(Adopted at the 21st Meeting of the Standing Committee of the
Seventh National People's Congress? on September 4, 1991 and
promulgated by Order No.50 of the President of the People's
Republic of China on September 4, 1991)
Contents
Chapter I??? General
Provisions
Chapter II?? Protection by the
Family
Chapter III? Protection by the School
Chapter IV?? Protection by the
Society
Chapter V??? Judicial
Protection
Chapter VI?? Legal Responsibility
Chapter VII? Supplementary Provisions
Chapter I General
Provisions
Article 1 This Law is enacted in accordance with the
Constitution for the purpose of protecting the physical and mental
health of minors, safeguarding their lawful rights and interests,
promoting their all-round development -- morally, intellectually
and physically, and training them into successors to the socialist
cause with lofty ideals, sound morality, better education and a
good sense of discipline.
Article 2 Minors as used in this Law refer to citizens under the
age of eighteen.
Article 3 The State, society, schools and families shall educate
minors in ideals, morality, culture, discipline and legal system as
well as in patriotism, collectivism, internationalism and
communism, foster among them the social ethics of loving the
motherland, the people, labour, science and socialism, and fight
against the corrosive influences of bourgeois, feudal and other
decadent ideologies.
Article 4 The protection of minors shall follow the following
principles:
(1)safeguarding the lawful rights and interests of minors;
(2)respecting the personal dignity of minors;?
(3)fitting in with the characteristics of minors' physical and
mental development; and
(4)combining education with protection.
Article 5 The State shall protect the rights of the person and
property as well as other lawful rights and interests of minors
from violation.
To protect minors is the common responsibility of State organs,
armed forces, political parties, social organizations, enterprises
and institutions, self-governing organizations of mass character at
grass-roots levels in urban and rural areas, guardians of minors
and other adult citizens.
Any organization or individual shall have the right to dissuade
or stop any act encroaching upon the lawful rights and interests of
minors, or report to or complain before a department concerned
thereagainst.
The State, society, schools and families shall educate and help
minors to safeguard their lawful rights and interests by legal
means.
Article 6 State organs at the central and local levels shall,
within the scope of their functions and responsibilities, ensure
the protection of minors.
The State Council and the people's governments of the provinces,
autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central
Government shall adopt organizational measures according to needs
to coordinate the departments concerned in their efforts to ensure
the protection of minors.
The Communist Youth League organs, women's federations, trade
unions, youth federations, students' federations, young pioneers'
organizations and other social organizations shall assist the
people's governments at various levels in ensuring the protection
of minors and safeguarding their lawful rights and interests.
Article 7 The people's governments at various levels and
departments concerned shall give awards to organizations and
individuals that have made outstanding achievements in the
protection of minors.
Chapter II Protection by the Family
Article 8 The parents or other guardians of minors shall fulfil
their responsibility of guardianship and their obligations
according to law to bring up the minors. They shall not maltreat or
forsake the minors, nor shall they discriminate against female or
handicapped minors. Infanticide and infant- abandoning shall be
forbidden.
Article 9 The parents or other guardians of minors shall respect
the minors' right to receive education, must ensure to the minors
of school age the compulsory education as provided by relevant
regulations, and shall not make minors receiving compulsory
education at school discontinue their schooling.
Article 10 The parents or other guardians of minors shall
cultivate the minors in sound ideology and conduct by appropriate
methods, guide them to undertake activities that are conducive to
their physical and mental development, prevent and stop them from
smoking, excessive drinking, leading a vagrant life, gambling,
drug-taking or prostitution.
Article 11 The parents or other guardians of minors may not
permit? or force the minors to marry, nor may they undertake
an engagement for the minors.
Article 12 The parents or other guardians of minors who refuse
to perform their duties as guardians or encroach upon the lawful
rights and interests of the minors under their guardianship shall
bear the responsibility therefor according to law.
Where the parents or other guardians of minors commit any act
specified in the preceding paragraph and refuse to mend their ways
after education, the people's court may, upon application by the
person(s) or unit(s) concerned, disqualify them as guardians and
designate guardians anew in accordance with the provisions in
Article 16 of the General Principles of the Civil Law.
