Cctv newsOn the morning of March 1st, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate held a press conference on "Strengthening Comprehensive Judicial Protection to Protect the Healthy Growth of Minors" to inform the procuratorial work of minors in 2023 and the effectiveness of procuratorial organs’ cooperation with all parties to strengthen the protection of minors, release the fiftieth batch of guiding cases of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (the theme of network protection for minors), and answer questions from reporters.
Gong Ming, a member of the Supreme People’s Procuratorate Party Group and Deputy Procurator-General, said that minors are the future of the motherland and the hope of the nation. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with the Supreme Leader as the core has attached great importance to the healthy growth of minors. Procuratorial organs, as national legal supervision organs, participate in the whole process of judicial protection of minors and bear the important responsibility of protecting minors. In 2023, procuratorial organs at all levels adhered to the principle of "running every case well with high quality and efficiency", deepened the integration of the "four major procuratorates" to perform their duties, strengthened comprehensive and comprehensive judicial protection, joined hands with all parties to protect the healthy growth of minors with heart and affection.
First, conscientiously implement the decision-making arrangements of the party and the state on the protection of minors, and run every case involving minors with high quality and efficiency.
Adhere to the facts as the basis, take the law as the criterion, implement the criminal policy of combining leniency with severity and the special and priority protection requirements for minors, and strive to make the people feel fair and just in every case involving minors.
First, adhere to a zero-tolerance attitude and severely crack down on crimes against minors according to law. In recent years, crimes against minors are generally on the rise. From 2020 to 2023, procuratorial organs prosecuted 243,000 people for crimes against minors, with an average annual increase of 5.4%. Children are harmed, which is both a family injury and a social pain. Procuratorial organs, together with public security organs and people’s courts, severely punish violent injuries, rape, indecency, trafficking and other serious crimes according to law, and severely crack down on adults who coerce, seduce and instigate minors to engage in illegal and criminal activities. In view of the frequent crimes against minors, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the Supreme Court issued the Interpretation on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in Handling Criminal Cases of Rape and Indecency of Minors, which clearly stipulated that the crimes of using the Internet to "indecency" minors from a distance should be severely punished according to law, that is, those who coerce or trick minors into exposing their private parts or committing obscene acts through online video chat, or sending videos and photos, shall be convicted and sentenced according to the crime of indecency. In addition, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate led the "two high schools and two departments" to issue the "Opinions on Handling Criminal Cases of Sexual Abuse of Minors", and held the first training class on handling public security and procuratorial laws for sexual abuse of minors, further unifying standards in entity, procedure and judicial practice, eliminating differences and forming a joint force. Vigorously strengthen litigation supervision, and lodge 566 protests against juvenile criminal cases, up 21.7% year-on-year. Wang Moumou in Gansu raped a girl with intellectual disability in the same village and refused to plead guilty.The third-level procuratorate relayed supervision, and the highest procuratorate protested according to law. The defendant was sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment from innocence. In the case of Wang’s sexual assault in Ordos City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, in response to the acquittal, the procuratorate stripped the cocoon from hundreds of thousands of chat records, fixed the evidence of the crime, and protested according to law. The defendant was sentenced to six years in prison from innocence.
Second, adhere to the combination of punishment according to law and education, and be tolerant of minors involved in crimes. In recent years, from the overall situation of the country, juvenile delinquency is still on the rise. In 2023, procuratorial organs accepted and prosecuted 97,000 juvenile crimes, of which about 10,000 were committed by minors under the age of 16, and five types of crimes, such as theft, rape, robbery, affray and trouble-seeking, accounted for nearly 70%; At the same time, the overall decline of juvenile delinquency, serious violent crimes tend to be flat, and cyber crimes gradually increase. In view of these new trends and characteristics, procuratorial organs actively implement the policy of "education, probation and salvation" and the concept of "protection, education and control", and take corresponding disciplinary and educational measures according to the criminal nature, subjective malignancy and harmful consequences of minors. Minors who commit serious crimes, behave badly and do not repent will be punished according to law, and the severity will be severe, and 27,000 people will be arrested and 39,000 people will be prosecuted. For minors who have committed minor crimes and committed occasional crimes for the first time, they should be lenient, and 38,000 people will not be arrested and 40,000 people will not be prosecuted. No matter how to deal with it, the procuratorial organs have conscientiously implemented special procedures for juvenile criminal cases such as social investigation and the presence of suitable adults, guaranteed various litigation rights of minors in accordance with the law, and carried out accurate assistance and education throughout the handling of cases through psychological intervention, nursing education and other means to maximize education and rescue minors involved in crimes.
The third is to adhere to the policy of individual cases and comprehensively strengthen the care and assistance work for underage victims. Conscientiously implement the Supreme People’s Procuratorate’s Opinions on Comprehensively Strengthening the National Judicial Assistance for Minors, and implement "all assistance should be given to minors who have been harmed by crimes or are in trouble because of cases", which not only helps minors get rid of their living difficulties as soon as possible, but also focuses on improving their physical and mental conditions, family upbringing and social environment, and promotes their healthy growth. In 2023, the procuratorial organs provided judicial assistance to nearly 20,000 minors and paid 190 million yuan in aid. Cooperate with the public security organs and the Women’s Federation to promote the construction of a "one-stop" inquiry and assistance mechanism integrating physical examination, psychological counseling, evidence collection and assistance, and build 2053 "one-stop" inquiry and assistance case-handling areas. Together with education, civil affairs, the Communist Youth League, the Women’s Federation and other departments and social forces, we will properly do psychological intervention, physical rehabilitation, school resumption and transfer, and strive not to let an injured child fall behind.
Two, deepen the "four prosecutors" comprehensive performance, and comprehensively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of minors.
