling children, childbearing women, the elderly and the sick, including patients with severe mental illness, to obtain more health services. In some places, the Government gives subsidies to improve the nutritional status of women, so as to improve their health. For instance, since 2009, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has implemented the “One Glass of Milk” Maternal Care Action, providing pregnant women a glass of milk every day for free from the time pregnancy is confirmed until childbirth. It has become an influential livelihood project that benefits the health of two generations.

173. In recent years, the Central Government and local governments together have invested more than 2 billion yuan cumulatively in implementing the Project to Reduce Maternal Mortality and Eliminate Neonatal Tetanus, covering all counties of the central and western regions of China by 2010, benefiting a total population of over 500 million. In 2008, the Ministry of Health launched the Project of Hospitalized Delivery Grant for Rural Maternal Women in Central and Western China, which aimed at providing a fixed-amount hospitalized delivery grant to rural childbearing women in the 2,297 counties of these regions. By 2009, the project had been expanded to cover the whole country. International cooperation projects related to women’s health, such as the UNICEF Mother-child Health Information Tracking System Project and the Subproject on Maternal and Child Health Care under the Project on Cultural Development launched by Spain MDG Fund, have also been designed to focus on promoting maternal health in the poor western regions and ethnic minority areas.

174. Thanks to more vigorous interventions, women’s health has significantly improved. The national antenatal check-up rate rose to 92.2 per cent in 2009 from 89.7 per cent in 2004; over the same period, the rate of postpartum visits rose from 85.9 per cent to 88.7 per cent. Hospitalized delivery rate increased from 82.8 per cent in 2004 to 96.3 per cent in 2009; the same rate over the same period rose from 91.4 per cent to 98.5 per cent for urban areas, and from 77.1 per cent to 94.7 per cent for rural areas. The national check-up rate for gynaecological diseases rose from 37.3 per cent in 2004 to 85.4 per cent in 2009.

175. According to statistics from regions being monitored, in 2004 the national maternal mortality rate was 48.3/100,000; and it was 26.1/100,000 and 63/100,000 for urban and rural areas respectively. In 2009, the national maternal mortality rate was 31.9/100,000; and it was 26.6/100,000 and 34.0/100,000 for urban and rural areas respectively. The maternal mortality gap between urban and rural areas and among the Eastern, Central and Western regions has been greatly reduced. The fastest decline in maternal mortality occurred in the western region, which has witnessed a sharp decline from 93.7/100,000 in 2004 to 48/100,000 in 2009. China is expected to achieve by 2015 the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality by three-fourths.

Table 2

Maternal Mortality Rate in the Regions Being Monitored

(1/100,000)

Year
National
Urban
Rural
Eastern
Middle
Western







2005
47.7
25.0
53.8
21.2
50.9
87.3
2006
41.1
24.8
45.5
26.7
39.2
77.0
2007
36.6
25.2
41.3
22.4
34.5
58.6
2008
34.2
29.2
36.1
19.3
34.4
51.1
2009
31.9
26.6
34.0
19.2
31.0
48.0

Source: Statistics of the Ministry of Health.

176. China has made the prevention and treatment of gynaecological diseases a routine in its work on grassroots women’s health. The prevention and treatment of common gynaecological diseases currently focus on reproductive tract infection, sexually transmitted diseases, cervical cancer and breast cancer. From 2007 to 2008, the Ministry of Health implemented the Project on Common gynaecological diseases Prevention and Control Survey in 10 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, and proceeded to develop the Norms for Screening Common Gynaecological Diseases and the Technical Guide for Screening Common Gynaecological Diseases, on the basis of the findings of the survey.

177. In light of the threat to the health and lives of rural women posed by cervical cancer and breast cancer, the State has earmarked special funds for providing free check-ups (See Part IV on Temporary Special Measures) to rural women, starting from June 2009. Such projects, which benefit hundreds of millions of rural women, have helped poor rural women to enjoy basic reproductive health services.

178. In addition, the State has increased investment in rural and community health service systems, strengthened the development of the three-tier rural health service network, which is led by county-level hospitals, with township hospitals as key players and village clinics as the basic service providers. As of the end of 2009, there were a total of 3013 Maternal and Infant Health Care hospitals (medical stations and centres), with a total of over 500,000 Maternal and Infant Health Care personnel. Thus, the network of basic women’s health services, which is led by Maternal and Infant Health Care institutions and whose coverage has extended virtually nationwide, has now become more comprehensive and integrated.

179. Subsidies have been provided to women living in poverty and minors who can not afford the medical expenses; and specific assistance has been accorded by means of preferential treatment or charitable contributions. For instance, each year the Ministry of Finance allocates 50 million yuan from the public welfare lottery funds, to provide relief and assistance to women who have cervical cancer or breast cancer; and Jiangsu Province provides free cancer tracking and treatment to women from destitute families. In many places, the outpatient registration fee, the medical check-up fee, and the hospitalization fee have been waived, among other forms of preferential treatment. The Happiness Project conducted by the Population Welfare Foundation has provided free of charge health checks to 1.04 million mothers living in poverty, treated 380,000 cases of gynaecological diseases, and distributed free of charge medicines and medical equipment as well as other supplies with a total value of 17.73 million yuan.

180. In recent years, the increase of the AIDS epidemic prevalence in China has further slowed, while sexual transmission has remained the main way by which AIDS spreads; the proportion of women in the total infected population increased from 15.3 per cent in 1998 to 30.9 per cent in 2009. The Chinese Government attaches great importance to this problem, seeking to prevent and control mother-to-child transmission of AIDS through the introduction of relevant policies and the implementation of relevant projects.

181. In 2006, the State Council released the “Regulation on the Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS”, which stipulates in article 43 that “medical care and health institutions shall provide counselling and test on AIDS prevention and treatment for pregnant women, and provide counselling on preventing mother-child AIDS transmission, pre-delivery direction, blocking, treatment, post-delivery direction, baby follow-up visit, test and other services for the mother and her baby who is infected by HIV, in accordance with the requirements of the directory technical protocol of preventing AIDS transmission from mother to child formulated by the competent health department of the State Council.”

182. The State has provided funds to support the implementation of the Preventing Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMTCT) Project. By 2010, the project had expanded to 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), 1,156 counties (cities and districts), and gradually integrated the prevention of AIDS, syphilis, and hepatitis B mother-to-child transmissions. The project is committed to providing free screening for pregnant women, and providing free of charge integrated intervention, care and support services to all pregnant women living with HIV, syphilis and hepatitis B as well as their infants, thus improving access to PMTCT services.

