SCIO briefing on the CPC's philosophy and practice of respecting and safeguarding human rights
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E-mail China.org.cn, June 30, 2021
China Women's News:
For a long time, the issue of how to protect the educational rights of migrant and left-behind children has received widespread attention. As the ruling party, how can the CPC ensure that these individuals can enjoy basic rights in life? Thank you.
Zhang Wanhong:
This question can be answered on several levels. First, we will adhere to the concept of equal protection. At the beginning of the 2000s, our Party and the State determined a basic strategy whereby local governments should be responsible for the migrant children in their jurisdiction and that full-time public primary and secondary schools should be mainly responsible for hosting migrant children to ensure the rights of migrant children to receive compulsory education. Secondly, I think it is necessary to give full play to the protection granted by the rule of law. In fact, we actually did that: in addition to laws such as the Compulsory Education Law and the Law on the Protection of Minors, the State Council, the Ministry of Education and other departments have issued various normative documents related to the balanced development of compulsory education, the improvement of the urban and rural compulsory education funding guarantee mechanism, and the resolution of issues such as enrollment of migrant workers' children to provide systematic and legal guarantees for the basic education rights of left-behind children and migrant children. For example, the city of Wuhan, where I live, arranged to admit children of migrant workers in urban areas to public schools in accordance with the principle of relative proximity, which means they can go to schools near where they live. In 2010, Wuhan waived fees for the compulsory education of migrant students. Finally, we have another institutional advantage, which is the joint effort of multiple departments to protect the rights to education of left-behind children and migrant children. First, General Secretary Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang, and other national leaders have repeatedly issued instructions on the issue of left-behind children. Premier Li Keqiang stressed that "it is necessary to strengthen the main responsibility of family guardianship in accordance with the law, and implement the safety management, supervision, education, and other responsibilities of the grassroots government, village committees, and schools." Second, we have institutional cooperation. The Ministry of Civil Affairs takes the lead, while the relevant departments of education, public security, and justice coordinate and cooperate with each other. At the same time, we give full play to the forces of the All-China Women's Federation, the Communist Youth League, and other organizations. Third, we have support from society. Various media outlets and public opinion channels publish opinions and provide measures and suggestions. By seeing the big picture from a small angle, we can see the advantages of our system in solving this problem. With the Party's leadership, government guidance, social participation, and multilateral interactions, we can solve the problem of protecting the rights of specific groups one after another. Thank you.
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