Chapter III Protection by the School
Article 13 Schools shall comprehensively implement the State
policy for education and conduct moral, intellectual, physical,
aesthetic and labour education among the minor students, and give
them guidance in social life as well as education in puberty
knowledge.
Schools shall show concern for and take good care of the minor
students; with respect to those who have shortcomings in conduct or
difficulties in study, schools shall give patient education and
help, and may not discriminate against them.
Article 14 Schools shall respect the minor students' right to
receive education and may not arbitrarily expel any minor students
from schools.
Article 15 Teaching and administrative staff in schools and
kindergartens shall respect the personal dignity of the minors, and
may not enforce corporal punishment or corporal punishment in
disguised forms, or? any other act that humiliates the
personal dignity of the minors.
Article 16 Schools may not let the minor students engage in any
activity in school buildings or in any other educational and
teaching facilities that are dangerous to their personal safety and
health.
No organization or individual may disrupt the order of teaching
in schools, occupy or damage school ground, housing and
installations.
Article 17 Collective activities organized by schools and
kindergartens for minor students and children, such as taking part
in rallies, recreational activities and social practices, shall be
conducive to the sound growth of minors; accidents endangering
personal safety shall be prevented.
Article 18 In respect of minors who are sent to work-and-study
schools to receive compulsory education pursuant to relevant
regulations of the State, the work-and-study schools shall conduct
among such minors ideological, cultural, labour skill and
vocational education.
Teaching and administrative staff in work-and-study schools
shall show concern for, take good care of and respect the students
and may not discriminate against or detest such students.Article 19
Kindergartens shall do a good job in nursing care and education so
as to promote the harmonious development of the children in
physique, intellectual ability and moral values.
Chapter IV Protection by the Society
Article 20 The State shall encourage social organizations,
enterprises, institutions and other organizations and citizens to
hold various forms of social activities that are conducive to the
sound growth of minors.
Article 21 People's governments at various levels shall create
conditions to establish and improve places and facilities suited to
the needs of minors for cultural life.
Article 22 Museums, memorial halls, scientific and technological
centres, cultural centres, cinemas and theatres, stadiums and
gymnasiums, zoos, parks and other similar places shall be open to
secondary school students and primary school pupils on preferential
basis.
Article 23 In respect of places, such as commercial dancing
halls that are not appropriate for minors to take part in the
activities therein, the competent departments and business managers
shall take measures to ensure that no admission shall be given to
minors.
Article 24 The State shall encourage units of the press,
publication, broadcasting, film and television, art and literature,
as well as writers, scientists, artists and other citizens to
create or provide works beneficial to the sound growth of minors.
The State shall render support to the publication of books,
newspapers, magazines and audio-visual products specially catering
to minors.
Article 25 It shall be strictly prohibited for any organization
or individual to sell, rent, or disseminate by any other means to
minors, books, newspapers, magazines or audio-visual products of
pornography, violence, wanton killing and terror that are
pernicious? to minors.
Article 26 Food, toys, utensils and amusement facilities for
children may not be harmful to children's safety and health.
Article 27 No person may smoke in the classrooms, dormitories
and recreational rooms of secondary and primary schools,
kindergartens, as well as any other indoor places where minors
gather for activities.
Article 28 No organization or individual may hire any minor
under the age of sixteen, except as otherwise provided by the
State.
Any organization or individual that recruits according to
relevant regulations of the State minors over the age of sixteen
but under eighteen shall, in respect of the types of jobs, duration
of time and intensity of labour as well as protective measures,
follow the relevant regulations of the State and may not assign
them to any overstrenuous, poisonous or harmful labour or any
dangerous operation.
Article 29 In respect of minors who wander about and go begging
or those who flee from their homes, the civil affairs departments
or other departments concerned shall take the responsibility to
send them back to their parents or other guardians; with regard to
those whose parents or guardians cannot be ascertained for the time
being, the welfare organizations for children established by the
civil affairs departments shall accept and take care of them.
Article 30 No organization or individual may disclose the
personal secrets of minors.