183. From September 2003 to the end of December 2009, in counties (cities, districts) that conducted PMTCT with the support of the State budgetary resources and local government funding, a total of more than 10.84 million women had received maternal health services, of which 84.6 per cent had received HIV counselling and 83.6 per cent had received HIV antibody testing. In addition, HIV-infected women had been provided with free counselling, testing, prenatal and postnatal guidance and HIV-blocking drugs as well as other services. About 73.8 per cent of HIV-infected pregnant women, and 84.9 per cent of the infants born to them, had been treated with antiviral drugs.

184. Family planning is a basic state policy of China. The rate of married women of childbearing age using a combination of contraceptive methods in China has remained at a high level, currently 85 per cent. The proportion of the use of male contraceptive methods has reached 15.33 per cent.

185. The population and family planning authorities in China have continued to promote the informed choice of contraceptive methods, guiding married women of childbearing age to voluntarily choose safe, effective and appropriate contraceptive measures; quality family planning services have been further promoted, with a focus on technical services, so as to improve the family planning and reproductive health of those of childbearing age. Through the implementation of the Project on Introducing Gender perspective in Quality Family Planning Services and the development of the Diagnosis Toolkit for Gender Equality in Quality Family Planning Services at the District/County levels in China, tentative efforts have been made to mainstream the gender perspective into quality family planning services.

186. The Chinese Government has put an emphasis on using legal means to combat the practice of non-medical foetal sex identification and sex-selective artificial pregnancy terminations. Guided by the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Maternal and Infant Health Care, the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Population and Family Planning, Measures for Implementation of the Law on Maternal and Infant Health Care, the Regulations on Administration of Technical Services for Family Planning, the Provisions on the Prohibition of Non-medical Foetal Sex Identification and Sex-selective artificial pregnancy termination, and other laws, administrative regulations as well as local laws, regulations and rules, all local governments have strictly investigated and harshly dealt with the practices of non-medical foetal sex identification and sex-selective artificial pregnancy termination.

187. In response to CEDAW concluding observations No. 31 and No. 32, and in an effort to address the high sex ratio at birth, China has conducted various forms of advocacy and publicity activities, and established an integrated governance mechanism featuring coordination among different government departments and participation by civil society actors, and has fully implemented various measures, including publicity and education, use of incentives, integrated services and thorough investigation of cases of non-medical foetus sex identification and sex-selective artificial termination of pregnancy, so as to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of girls and their families, and change the stereotyped attitude of male superiority and behaviour of people, in an effort to curb the momentum of increasing sex ratio at birth (see article 5).

188. Since 2003, the Chinese Government, together with non-governmental organizations, the media, businesses and ordinary citizens, has carried out the “Care for Girls Action” across the country, promoting non-selective attitudes towards having male or female babies throughout society, emphasizing that boys and girls are both the nation’s future and they are equal, thus striving to eliminate gender discrimination, educate and guide people to gradually change the stereotypes of male superiority and the traditional concept of having boys to carry on the family line, so as to create a social environment conducive to the healthy growth of girls, to promote gender equality and to protect women’s right to life and development.

189. Based on a pilot project in 2004, in 2006 the National Population and Family Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance implemented the Rural Family Planning Household Reward and Support System and the Lower Birthrates for Faster Prosperity Project for the Western Regions. In 2009, the cash reward increased from 600 yuan to no less than 720 yuan per person per year, which has helped to further protect the rights of women and their families who choose to practice family planning. During the Eleventh Five-Year Period, in accordance with the basic standards, a total of 9.167 billion yuan of cash rewards were given out in rural areas nationwide, benefiting more than 13.27 million people; a total of 1.23 billion yuan of the Lower Birthrates for Faster Prosperity Project cash rewards were given, benefiting 413,000 households that practiced family planning. Some rural women and their families have embarked on a road to prosperity thanks to that project.

190. In some places a pilot real-name birth registration system has been put in place and promoted, in order to improve the monitoring of pregnancies and the management of childbearing processes, and to prevent the underreporting and abandoning of baby girls. The real-name birth registration system has been rolled out rapidly in most of the key selected provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) such as Anhui, Hunan, and Jiangxi provinces. Henan, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei and Hunan Provinces have been actively coordinating with health authorities, and jointly issued a policy for full implementation of the birth registration system, so as to further strengthen the birth certificate administration, with the establishment and improvement of the collection and monitoring system of basic information on newborn babies. Currently, in 14 key provinces such as Anhui, Hunan and autonomous regions and municipalities, the upward momentum in the sex ratio at birth has been effectively curbed.

191. Population and family planning authorities have been committed to exploring a new model of providing advocacy, consulting and other services related to family planning and reproductive health to the floating population. In recent years, the Chinese Government has been conducting an extensive special campaign nationwide to extend care and love to the floating population and vigorously promoting full coverage for the floating population in free family planning services, in order to facilitate the floating population’s enjoyment of equivalent basic public services away from home. In May 2009, the State Council promulgated the Regulations on the Work of Family Planning for the Floating Population, which requests local governments at and above the county level to include family planning for the floating population in their economic and social development planning and to provide the necessary guarantees in this regard. The Regulations on the Work of Family Planning for the Floating Population also provides that the floating population are legally entitled to free access to contraceptives and other basic family planning technical services specified by the State in their current places of residence; in cases of late marriage and delayed childbearing, or when having a family-planning related surgery in their current places of residence, they may be entitled to leave in accordance with relevant local provisions. These measures have served to effectively protect the floating population’s right to enjoy family planning health services.

Article 13

Other Economic and Social Rights of Women

192. Chinese laws contain no discriminatory restrictions with regard to women’s rights to enjoy family benefits, or to secure loans, mortgages and other forms of credit.

193. The Chinese Government attaches great importance to the Committee’s concluding observations No. 15 and No. 16, which advised China to take “proactive and corrective measures, including increasing social spending, so that women can fully and equally benefit from growth and poverty reduction”, and has adopted a series of policies and measures in this regard. The maternity insurance system is an example. From the point of view of safeguarding the health of women, the State has taken effective measures, requiring enterprises to ensure, by providing for maternity leave, maternity allowance and medical treatment, that women enjoy maternity leave with no reduction of wages, and that medical expenses during childbirth are reimbursed in their entirety in accordance with relevant policies. In order to safeguard the maternity insurance benefits for urban non-employed women, the State adopted in 2009 the Circular on the Proper Settlement of the Maternal Medical Expenses of Urban Residents, which mandates the payment of the medical expenses related to urban residents’ hospitalized child delivery from the Urban Resident Basic Medical Insurance Fund. Maternity protection for rural women is provided through the new type of rural cooperative medical care system.

