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Government Laws

Law Safeguarding Women's Rights and Interests of the People's Republic of China¹ (1992)

Chapter I. General Principles

Article 1. In light of the Constitution and China's actual conditions, this law is enacted to safeguard women's legitimate rights and interests, to promote equality between men and women, and to enable women to play an active role in socialist modernization.

Article 2. Women enjoy the same rights as men in political, economic, cultural, social and family lives. The state protects women's special rights and interests granted by law and gradually perfects a social protection system for women. Discriminating, abusing or injuring women is prohibited.

Article 3. Protecting women's legitimate rights and interests is a responsibility shared by the whole society. State organs, social organizations, enterprises, institutions, as well as autonomous mass organizations at the grassroots levels in urban and rural areas should protect women's rights and interests in accordance with this law and other related laws. The state should adopt effective measures to provide essential conditions whereby women may exercise their rights in accordance with the law.

Article 4. The State Council and the people's governments at the provincial, autonomous regional or municipal levels should take organizational measures to coordinate efforts among pertinent departments to protect women's rights and interests. The specific organs in charge of this work will be decided by the State Council and the people's governments at the provincial, autonomous regional or municipal level.

Article 5. Representing and safeguarding the interests of women of all ethnic origins and from all walks of life, the All-China Women's Federation, as well as all levels of women's federation, should protect women's rights and interests. Trade unions and Communist Youth Leagues should do everything possible within their powers to help protect women's rights and interests.

Article 6. The state should encourage women to have respect and confidence in themselves, to stand on their own feet, to improve themselves, and to defend their own legitimate rights and interests with the help of laws and regulations. Women should observe state laws, respect social ethics and fulfil obligations prescribed by law.

Article 7. All levels of people's governments and pertinent departments should commend and reward those organizations and individuals that have distinguished themselves in protecting women's legitimate rights and interests.

Chapter II. Political Rights

Article 8. The state ensures that women enjoy the same political rights as men.

Article 13. Pertinent departments should listen to and accept criticisms or reasonable suggestions concerning the protection of women's rights and interests. In addition, they should investigate and handle any complaints about or exposure of the violation of women's rights and interests. No organization or individual should try to suppress, attack or retaliate against those who make the complaint or exposure.

Chapter III. Cultural and Educational Rights and Interests

Article 14. The state ensures that women enjoy the same right as men to education.

Article 17. Parents or other guardians are obligated to ensure that female children or juveniles receive compulsory education. Parents or other guardians who fail to send school-age female children or juveniles to school will be educated through criticism by local people's governments unless the former have granted permission for those school-age female children or juveniles with disease or other special conditions. In addition, local people's governments will take effective measures to make those parents or guardians comply. In light of the practical difficulties faced by school-age female children or juveniles, the government, society, and schools should take effective steps to ensure that they receive compulsory education for the duration set locally.

Article 20. Abiding by pertinent state regulations, state organs, social organizations, enterprises and institutions should ensure that women enjoy the same rights as men when engaging in scientific, technological, literary, artistic and other cultural activities.

Chapter IV. Right to Work

Article 21. The state ensures that women and men enjoy the same right to work.

Article 22. Except for certain work categories or positions that are unfit for women, no unit should refuse to hire women, or set a higher threshold for hiring women on the sheer basis of sex.

Hiring female workers under 16 years of age is prohibited.

Article 25. In light of women's differences, all units should protect women's safety and health at work in accordance with the law, and should not assign women any work or labor that is unsuitable for them.

Women should be given special protection during menstruation, pregnancy, purpureum and lactation.

Chapter VI. Rights of the Person

Article 33. The state protects the rights of the person, which women enjoy equally with men.

Article 34. Women's rights of the person brook no infringement. It is prohibited to detain women unlawfully or use other unlawful means to deprive them of or restrict their freedom of the person. It is prohibited to make an unlawful body search of a woman.

Article 35. Women's rights to life and health brook no infringement. It is prohibited to drown, forsake, or cruelly injure or kill baby girls. It is prohibited to discriminate against or abuse women who give birth to baby girls or bear no children. It is prohibited to cruelly injure or kill women by superstitious or violent means. It is prohibited to abuse or forsake elderly women.

Article 36. It is prohibited to abduct and sell or kidnap women. It is prohibited to buy abducted or kidnaped women. People's governments and departments concerned must adopt prompt measures to rescue abducted, sold or kidnaped women. After abducted, sold, or kidnaped women are returned to their hometowns, no one shall discriminate against them, and local governments and departments concerned should do a good job in helping them be restored to normal lives.

Article 37. Both working as a prostitute or visiting prostitutes are prohibited. It is prohibited to organize, coerce, lure, keep or introduce women to work as prostitutes, or hire or keep women to engage in obscene activities with others.

Article 39. A woman's reputation and human dignity are protected by law. It is prohibited to hurt a woman's reputation or human dignity by means of insult, slander or revelation of privacy.

Chapter VII. Marriage and Family Rights

Article 40. The state protects marriage and family rights, which women enjoy equally with men.

Article 41. The state protects a woman's right to marry the partner of her choice. It is prohibited to interfere with women's freedom in marriage or divorce.

Chapter VIII. Legal Responsibility

Article 48. When their lawful rights and interests are infringed upon by others, women have the right to request the departments concerned to help remedy the infringement or to take legal proceedings with the people's court. When their lawful rights and interests are infringed upon by others, women may seek assistance from women's organizations. Women's organizations should request the departments or organizations concerned to invest and handle the cases and protect the rights and interests of the women.

Article 49. With respect to punishment regarding the infringement of women's rights and interests in violation of this law, other laws and regulations are applicable if they contain the appropriate punishment provisions.

Article 50. An organization or higher-level authorities should demand a correction, and may take administrative disciplinary action against the persons to blame for any of the following violations of women's lawful rights and interests

If a state functionary makes reprisals against any complaints, accusations, or reports on violation of women's rights and interests, his organization or the higher-level authorities should demand him to mend his ways, and may take administrative disciplinary action against him. If the reprisal is criminal, he shall be dealt with in accordance with Article 146 of the Criminal Law.

Article 51. Whoever hires or keeps women to engage in obscene activities with others shall be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of Article 19 of the Regulations Governing Offences Against Public Order. If the offence is serious and criminal, the offenders shall be dealt with in accordance with Article 160 of the Criminal Law.

Article 52. Whoever infringes up women's lawful rights and interests and has caused property or other losses to women should compensate for the losses or bear other civil responsibility according to law.

Chapter IX. Supplementary Articles

Article 53. The departments concerned under the State Council may formulate relevant regulations based on this law and may submit them to the State Council for approval, promulgation and implementation. The standing committees of provincial, autonomous regional and municipal people's congresses may formulate implementation procedures based on this law. The people's congresses of autonomous areas of minority nationalities may make appropriate adaptations or formulate supplementary provisions based on the principles of this law in light of the situation of local women of minority nationalities. The provisions of autonomous regions shall be submitted to the National People's Congress Standing Committee for the record. The provisions of autonomous prefectures and autonomous counties shall be submitted to provincial or autonomous regional people's congress standing committees for approval, and then submitted to the NPC Standing Committee for the record.

Article 54. This law shall go into effect on October 1, 1992.

¹Selected sections pertinent to human trafficking; for full text, go to http://www.qis.net/chinalaw/prclaw60.htm