Fighting for China's 1st Anti-Domestic Violence Law

ByCai Shuangxi June 12, 2015
Sun Xiaomei: Fighting for China's 1st Anti-Domestic Violence Law
Sun Xiaomei [China Women's News/Cai Shuangxi]

The Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council publicized the draft of a new bill to tackle domestic violence in China on November 25, 2014, much to the delight of Sun Xiaomei, a campaigner who has fought hard for the introduction of better laws to protect women in abusive relationships.

Taking up Domestic Violence Study despite Difficulties 

When Sun, a professor and scholar from China Women's University (CWU), set foot in the field of domestic violence studies in 1990, many people rejected the concept of "domestic violence", which they thought was simply "being beaten by your spouse" and should not constitute "violence" at all.

By 1993, a hotline set up by the Women's Institution of the Chinese Academy of Management Science was receiving increasing calls about domestic violence and Sun was designated to interview 30 of the women from the suburbs of Beijing. However, many blankly refused to talk about the abuse they suffered, and some who were willing to cooperate at the beginning simply changed their minds later.

Despite the difficulties, Sun managed to complete the research project with ten tapes of audio materials and written records of 30,000 words. She also published a paper based on her research and won an award of merit in a nationwide contest for women-related news and articles.

In 1995, the UN "4th World Conference on Women" was held in Beijing, during which the anti-violence forum attracted numerous scholars and people around the world to discuss relevant issues. As one of the participants, Sun harvested much material during the event, laying a foundation for her future studies and research.

Achieving Academic Results Through Hard Work

With her rich experience and practical knowledge of domestic violence studies, Sun was invited to join a comparative research project among women in Hong Kong, Beijing and Taipei, in 1996. She conducted a survey of 800 women in Beijing from various walks of life, such as teachers, doctors, housewives, lawyers and police officers. Having failed to get sponsorship, though, Sun only managed to finish the survey with help of her students and colleagues at CWU. Before long, the research paper "Study on Anti-domestic Violence Efforts in Beijing, Hong Kong and Taiwan" was published.

During the global wave of anti-domestic violence recognition, Sun won funds from international institutions and hence designed the "Questionnaire on Domestic Violence against Women in China", in 1998. Afterwards, the first large-scale project on domestic violence in China was conducted, consisting of personal interviews, panel discussions and a questionnaire survey of 4,000 individuals.

This project filled a blank in China's domestic violence studies, especially in terms of statistics, and pointed out for the first time that while people showed great concern over direct violence against women, indirect violence was unknown to the public and greatly neglected.

With the results gained, Sun published a series of papers titled "Survey on China's Fight against Domestic Violence" in China Women's News, in 2000, along with a report of over 400,000 words on the same topic.

Moving on to Promote Anti-domestic Violence Law 

As chairperson of the Women's Committee of Chinese Peasants' and Workers' Democratic Party, Sun presented her report "Survey on China's Fight against Domestic Violence" to the fourth session of the 9th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), in 2001, and proposed a national campaign against violence against women, the first proposal in China's history concerning domestic violence, sexual harassment, child abuse, women and child trafficking and other relevant issues. However, the proposal failed to draw enough attention from the CPPCC national committee, and was turned to the All-China Women's Federation for handling.

In fact, out of the 4.11 million divorce cases across the country, 25 percent cited domestic violence as the main cause of the breakup, according to the "White Paper on the Situation Of Chinese Women" released by the State Council, in 2002.

Driven by this public need and working as a deputy to the 11th National People's Congress (NPC), Sun made four proposals for an anti-domestic violence law in 2008 and kept struggling forward whatever disapprovals and rejections she encountered.

Eventually, the NPC decided that "laws and regulations concerning domestic violence shall be included into the national legislation plan, and relevant departments must work in cooperation for the anti-domestic violence legislation."

On November 25, 2014, the "Law of the People's Republic of China against Domestic Violence (draft)" was publicized for public opinion and the China's first anti-domestic violence law is expected to pass in 2015, the 20th anniversary of the "4th World Conference on Women" held in Beijing.

"I feel very glad to promote progress in China's legislation and policies concerning women. Hopefully, the anti-domestic violence law will come out soon," said Sun.

(Source: China Women's News/Translated and edited by Women of China)

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