Table 3

The Number of Women Participating in Various Social Insurance Schemes

(ten thousand persons)

Year
Number of people participating
in basic urban pension insurance
Number of people participating
in basic urban workers medical insurance
Number of people participating in unemployment insurance
Number of people participating
in job-related
injury insurance
Number of people participating in birth insurance






2007
8 389
7 535
4 402
4 246
3 337
2008
9 309
8 552
4 662
4 886
4 040
2009
9 904
9 338
4 787
5 279
4 711
2010
11 202
10 537
5 149
5 699
5 367

Source: Statistics of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

194. Efforts have been made to establish and improve the social assistance system, so as to safeguard the interests of vulnerable groups in the society. In recent years, the State has increased investment in this field, placing people living in poverty due to illness, disability, old age, loss of ability to work or severe living conditions of the region where they live under the coverage of the minimum living allowance, and introduced a series of relief and assistance schemes, enabling poor women, including those living in urban and rural areas, to enjoy the minimum living allowance, the rural “five guarantees” (referring to guaranteed food, clothing, fuel, medical care and burial expenses, or education expenses in the case of children, for rural residents who lack the ability to work and whose livelihood is not secured, such as widowers, widows, orphans, the disabled and those who have no family), medical assistance and temporary relief, and thus effectively secured their basic livelihood and protected their basic rights. The investments made by the State in the minimum living allowance for urban residents increased from 13.6 billion yuan in 2006 to 36.55 billion yuan in 2010; the number of urban residents receiving the minimum living allowance rose from 22.4 million in 2006 to 23.105 million in 2010. In 2007, the rural minimum living standards security system was fully implemented in the whole country, with 3 billion yuan invested by the State in providing the minimum livelihood security to rural residents the same year; in 2010, it increased to 26.9 billion yuan, with the number of rural residents who received the minimum living allowance over the same period increased from 35.66 million to 52.28 million.

195. In terms of basic living assistance, as of the end of March 2010, the number of people living in poverty who were covered by the regular living assistance plan nationwide (urban and rural minimum living guarantee and the “five guarantees”) reached 78.183 million, of which 26.027 million were women, accounting for 33.3 per cent of the total. Basically, all those who are entitled to receive assistance had been given assistance. Among the women living in poverty who were recipients of assistance, 9.458 million were urban residents covered by the minimum living allowance plan, accounting for 40.5 per cent of the total; and 15.353 million were rural residents covered by the same plan, accounting for 31.2 per cent of the total; and 1.216 million were rural residents covered by the “five guarantees” plan, accounting for 21.9 per cent of the total.

196. For families receiving the minimum living allowance who have special difficulties (such as single-parent families whose heads of the household are women), various types of special allowance are provided, with the amount of the allowance increased appropriately on top of the approved standards under the basic arrangements. In some places, special policies of assistance for poor women have bee adopted. For instance, the Beijing Municipal Government issued the Interim Measures of Beijing Municipality for Assisting Poor Women in Relation to Childbirth, providing special assistance to pregnant women who are urban and rural recipients of the minimum living allowance. The implementation of these targeted measures has enabled poor women to receive more attention and help. In 2009, rural medical assistance was provided to a total of 72.53 million persons, including 56.50 million persons who received financial support to participate in the basic medical insurance, 16.03 million persons who received assistance directly from civil affairs authorities and another 5.534 million rural residents who received the “five guarantees” assistance.

197. From 2007 to 2009, the General Administration of Sport of China and the All-China Women’s Federation jointly organized the third and fourth national women’s fitness competitions, in an effort to encourage more women to take part in fitness activities. To promote fitness activities, protect the legitimate rights and interests of citizens in these activities and improve the physical fitness of all citizens, the State Council promulgated, in 2009, the National Fitness Regulations. In 2010, the State allocated special funds from the public welfare funds of sports lottery, to support the establishment and development of the National Fitness Female Family Volunteers Service Stations in communities.

198. According to the Survey on Participation by China’s Urban and Rural Residents in Physical Exercises conducted by the General Administration of Sport from January to April 2008 among 88,625 urban and rural residents who were 16 or older in the country’s 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), 340 million urban and rural residents nationwide regularly participated in physical exercises, of which 146 million were women, accounting for about 43 per cent of the total. There were a total of 329,000 activity rooms of all kinds for senior citizens, and 59,543 schools for senior citizens, which had been organizing recreational activities for elderly women, such as singing, dancing, painting, embroidery, calligraphy, fitness and sports, as well as various performances and exhibitions.

199. Women have actively participated in a variety of domestic and international sport events. From 2004 to 2010, Chinese athletes won 841 world champion titles, of which female athletes won 473 (56 per cent); Chinese athletes set world records 125 times over the same period, of which 98 (78 per cent) were set by female athletes.

200. Investment in cultural facilities and cultural work has increased. Now China has completed the building of 2,820 public libraries, 2,829 cultural centres, 37,938 township neighbourhood cultural centres and 1,893 museums, and thus has basically realized the goal of each county and town having its own libraries and cultural centres. Among the personnel working in these cultural institutions, the proportion of women is generally higher than that of men. Every year, more than 100,000 exhibitions, 500,000 mass cultural activities and nearly 300,000 performing arts training courses have been held around the country, which have been well-received by the women, especially middle-aged and elderly women. In some places women’s Yangko dancing teams, women’s singing groups, women’s fashion teams and female migrant workers’ performance troupes have been organized. The cultural departments of governments at all levels have made efforts to help rural women overcome difficulties in going to movies, finding books to read, or going to theatres, among others, through a series of activities, including sending books and movies to the countryside.

201. Efforts have been intensified to provide disabled persons with access to sport and fitness services. China has successfully held the 2007 Shanghai Special Olympics World Summer Games, the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games, the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Paralympic Games and other international competitions as well as domestic competitions such as the Seventh National Games for the Disabled, the Fifth National Special Olympics Games, with the active participation by women with disabilities, enabling them to enjoy sport and fitness activities and their share of the benefits of socio-economic and cultural development.

Article 14

Rural Women

202. The Chinese Government has adopted a series of effective measures, in earnest response to CEDAW concluding observations No. 27 and No. 28.

