On March 1, 2016, China's first national law against domestic violence comes into force, symbolizing that domestic violence formally enters into the scope of legal supervision. Besides, legal professionals across the country are predicting a sharp decline in the number of cases of spousal and partner abuse.
The Anti-Domestic Violence Law, adopted by China's National People's Congress on Sunday, allows survivors of domestic abuse - defined as physical, psychological, or other harm - to file for a restraining order that can force the abuser to move out of the home. Courts must rule within 72 hours of filing. Police must also immediately respond when abuse is reported, once the law officially goes into effect in March.
China News comments that handling domestic violence is a problem for the authority. To solve it, the new law clarifies the responsibility of related departments, providing strong protection for victims suffering from domestic violence. Meanwhile, it has been a spotlight that how victims take the law weapon to defend themselves and how related departments implement legislation terms effectively.
The legislation, the second and final draft, was approved by the State legislature on December 27, 2015. It has been hailed as a milestone in the movement to protect women from physical and psychological abuse at home, taking over 20 years for the final law to come out since the first program on the development of Chinese women proposed "resolutely prohibiting domestic violence" in 1995. It defines domestic violence as physical and mental harm in the ways like beatings, binding, restraining personal liberty, recurring invectives and verbal threats in family members.
On that day UN stated on its official microblog that it focused on eliminating family violence through lawmaking. It also said, "do you know this? In China family violence exists in 24.7% families. Around 90% victims are women. On average victims call the police after suffering family violence 35 times." UN Women has joined hands with Chinese celebrities to call upon rejecting domestic violence.
Except women afflicted by violence, children suffer family violence from parents and stepparents. They are also included in the new law, which has great realistic significance for protecting vulnerable groups like women and children.