Article 31 No organization or individual may conceal, destroy or
discard mail of any minor. Except when the inspection of mail in
accordance with legal procedures by the public security organs or
the people's procuratorates is necessary for the investigation of a
criminal offence, or when the opening of mail of a minor without
capacity is done on his or her behalf by the parents or other
guardians, no organization or individual may open mail of any
minor.
Article 32 Departments of public health and schools shall
provide minors with necessary sanitary and health-care conditions
and make efforts to prevent diseases.
Article 33 Local people's governments at various levels shall
make efforts to develop child-care undertakings and strive to run
nurseries and kindergartens well, encourage and support State
organs, social organizations, enterprises and institutions as well
as other sectors of society to establish nursing rooms, nurseries
and kindergartens, advocate and support the establishment of
household nurseries.
Article 34 Departments of public health shall, in relation to
children, establish a preventive inoculation certificate system,
make? efforts to prevent common and frequently-occurring
diseases among children, strengthen supervision and control over
the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases and give more
effective? professional guidance to sanitation and health-care
work in nurseries and kindergartens.
Article 35 People's governments at various levels and
departments concerned shall, through various forms, foster and
train child-care and teaching staff in nurseries and kindergartens,
and strengthen political, ideological and professional education
thereto.
Article 36 The State shall protect according to law the
intellectual achievements and the right of honour of minors from
encroachment.
For minors who have shown unusual talent or made outstanding
achievements, the State, society, families and schools shall
create? conditions favourable to their sound development.
Article 37 In respect of minors who have completed the
prescribed length of schooling in terms of compulsory education and
will not receive education at a higher level, the relevant
governmental departments, social organizations, enterprises and
institutions shall, in line with the actual conditions, train them
in vocational skills and create conditions for their engagement in
labour or employment.
Chapter V Judicial Protection
Article 38 In respect of delinquent minors, the policy of
education, persuasion and redemption shall be implemented and the
principle of taking education as the main method and punishment as
the subsidiary shall be upheld.
Article 39 In respect of minors reaching the age of fourteen who
have committed crimes but are not subject to criminal punishment
because they have not yet reached the age of sixteen, their parents
or other guardians shall be ordered to subject them to discipline;
when necessary, such minors may also be taken in for rehabilitation
by the government.
Article 40 Public security organs, people's procuratorates and
people's courts shall, in dealing with cases involving crimes
committed by minors, take their physical and mental
characteristics? into consideration, and may, in line with
needs, set up special organs or designate special persons to handle
such cases.
Public security organs, people's procuratorates, people's courts
and reformatories for juvenile delinquents shall respect the
personal dignity of the delinquent minors and safeguard their
lawful rights and interests.
Article 41 Public security organs, people's procuratorates and
people's courts shall guard minors under custody, pending trial,
separately from adults under custody.
Minors who are sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment by the
people's courts shall be housed and guarded separately from adults
serving their sentences.
Article 42 All cases involving crimes committed by minors over
fourteen years old but under sixteen shall not be tried publicly.
Cases involving crimes committed by minors over sixteen years old
but under eighteen shall, in general, not be tried publicly.
With regard to cases involving crimes committed by minors, the
names, home addresses and photos of such minors as well as other
information which can be used to deduce who they are, may not be
disclosed, before the judgement, in news reports, films, TV
programmes and in any other openly circulated publications.
Article 43 The families, schools and other units concerned shall
coordinate, in educating and redeeming the delinquent minors, with
the reformatories for juvenile delinquents and other similar units
where the delinquent minors are held.?
Article 44 Minors who are exempt from prosecution by the
people's procuratorates, from criminal punishment by the people's
courts, or the execution of whose sentence is announced suspended
by the people's court, and minors who have been released from
reformatory custody or have served their terms of imprisonment
shall not be discriminated? against? in respect of
resuming schooling, entering a higher school or employment.
Article 45 The people's courts shall, in handling cases
concerning inheritance, protect the minors' right of inheritance
according to law.