203. Education is a fundamental right of citizens. Since the consideration of the previous report by CEDAW, the Chinese Government has brought about a fundamental change and achieved positive results in relation to the educational status of rural women, including ethnic minority women, by amending laws, formulating policies and increasing financial inputs (see article 10 for details).

204. In order to help rural women’s search for employment, various government departments have focused their efforts on education and training, in order to enhance women’s marketable skills. The Ministry Human Resources and Social Security has carried out, jointly with the All-China Women’s Federation, vocational skills training sessions for migrant women from rural areas; in 2009, the Government issued the Opinions on Providing Education and Training to Millions of New-type Female Farmers, with a plan to use five years to provide various trainings, including trainings on domestic service, marketing, cooking and sewing, to a total of 5 million rural young women who have returned to rural areas and women who have moved out in search of employment. The Ministry of Education used the adult literacy schools in rural areas to carry out practical technical training in rural areas; in 2010 alone, more than 17.62 million women were trained, accounting for 46.2 per cent of the total number of trainees. Since 2006, the Women’s Federation system has established 10 national rural women’s training bases as well as 160,000 rural women’s schools. According to incomplete statistics, from 2006 to 2009, a total of 37.00 million in the rural labour force participated in skills training, of which women accounted for about 50 per cent.

205. Vigorous efforts have been made to support and promote the transfer of surplus rural female labour to other places for employment. Public employment service agencies in many cities are open free of charge to men and women migrant workers from rural areas, providing them with employment information, policy advice, career guidance and job referral services. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the All-China Women’s Federation have strengthened their collaboration in providing jobs to migrant women workers from rural areas. Some places have organized on-site recruitment events for rural women, integrating job offers, training, information and building self-confidence. Competent government departments have encouraged and supported the Women’s Federation system to make use of its regional development cooperation platform and the advantages of its organizational network, to better match cross-regional labour flow with the demands of destination locations. For example, the Gansu Provincial Women’s Federation has rolled out, together with the Poverty Alleviation Office and Beijing Fuping School, a programme called “Longyuan Girls’ Entrepreneurship and Employment in Beijing” programme, providing housework training and other employment services to many women.

206. Efforts have been made to help “left-behind” rural women (referring to women whose husbands have left home to find jobs in urban areas and who have stayed at home to take care of the household, the farmland or other businesses) to find employment or become self-employed. Another campaign called “Bring the Benefits of the Market to Thousands of Villages” has been dedicated to exploring the possibility of creating low-risk, labour-intensive, quick-impact projects that have lower technology requirements and higher employment flexibility. With the support of the Government, the All-China Women’s Federation system has focused on promoting development of handicrafts and organizing rural women to take part in import processing, and has been looking for markets for their products.

207. In recent years, the State has greatly improved the health of rural women, through the implementation of multiple projects, including the Project to Reduce the Maternal Mortality Rate and Eliminate the Risks of Neonatal Tetanus and free cervical cancer or breast cancer check-up for rural women (see article 12 in this report for details).

208. As to the concern expressed by the Committee about violence against rural women, see article 5 and article 6 in this report for details.

209. Efforts have been made to properly resolve the issue of land contract disputes involving rural women. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on Land Contract in Rural Areas and the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women both stipulate that women and men enjoy equal rights in rural land contracting. Article 63 of the Property Law of the People’s Republic of China, which was adopted in 2007, stipulates that “Where a decision made by a collective economic organization or Villagers Committee or by the leading person of the organization or committee encroaches on the legitimate rights and interests of the members of the collective, the said members may apply to a people’s court to reverse such a decision.”.

210. In 2007, the State launched a special exercise to deal with the rural land issue, with violations of rural women’s land rights as an important element. In 2010, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress carried out law enforcement inspection of the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, also with the realization of land contract rights and interests of rural women as a key element.

211. In recent years, agricultural authorities at all levels have strengthened the management of land contracts in rural areas, effectively safeguarding women’s rights and interests in relation to land contracts in accordance with the law. For instance, Guangdong Province took the opportunity presented by the rural cooperative shares system reform to distribute shares to farmers; these shares will not change with a change in the shareholders’ production activities or life, so that the land-related interests and benefits of rural women, including rural married, divorced and widowed women, as well as unmarried women well past the age of marriage who have stayed in the rural areas and those sons-in-law who have moved to their wives’ homes after marriage are better protected. Efforts have been made to strengthen the regulation of the distribution and use of land acquisition compensation fees. Many provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have developed measures for the allocation and use of land acquisition compensation fees, clearly stating that in determining the recipients, scope and standards of land acquisition compensation fees, the principle of equality between men and women must be followed, and no deprivation of rural women’s entitlement to land requisition compensation is allowed on grounds of their marriage, divorce, widowhood, etc. There are already 18 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) that have introduced measures, rules and regulations for the implementation of the Law on Land Contract in Rural Areas, and 15 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) that have issued measures for the distribution and management of land acquisition compensation fees.

212. For details on rural women’s political participation, see articles 4 and 7. In addition, relevant government departments and agencies have implemented various projects to explore new ways for facilitating women’s participation in the village democratic practice, with good results. For instance, the Ministry of Civil Affairs has carried out the Model Project on Policy Innovation for Increasing the Proportion of Rural Women Elected into the Villagers Committee in Tanggu District, Tianjin as well as in other places. The project focused on the introduction of policy measures that favour the election of women, complemented by advocacy and training, capacity building, research and other activities, in an effort to mobilize rural women’s enthusiasm and initiative to participate in elections. The newly developed rural villagers’ self-government information system calls for segregated data collection on the participation of rural women in elections, to better monitor the dynamics of women’s participation. In order to strengthen women’s participation in the villagers’ self-governance, and in accordance with the Organic Law of Villagers Committees of the People’s Republic of China, all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have actively facilitated women’s election as members of villagers committees and the village CPC branch committees and strengthened capacity-building of female members, including the chairwomen, of villagers committees.

213. The proportion of women in villagers committees nationwide rose from 15.1 per cent in 2004 to 21.5 per cent in 2009.

214. The Chinese Government attaches great importance to the problem of suicide among rural women mentioned by the Committee in its previous concluding observations; it has held a special meeting to examine closely the causes of suicide among rural women and possible countermeasures. According to a sample survey analysis, the leading causes of women’s suicide include depression or other mental disorders, family conflicts, economic difficulties and women’s serious illness. In light of this, relevant government departments have focused on strengthening rural public health education and mental health education, expanding the rural services network, vigorously training the grassroots health personnel to improve their knowledge and skills necessary for carrying out the work of mental health and tailoring their work to different groups of people, so as to help them solve difficulties. For instance, villagers committees and rural women’s federations have given priority to helping to solve the practical difficulties of women who suffer frequent family conflicts. At the same time, efforts have been made to guide women to strengthen their awareness of protecting themselves in accordance with the law, broaden their horizons, overcome their pessimism and enhance their mental endurance, so as to prevent suicide.

