A Preliminary Research On Protection Of The Left-behind Children's Rights In Countryside Of China

With rapid economic development and acceleration of urbanization in the early stage of the reform and opening-up, a large number of surplus rural labor force transferred to the city to hunt jobs. Most of those people, who could not afford to bring their children to live with them in the city, left their children at home, resulting in a large number of left-behind children in countryside away from their parents. The children left behind in countryside refer to the children in countryside, under the age of 18, who have been left at places of domicile without parental protection due to the fact that one parent or both parents need to go to big cities to find jobs.Due to lack of parental protection, many rights of those children are subject to serious prejudices, and this has drawn wide attention from the entire society. In this thesis, relevant investigation questionnaires are applied as a source of reference, to know more about current situation of the protection of rights of the left-behind children in countryside and analyze existing problems regarding protection of rights of those children, and further, some constructive and feasible strategies for legal protection of the rights of those children are put forward as well.With the theme of legal protection of the rights of the left-behind children in countryside, this thesis is divided into three parts.Part-1 is about the general situation of the left-behind children in countryside of China.To begin with, the connotation of the left-behind children in countryside is defined, following with brief lists of definitions of those children proposed by some scholars. Next, reasons for the emergence of the left-behind children in countryside, their growing environment and living conditions are illustrated.Part-2 is about the primary problems existing in the protection of rights of the left-behind children in countryside of China.These problems are presented in six different aspects. The first reason is the legal hysteresis, which can be subdivided into two parts: 1. The household registration system hampers the left-behind children in countryside from going into cities with their parents; 2. Relevant laws and regulations lack of specific aims to or adequate actions to protect the left-behind children in countryside. The second reason is the shortage of cultural construction in rural areas, which can be best illustrated in two aspects: 1. Some cultural constructions such as rural cultural centers, libraries and some other relevant places have been paralyzed, semi-paralyzed or even in blank condition; 2. Inadequate supervision from the administrative department of rural government also contributes to bad cultural environment in rural areas. The third reason is no guarantee of expenses from the government for compulsory education stage: 1. The living condition in dormitories is very poor and poor students only receive very low subsidy; 2. Schools seriously lack a great number of teachers to serve in the compulsory education stage in rural areas. The fourth reason is indifference to social responsibility which can be stated in three aspects: 1. There is insufficient attention to be paid to or a shortage of non-governmental social organizations to help the left-behind children in countryside; 2. The caring for the left-behind children in countryside has only been shown in a mere formality but lacked a permanent effective mechanism; 3. There is no protection system for the community of the left-behind children in countryside. The fifth reason is the lack of family responsibility: 1. There is a difference of the concepts between parents; 2. There is inadequate communication between parents and children, guardians and teachers; 3.There is no guardian to look after the left-behind children in countryside. The sixth reason is the frail legal remedy.Part-3 is about the measures to take to complete the protection of rights of the left-behind children in countryside of China.For primary problems existing in the protection of rights of the left-behind children in countryside, several strategies and suggestions are put forward. This part is divided into five sections: Section-1 is about reinforcing legislation and completing the protection system for the left-behind children in countryside. In order to truly put protection of the rights of those children into effect, relevant legislation should be improved continuously, related law should be further revised and pertinence and operability of law should be strengthened. Section-2 is about implementing reforms, expanding investment and optimizing the social environment in rural areas, which can be explained in four aspects: 1. Speed up the reform of household registration system and bridge the gap between urban and rural areas; 2. The rural economy should be developed with great effort; 3. The government should put more effort to rural cultural environmental construction; 4. The central government should put more money onto the rural compulsory education. Section-3 is about strengthening social responsibilities and completing social right protection system. These responsibilities mainly include three aspects such as making full use of volunteers and social workers, practicing permanent effective mechanism, for example, the system for guardians with legal responsibility for the children and establishing rural community protection system. Section-4 is about intensifying family responsibility and completing system of rights of family protection. The family protection can be well implemented through intensifying parental awareness of family responsibility, enhancing communications and carefully selecting the guardians for the left-behind children in countryside. Section-5 is about clearly defining responsibility and authority and completing ways of legal remedies. Thus complete administrative and judicial remedy systems must be established in order to protect the rights of those children in an effective way.