In handling cases of divorce, if disputes arise between the two
parties concerned over the support of the minor child or children
and no agreement can be reached, the people's courts shall make
judgment in accordance with the principle of safeguarding the
rights and interests of the child or children and in light of the
specific conditions of the two parties concerned.
Chapter VI Legal Responsibility
Article 46 Where the lawful rights and interests of a minor is
infringed, the infringed or his or her guardians shall have the
right to request the department concerned to deal with the matter
or bring a suit in a people's court according to law.
Article 47 Whoever has encroached upon the lawful rights and
interests of a minor and caused him or her losses in property or
other losses or harms shall compensate for the losses or bear other
civil liabilities according to law.
Article 48 Where teaching and administrative staff in schools,
nurseries or kindergartens subject minor students or children to
corporal punishment or corporal punishment in disguised forms, and
if the circumstances are serious, disciplinary sanctions shall be
given by their units or the authorities at higher levels.
Article 49 Where enterprises, institutions or individual
industrialists and businessmen illegally hire minors who have not
reached the age of sixteen, the relevant labour departments shall
order such units or individuals to make corrections and shall
impose fines on them; if the circumstances are serious, the
relevant administrative departments for industry and commerce shall
revoke their business licenses.
Article 50 Where commercial dancing halls or other similar
places not appropriate for minors to participate in the activities
therein give admission to minors, the competent departments shall
order such units to make corrections, and may impose fines on
them.
Article 51 Whoever sells, rents or disseminates by any other
means to minors pornographic books, newspapers, magazines or
audio-visual products shall be given heavier punishment according
to law.
Article 52 Where an encroachment upon the right of the person or
other lawful rights of a minor constitutes a crime, criminal
responsibility shall be investigated according to law.
Whoever maltreats a minor family member in a vicious manner
shall be investigated for criminal responsibility in accordance
with the provisions in Article 182 of the Criminal Law.
Judicial personnel who, in violation of the rules or regulations
on prison management, subject imprisoned minors to corporal
punishment or maltreatment, shall? be investigated for
criminal responsibility in accordance with the provisions in
Article 189 of the Criminal Law.
Where a person has the obligation to support a minor but refuses
to do so, and if the circumstances are flagrant, criminal
responsibility shall be investigated? in accordance with the
provisions in Article 183 of the Criminal Law.
Whoever commits infanticide shall be investigated for criminal
responsibility in accordance with the provisions in Article 132 of
the Criminal Law.
Whoever, while fully aware of the school buildings being in
danger of collapse, does not take any measures, thus resulting in
the collapse of the said buildings and causing injuries or death,
shall be investigated for criminal responsibility in accordance
with the provisions in Article 187 of the Criminal Law.
Article 53 Whoever instigates a minor to break law or commit
criminal offences shall be given heavier punishment according to
law.
Whoever lures, instigates or forces a minor to take or inject
drugs or engage in prostitution shall be given heavier punishment
according to law.
Article 54 A party concerned, if not satisfied with the decision
on administrative sanctions made according to this Law, may first
apply for reconsideration to an administrative organ at a higher
level or to an administrative organ prescribed by relevant laws or
regulations. If still not satisfied with the reconsideration
decision, the party may bring a suit in a people's court. The party
may also directly bring a suit in a people's court.? Where the
relevant laws or regulations prescribe that the party concerned
shall first apply to the administrative organ for reconsideration,
and, if not satisfied with the reconsideration decision, then bring
a suit in a people's court, such laws or regulations shall be
complied with.
If a party, within the prescribed period, neither applies for
reconsideration of the decision on administrative sanctions, nor
brings a suit in a people's court, nor complies with the decision,
the organ which has made the punitive decision may either apply to
a people's court for compulsory execution, or enforce the decision
according to law.
Chapter VII Supplementary Provisions
Article 55 Departments concerned under the State Council may
formulate on the basis of this Law relevant regulations, which
shall be submitted to the State Council for approval before
implementation.
The standing committees of the people's congresses of the
provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the
Central Government may, on the basis of this Law, formulate
measures for implementation.
Article 56 This Law shall go into effect as of January 1,
1992.?
Source: NPC