215. The Chinese Government has stressed the need to provide practical services and help to grass-roots women, especially rural women and migrant women, allocating more human, financial and material resources to the grassroots level work. In early 2010, the Government called upon and supported women’s federations to build “Women’s Houses” in all urban and rural areas, making them a platform for providing knowledge and services to women, where women can pursue learning, find ways to release pressure and show their talents and abilities. With the support of the Chinese Government and local governments, full coverage by Women’s Houses has been achieved in many places. For instance, the government of Xifeng County, Guizhou Province has invested more than 10 million yuan for the building of women’s centres in all villages, and for subscribing to the China Women’s News newspaper and the Women of China magazine, buying equipment and providing funds needed for carrying out activities, thus enabling local women to find solutions locally to many of their difficulties and problems at work and in life.

216. China has adopted a multifaceted model for helping rural women out of poverty and facilitating their development efforts, led by the Government with the participation of the civil society actors, and has effectively reduced the rate of poverty among women, eased to a great extent the economic pressure faced by women living in poverty and enabled them to live with more dignity. This is reflected in the following: micro-credit projects give preference to poor women when they are equally qualified in other aspects; support is given to poor women in running household sideline businesses, including making handicrafts and gardening, which are typically suitable to women; efforts have been made, in the process of rolling out plans for whole villages, to encourage the active participation of women in the management of community affairs and enhance their ability to participate in public affairs; efforts have been made to improve rural roads, improve drinking water and other infrastructure and public services, in order to raise the quality of life; courses have been developed within the migrant labour force training programme that are appropriate to women’s employment; practical technical training is provided to women who stay behind in the rural areas; government departments responsible for poverty alleviation and education have made joint efforts to eliminate illiteracy in women; women are encouraged and organized to find jobs away from their home towns; and efforts have been made to ensure that poor women join the Poor Village Mutual Fund. The All-China Women’s Federation has been carrying out in the rural areas activities to help rural women learn to read and write and acquire techniques so as to be able to contribute to rural development. In 2010 alone, nearly 9 million rural women received a variety of technical skills training, which served to improve their ability to work for prosperity.

217. China is a large agricultural country, and some of the rural areas are still faced with the problem of poverty, with poor women in a particularly disadvantaged position. For instance, rural women lack access to education, health care and other basic public services; and there exists also the phenomenon of “feminization of agriculture”. Fundamental solutions to these and other problems require long-term and arduous efforts.

Part IV

Article 15

Right of Women to Conclude Contracts and to Administer Property

218. Gender equality is a basic state policy of China, according to which women enjoy equal rights with men when it comes to the signing of contracts, property management, litigations, the freedom of movement, and the freedom to choose residence.

Article 16

The Rights of Women in Marriage and Family

219. The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China stipulates that “marriage, family and mother and child are protected by the State.” The Marriage Law is the first law enacted after the founding of New China, which was amended in 1980 and 2001 respectively. The Law is fully consistent with the provisions of Article 16 of the Convention as to the principle of non-discrimination in all matters relating to marriage and family relations. According to the Law, marriage must be based on the complete willingness of both man and woman. Both the man and the woman desiring to contract a marriage shall register in person with the marriage registration office; irrespective of marital status, both husband and wife have the duty to bring up and educate their children; both husband and wife shall have the right to use his or her own surname and given name, and shall have the freedom to engage in production and other work, to study and to participate in social activities; both husband and wife have a duty to practice family planning; both husband and wife have the equal right to dispose jointly possessed properties (pay and bonus; earnings from production and operation; earnings from intellectual property rights; property obtained from inheritance or gift, etc.).

220. The Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, which was amended in 2005, has made further provisions for the better protection of the rights and interests of women in relation to marriage and family. Article 45 of the law provides that “during the period of pregnancy, within one year after childbearing or within 6 months after termination of pregnancy of a woman, her husband shall not apply for divorce. If the woman applies for divorce or if the people’s court deems necessary to accept the divorce application of the husband, the case shall not be subject to this restriction.”

221. The People’s Courts, in trying civil cases related to marriage and family involving issues such as divorce, child support, alimony and inheritance, take full account of women’s attitude toward the marriage in question, and give rulings by following the principle of fully considering the children’s and the women’s rights and interests in terms of child support, divorce, division of property, housing, etc.

222. According to the 2009 statistics, the crude marriage rate in China was 9.10 and the crude divorce rate was 1.85‰, with the average age at first marriage higher than the legal age of marriage.

223. Information related to the Committee’s concluding observations No. 33 and No. 34 is provided below.

224. As to the concerns raised and recommendations put forward in CEDAW concluding observations No. 33 and No. 34, the Chinese Government has maintained that China, as a state party to the Convention on the Status of Refugees and its Protocol, has always attached great importance to the protection of refugees. Article 32 of the Constitution provides that People’s Republic of China protects the legitimate rights and interests of foreigners within Chinese territory; foreigners on Chinese territory must abide by the laws of the People’s Republic of China, and the People’s Republic of China may grant asylum to foreigners who request it for political reasons. Article 15 of the Law on Control of the Entry and Exit of Aliens provides that aliens who seek asylum for political reasons shall be permitted to reside in China upon approval by the competent authorities of the Chinese Government. Chinese laws do not have any discriminatory or restrictive provisions against female asylum seekers.

225. China began work on refugee-related legislation in the 1990s. After years of efforts, relevant ministries have drafted the Measures for Refugee Identification and Administration (Draft); its main contents include the definition of a refugee, the administrative agency for refugee affairs, the identification and determination of the status of refugees, the temporary resettlement of refugees and their repatriation and the loss or cancellation of refugee status. Active preparations are now under way for the early completion of the work on refugee-related legislation.

226. Illegal immigrants from North Korea who come to China for economic reasons are not refugees. China has been handling individual cases in this regard in accordance with its domestic law, international law and in the spirit of humanitarianism, fully taking into account the actual situation of the persons involved. The dignity and rights of North Koreans who enter China by illegal means and for economic reasons are respected and they are treated in the spirit of humanitarianism, by providing them with necessities of life.

