State intervention needed to protect children

A State intervention system is necessary to protect children's rights, says an article in Beijing News. Excerpts below:

The Ministry of Civil Affairs, Supreme People's Court and the Ministry of Public Security are establishing a State intervention custody system for "neglected" children who lack proper care from their legal guardians. The government will deprive irresponsible guardians of their custody rights through lawsuits.

This is a necessary system as some recent reports exposing the sufferings of "neglected" children tug the emotions of all of society.

As a signatory party of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Chinese government has legal obligations and international responsibilities to fulfill by protecting children's legal rights and interests.

Civil affairs departments in China only care for children in difficulty who have no legal guardians. There is no State custody system to take care of children who suffer under delinquent guardians.

The State intervention system works as follows, finding the children who need care, verifying the facts of their guardians' delinquency, launching lawsuits against the guardians and taking care of the children as a new guardian, as in some developed countries.

Civil servants and staff whose jobs relate to children's rights protection, such as kindergarten teachers and doctors, should be obliged to report delinquent guardian cases to civil affairs departments, which should lodge complaints with the judicial authorities for the children.

Social and welfare organizations, communities and relevant experts can form third parties to evaluate how to take better care of individual children according to their different needs.

Public kindergartens, charity houses and community families can all serve as caretakers for the children.

Different government departments need to make joint efforts to bring such a system into existence as soon as possible.