Annexes

Annex 1

Rate of Leadership or Management Teams at All Levels Having Female Cadres

(%)

Year
CPC Committee Leadership Teams

Government Leadership Teams

Province
City
County
Province
City
County







2006
87.1
91.5
92.0
90.3
85.0
84.7
2007
93.5
94.5
89.6
80.6
89.5
92.6
2008
90.3
91.0
85.6
93.5
90.0
90.3
2009
83.9
90.5
82.6
90.3
89.5
88.4

Source of Data: Statistics of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.

Annex 2

Female Chief Leaders as a Percentage of Chief Leaders at the Same Level in 2009

County/Director - level

7.3

10.4

14.8

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

%

Province/Ministry

and above

Prefecture/City-level

Note: “Cadres” in this table refers to civil servants.

Source of Data: Statistics of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.

Annex 3

CPC Membership and Gender Composition


Membership (tens of thousands of persons)

Gender Composition (%)
Year
# female
male
female





2006
7 239.1
1 429.2
80.3
19.7
2007
7 415.3
1 511.6
79.6
20.4
2008
7 593.1
1 596.9
79.0
21.0
2009
7 799.5
1 694.0
78.3
21.7

Source of Data: Statistics of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee.

Annex 4

Number of Female Members of the Democratic Parties and of Their Central Committees in 2008

Parties
Number (tens of thousands of persons)
# female
Number of Central Committee Members(persons)
# female





Revolutionary Committee of Chinese Kuomintang
8.9
3.3
209
49
China Democratic League
19.7
8.3
265
50
China Democratic National Construction Association
11.8
4.0
200
43
China Association for Promoting Democracy
11.3
5.6
197
41
Chinese Peasants’ and Workers’ Democratic Party
10.9
5.6
200
37
China Zhi Gong Dang
3.2
1.6
110
27
Jiu San Society
11.5
4.6
225
45
Taiwan Democratic Self-Government League
0.2
0.1
63
25

Source of Data: Statistics of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee.

Annex 5

Female Representation in Enterprise Workers’ Congresses, Boards of Directors, and Boards of Supervisors

(%)

Year
Female representation in enterprises’ workers’ congresses
Female representation in enterprises’ boards of directors
Female representation in enterprises’ boards of supervisors




2005
29.8
43.0
46.8
2006
29.3
32.2
37.7
2007
29.4
38.3
38.0
2008
29.9
39.3
39.2
2009
28.5
32.6
33.4

Source of Data: Statistics of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

Annex 6

Gender Composition of Residents (Villagers) Committees

(%)


Urban residents committees

Villagers committees
Year
male
female
male
female





2006
51.8
48.2
76.8
23.2
2007
50.6
49.4
78.9
21.1
2008
50.1
49.9
78.3
21.7
2009
50.2
49.8
78.5
21.5

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Annex 7

Female Representation in the Associations for Science and Technology

Year
Employees (tens of thousands of persons)
# female
Members of the Boardsa (tens of thousands of persons)
# female





2006
3.5
1.2
21.3
2.6
2007
3.5
1.2
21.8
2.7
2008
3.6
1.3
23.3
3.1
2009
3.7
1.3
24.1
3.0

a Including those of the associations at both national and provincial levels.

Source of Data: Statistics of the China Association for Science and Technology.

Annex 8

Enrolment Rates for All Levels of Education Nationwide

(%)

Year
Preschool gross enrolment rate
Primary school age (net) Enrolment rate
male
female
Junior middle school gross enrolment rate
Senior middle school gross enrolment rate
Higher Education gross enrolment rate








2006
42.5
99.3
99.3
99.3
97.0
59.8
22.0
2007
44.6
99.5
99.5
99.5
98.0
66.0
23.0
2008
47.3
99.5
99.5
99.6
98.5
74.0
23.3
2009
50.9
99.4
99.4
99.4
99.0
79.2
24.2
2010
56.6
99.7
99.7
99.7
100.1
82.5
26.5

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Education.

Annex 9

Female Students Enrolment and Their Moving to a Higher level by Region in 2010

Region
Net Enrolment rate (%)
#female
Proportion of students entering schools of a higher level (%)




National
99.70
99.73
98.67
Beijing
99.96
99.97
99.41
Tianjin
99.79
99.80
96.23
Hebei
99.80
99.80
99.98
Shanxi
99.03
99.03
99.74
Inner Mongolia
99.99
99.99
100.00
Liaoning
99.94
99.95
99.91
Jilin
99.84
99.84
100.00
Heilongjiang
99.12
99.25
99.89
Shanghai
100.00
100.00
88.03
Jiangsu
99.96
99.96
100.00
Zhejiang
100.00
100.00
98.28
Anhui
99.93
99.93
99.92
Fujian
99.98
99.98
96.74
Jiangxi
99.93
99.93
100.00
Shandong
99.99
99.99
100.00
Henan
99.94
99.94
96.05
Hubei
99.96
99.97
100.00
Hunan
99.92
99.93
100.00
Guangdong
99.95
99.95
95.51
Guangxi
99.37
99.34
97.69
Hainan
98.76
99.05
90.88
Chongqing
99.94
99.89
100.00
Sichuan
99.37
99.32
100.00
Guizhou
97.89
98.64
96.27
Yunnan
99.71
99.71
96.08
Tibet
99.17
99.23
93.52
Shaanxi
99.65
99.66
97.54
Gansu
99.46
99.37
95.67
Qinghai
99.56
99.56
95.64
Ningxia
99.86
99.86
94.73
Xinjiang
99.78
99.80
100.00

Source of Data: Ministry of Education statistics.

Annex 10

Female faculty and Staff by Type of School in 2010

(persons)




Female staff


Including female full-time teachers

Number of staff
Number
As a percentage
of total staff
Full-time teachers
Number
As a percentage of total full-time teachers (%)







I. Higher education






(A) Regular colleges and universities
2 156 601
980 704
45.47
1 343 127
624 341
46.48
1. Undergraduate colleges (Including independent colleges)
1 548 043
690 893
44.63
935 493
421 905
45.10
Independent Colleges
175 288
84 921
48.45
126 720
61 246
48.33
2. Higher Vocational technical schools (specialized)
603 201
287 179
47.61
404 098
200 613
49.64
3. Other institutions (centres) (Without taking into account the number of schools affiliated)
5 357
2 632
49.13
3 536
1 823
51.56
(B) Adult Higher Education
77 108
36 658
47.54
45 887
23 354
50.89
(C) Other Private institutions of higher education
38 140
19 074
50.01
17 794
8 738
49.11
II. Secondary education






(A) senior middle school education






1. Senior middle school






Regular senior middle school






Adult Senior middle school
5 859 271
2 746 558
46.88
1 518 194
723 566
47.66
2. Intermediate vocational education
1 222 899
553 532
45.26
680 954
336 224
49.38
Regular intermediate specialized education
435 046
200 868
46.17
295 029
145 103
49.18
Adult intermediate specialized education
85 346
38 856
45.53
56 979
28 090
49.30
Vocational senior middle schools
403 233
187 373
46.47
306 973
152 206
49.58
Technical schools
266 268
111 226
41.77



Other institutions (Teaching centres)
33 006
15 209
46.08
21 973
10 825
49.27
(Without taking into account the number of schools affiliated)






(B) Junior middle school education






1. Regular middle schools



3 523 382
1 743 360
49.48
2. Vocational middle schools
2 187
897
41.02
1 975
863
43.70
3. Adult middle schools






III. Primary education






(A) Regular primary schools
6 109 847
3 433 906
56.20
5 617 091
3 254 965
57.95
(B) Primary schools for adults






- literacy classes






IV. Special education
49 249
33 328
67.67
39 650
28 660
72.28
V. Preschool education
1 849 301
1 689 346
91.35
1 144 225
1 120 836
97.96

Note: The number of staff in regular senior middle schools includes the number of staff in regular junior middle schools.

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Education.

Annex 11

Years of Education by Area (Urban/Rural) & Gender (for people at or above the age of 6) in 2008

G134027103.jpg

Source of Data: Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Annex 12

Sex Ratio of the Floating Population Nationwide

G134027104.jpg

Source of Data: Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Annex 13

Average Years of Education of the Floating Population by Gender in 2008

G134027105.jpg

Source of Data: Statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics.

Annex 14

Professional and Technical Personnel by Category and Number of Women among Them in 2009

(tens of thousands of persons)

Description
Total number
# female



Grand total
2 888.0
1 303.3
Engineering and technical
531.1
124.6
personnel
71.5
20.4
Agricultural technicians
38.8
12.9
Science researchers
392.9
242.6
Health personnel
1 286.9
643.4
Teaching personnel
254.9
102.3
Economics personnel
149.0
89.4
Accounting personnel
14.2
8.2
Statistical personnel
2.6
1.4
Translators/interpreters
27.8
18.3
Personnel of libraries, archives, museums and those handling antiques
22.6
9.8
Press and publishing personnel
Lawyers, notaries
1.7
0.6
Broadcasting personnel
2.2
1.4
Arts and crafts personnel
1.5
0.5
Sports personnel
3.8
1.1
Artistic and performing personnel
13.2
5.6
Political work personnel
73.4
21.0

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Note: This table covers professional and technical personnel for publicly-owned enterprises, which are further divided into state-owned and collectively-owned enterprises.

Annex 15

Number and Gender Composition of Professional and Technical personnel by Level in 2009

Description
Total number
(tens of thousands of persons)
# female

Gender composition(%)
(%)male
female





Senior
297.6
101.7
65.8
34.2
Intermediate
1 076.0
485.7
54.9
45.1
Junior
1 238.8
598.0
51.7
48.3

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Note: This table covers professional and technical personnel for the publicly-owned enterprises, which are further divided into state-owned and collectively-owned enterprises.

Annex 16

Number of Editors and Journalists of the Press and Publishing System and the Female Representation

Year
Editors

Journalists
Number (persons)
# female
Female representation(%)
Number (persons)
# female
Female representation(%)







2007
55 947
27 237
48.7
9
3
36.4
2008
69 623
33 640
48.3
22
9
39.1
2009
77 407
38 044
49.1
22a
9a
39.1

Source of Data: Statistics of the General Administration of Press and Publication.

Note : a 2008 data.

Annex 17

Gender Composition of Registered Unemployed Persons in Urban Areas

G134027106.jpg

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Annex 18

Maternity Insurance Coverage

G134027107.jpg

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Annex 19

Number of Cases of Violation of Provisions for Special Protection for Female Workers and Juvenile Workers, Investigated and Handled by Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security

G134027108.jpg

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Annex 20

Percentage of Enterprises that Have Implemented the Regulations Concerning the Labor Protection of Female Staff and Workers

G134027109.jpg

Source of Data: Statistics of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

Annex 21

Number and Gender Composition of Persons with Disabilities in Social Welfare Enterprises

Year
Staff with disabilities (tens of thousands of persons)
# female
Gender composition (%)
female
male
2006
55.9
18.3
32.7
67.3
2007
56.3
16.9
30.0
70.0
2008
61.9
19.3
31.2
68.8
2009
62.7
19.8
31.6
68.4

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Annex 22

Average Life Expectancy

(year)

Year
Combined
male
female
Female-male
1981
67.77
66.28
69.27
2.99
1990
68.55
66.84
70.47
3.63
2000
71.40
69.63
73.33
3.70
2005
72.95
70.83
75.25
4.42

Source of Data: Condensed statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics, 2007.

Annex 23

Women’s Health

(%)

Year
Percentage of gynecological diseases checked up①
Percentage of gynecological diseases detected
Percentage of women having medical records
Percentage of women having pre-natal checkups
Percentage of women having post-natal follow-ups
Percentage of women receiving healthcare through a formal system
2006
37.6
28.0
88.2
89.7
85.7
76.5
2007
38.5
28.4
89.3
90.9
86.7
77.3
2008
74.1
29.4
89.3
91.0
87.0
78.1
2009
85.4
28.6
90.9
92.2
88.7
80.9

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Health.

Annex 24

Modern Midwifery Rate and Hospitalized Delivery Rate

(%)

Year
modern midwifery rate
hospitalized delivery rate
Nation-wide
urban
rural
Nation-wide
urban
rural
2006
97.8
98.7
97.2
88.4
94.1
84.6
2007
98.4
99.1
97.9
91.7
95.8
88.8
2008
99.1
99.6
98.7
94.5
97.5
92.3
2009
99.3
99.8
99.0
96.3
98.5
94.7

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Health.

Annex 25

Rate of the Use of Male Contraceptive Methods

15.33

15.33

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

%

2006

2009

(year)

Source of Data: National Population and Family Planning Commission survey data。

Annex 26

Incidence of Gynaecological Diseases

Year
Trichomoniasis vaginitis incidence
(%)
Cervical erosion incidence (%)
Genital warts incidence (1/100 000)
Cervical cancer incidence (1/100 000)
Breast cancer incidence (1/100 000)
Ovarian cancer incidence (1/100 000)







2006
7.7
12.0
48.6
11.5
9.3
3.2
2007
7.4
12.2
38.3
13.0
9.2
3.5
2008
12.4
12.6
41.5
14.9
11.1
3.7
2009
13.0
12.1
41.8
14.1
10.2
3.5

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Health.

Annex 27

Causes of Maternal Mortality in Monitored Areas in 2009

Name of Disease
Combined
Urban
Rural
Person/time
Share (%)
Person/time
Share (%)
Person/time
Share (%)
Obstetric hemorrhage
Amniotic fluid embolism
Pregnancy hypertension
Heart disease
Vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism
Liver disease
1
28.1
1
27.9
1
28.2
2
14.7
3
11.6
2
15.4
3
10.3
2
12.8
3
9.8
4
8.1
6
2.3
4
9.5
5
5.1
4
5.8
5
4.9
6
4.4
5
3.5
6
4.6

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Health.

Annex 28

Number and Gender Composition of HIV-infected Persons Reported

Year
Reported cases in the year (cases)
Share (%)
Accumulated cases reported (cases)
Share (%)
Male
female
Male
female
2005
36614
73.1
26.9
144089
73.1
26.9
2006
36161
71.9
28.1



2007
37419
70.9
29.1
164251
75.4
24.6
2008
45572
69.7
30.3
194013
74.1
25.9
2009
48193
69.5
30.5
219113
73.3
26.7

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Health.

Annex 29

Number and Gender Composition of AIDS Patients Reported

Year
Number of cases reported in the year (cases)
Share (%)
Cumulative number of cases reported (cases)
Share (%)
Male
female
male
female
2007
10742
64.8
35.2
66392
60.9
39.1
2008
14509
67.0
33.0
82322
62.2
37.8
2009
20056
68.0
32.0
107050
63.4
36.6

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Health.

Annex 30

Average Leisure and Recreation Time by Area (urban vs. rural) and by Gender

(minutes)

Urban/Rural
Total
male
female
Total
233
252
215
Urban
276
303
251
Rural
185
196
174

Source of Data: The first Time Use Survey for Residents done in 2008.

75.4

94.5

88.5

76.4

62.0

24.6

5.5

11.5

23.6

38.0

0

20

40

60

80

100

Total

Prosecutor-

\general

Deputy

Prosecutor-

\general

prosecutor

Assistant

prosecutor

%

Male

Female

Annex 31

Gender Composition of Prosecutors Nationwide in 2009

Source of Data: Statistics of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate.

全国法院法官人数

高级法院法官人数

人民陪审员人数

75.2

69.0

66.2

24.8

31.0

33.8

0

20

40

60

80

100

%

Male

Female

Annex 32

Gender Composition of Judges and Jurors Nationwide in 2009

Source of Data: Statistics of the Supreme People’s Court.

Annex 33

Number of Lawyers and Female Lawyers Nationwide

(tens of thousands of persons)

Year
Number of lawyers
# female
Full-time lawyers
# female
2006
16.4
2.8
12.2
2.4
2007
14.4
3.1
12.8
2.9
2008
15.6
3.4
14.0
3.4
2009
17.3
3.9
15.5
3.9

Source of data: Statistics of the Ministry of Justice.

Annex 34

year

Female

Male

G134027110.jpg

Gender Composition of the Actual Number of Personnel in Public Security Organs

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Public Security.

Annex 35

Number of Legal Aid Agencies

3167

3259

3268

3274

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

2006

2007

2008

2009

(year)

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Justice.

Annex 36

Number of Elderly people, Minors and Women Receiving Legal Aid

(tens of thousands of persons)

Year
Number of persons
# Elderly
# Minors
# women





2006
53.6
6.0
8.3
9.5
2007
51.9
5.8
8.8
10.8
2008
67.1
5.8
9.8
15.4
2009
73.7
7.6
9.5
18.2

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Justice.

Annex 37

Number of Various Types of Cases Solved

(cases,persons)

Year
Number of cases of rape solved
Number of cases trafficking in women solved
Number of cases trafficking in children solved
Number of solved cases of organizing, forcing, seducing, sheltering or introducing women to engage in prostitution
Number of women victims of trafficking
rescued
Number of child victims of trafficking
rescued
2006
26180
1257
894
10848
1334
1451
2007
25997
1195
811
11984
1031
1728
2008
24495
1300
982
10528
2874
1280
2009
26404
2970
1758
14209
3039
1918

Source of Data: Statistics of the Ministry of Public Security.

Annex 38

Birth Rate, Mortality Rate and Natural Growth Rate of Population by Region in 2009

Region
Year end total population (tens of thousands persons)
Birth rate (‰)
Mortality
rate (‰)
Natural growth
rate (‰)
Nationwide
133474
12.13
7.08
5.05
Beijing
1755
8.06
4.56
3.50
Tianjin
1228
8.30
5.70
2.60
Hebei
7034
12.93
6.43
6.50
Shanxi
3427
10.87
5.98
4.89
Inner Mongolia
2422
9.57
5.61
3.96
Liaoning
4319
6.06
5.09
0.97
Jilin
2740
6.69
4.74
1.95
Heilongjiang
3826
7.48
5.42
2.06
Shanghai
1921
8.64
5.94
2.70
Jiangsu
7725
9.55
6.99
2.56
Zhejiang
5180
10.22
5.59
4.63
Anhui
6131
13.07
6.60
6.47
Fujian
3627
12.20
6.00
6.20
Jiangxi
4432
13.87
5.98
7.89
Shandong
9470
11.70
6.08
5.62
Henan
9487
11.45
6.46
4.99
Hubei
5720
9.48
6.00
3.48
Hunan
6406
13.05
6.94
6.11
Guangdong
9638
11.78
4.52
7.26
Guangxi
4856
14.17
5.64
8.53
Hainan
864
14.66
5.70
8.96
Chongqing
2859
9.90
6.20
3.70
Sichuan
8185
9.15
6.43
2.72
Guizhou
3798
13.65
6.69
6.96
Yunnan
4571
12.53
6.45
6.08
Tibet
290
15.31
5.07
10.24
Shaanxi
3772
10.24
6.24
4.00
Gansu
2635
13.32
6.71
6.61
Qinghai
557
14.51
6.19
8.32
Ningxia
625
14.38
4.70
9.68
Xinjiang
2159
15.99
5.43
10.56





Note: The regional data does not include the number of military personnel in active service of the People’s Liberation Army of China.

Source of data: Statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics.


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