Judicial cases found that some minors’ illegal crimes or violations are often closely related to the failure to protect the legitimate civil and administrative rights and interests such as support, guardianship and education. Since 2021, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate has comprehensively implemented the centralized and unified handling of juvenile procuratorial work, and centralized the procuratorial cases involving juvenile criminal, civil, administrative and public interest litigation to the juvenile procuratorial department, making overall use of various methods such as examination and arrest, examination and prosecution, protest, procuratorial suggestions and public interest litigation, and taking a multi-pronged approach to strengthen the comprehensive judicial protection of juvenile rights and interests.
In 2023, when handling criminal cases involving minors, procuratorial organs simultaneously examined and found clues of other types of cases, comprehensively applied various procuratorial functions, and handled 31,000 civil, administrative and public interest litigation cases. For example, when Zhejiang procuratorial organs conditionally refused to prosecute minors involved in drug abuse, they found that the relevant administrative organs failed to fully perform their duties of drug management and circulation supervision in accordance with the law, so that minors could buy and abuse drugs at will, infringing on the public interests of minors. The procuratorial organs urged functional departments to issue relevant opinions by making procuratorial suggestions before public interest litigation, thus strengthening the source control of drug abuse. When handling civil cases involving minors, we found clues of other types of cases through simultaneous review, and handled 670 cases of public interest litigation, administrative and criminal filing supervision through comprehensive performance of duties. When handling public interest litigation cases for the protection of minors, 689 civil and administrative cases were examined and handled simultaneously. In view of the problem that minors’ litigation ability is weak and they can’t effectively exercise their litigation rights, we increased the support and prosecution of issues involving custody and support according to law, and handled more than 7,700 cases involving minors, up 2.1 times year-on-year; We handled 24,000 cases of public interest litigation for the protection of minors, up 1.4 times year-on-year, and devoted ourselves to protecting the legitimate rights and interests of minors on the track of the rule of law.
Third, do the real source management, and promote the purification of the growth environment of minors.
General Secretary of the Supreme Leader stressed: "The construction of the rule of law should not only grasp the end, cure the disease, but also grasp the front end and cure the disease." Handling cases involving minors can’t stop at doing a good job. What’s more important is to continue to follow up on the causes of cases and similar cases, and do the source management to prevent the recurrence of related cases. After the compulsory reporting system on infringement of minors established by procuratorial organs in conjunction with relevant departments has been accepted as a legal provision, state organs, village (neighborhood) committees, units in close contact with minors and their staff members, when they find that minors have been infringed or are in danger of being infringed, immediately report to public security, civil affairs, education and other departments, which becomes a legal responsibility. Procuratorial organs continued to exert their efforts to promote the implementation of the system, and carried out "every case must be investigated" for cases of infringement on minors, and made follow-up supervision and reverse review. In 2023, more than 3,700 cases were handled through compulsory reporting, and 557 people were held accountable for urging not to report, and criminal responsibility was investigated for suspected duty crimes according to law. Strictly implement the employment inquiry system and employment prohibition system according to law, promote comprehensive inquiry, strict access and effective prohibition, and ensure the entry of employees. In view of the hidden dangers of the healthy growth of minors brought about by the rapid development of new formats, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Public Security were urged to issue the Notice on Strengthening the Protection of Minors in the Management of E-sports Hotels through special seminars, case releases, exchanges and consultations, and urged the General Administration of Market Supervision and other departments to formulate relevant opinions on standardizing blind box management and strengthening the management of script entertainment.Promote the benign development of new formats and the better growth of minors.
Fourth, actively perform their duties according to law, and promote the "six major protections" to form a joint force
Conscientiously implement the deliberation opinions of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) on the report of the people’s procuratorate on the procuratorial work of minors, and promote the coordination of various functional departments with the judicial protection of procuratorial performance.
In terms of family protection, we will work with the All-China Women’s Federation and the China Working Committee to issue typical cases of family education guidance for minors involved in the case, promote the orderly expansion of the scope of family supervision and guardianship, and issue 57,000 "Supervision and Guardianship Orders" to promote "parents who leave their hands" to take care of their children according to law.
In terms of school protection, the Ministry of Education jointly formulated the Opinions on Establishing the Cooperation and Cooperation Mechanism for Minors’ Dropout Control and Education Protection, and jointly established the "the Supreme People’s Procuratorate Minors’ Legal Education Practice Base", which guided local procuratorial organs and relevant departments to build 2,120 legal education practice bases, and promoted 43,000 prosecutors to serve as vice presidents of the rule of law in nearly 80,000 primary and secondary schools, thus promoting stronger school protection.
In terms of network protection, we should conscientiously study and publicize the Regulations on Network Protection for Minors, participate in the routine briefing of the State Council policy, hold a press conference with the Central Network Information Office and the Office of the State Council Women and Children Working Committee to strengthen the comprehensive performance of minors’ network protection, formulate opinions on strengthening the network legal work of procuratorial organs in the new era, and work together to build a security line for minors’ network protection.
In terms of social protection, the All-China Women’s Federation and the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League jointly launched a series of activities such as "Bringing Love Home" and "Rights and Interests in Action", led the official release of the national standard "Service Standard for Judicial Social Work for Minors" developed by relevant departments, and produced the seventh season of "Guarding Tomorrow" with the Central Radio and Television General Station, which is being broadcast on the CCTV Social and Legal Channel. Tonight, the fifth episode of the series will be broadcast, telling about underage students who are caught in online gambling or gambling for the sake of gambling.
In terms of government protection, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and others issued the "Three-year Action Plan for Improving the Quality of Care Services for Left-behind Children and Children in Difficulties in Rural Areas", and cooperated with National Health Commission and others to issue a special action plan for comprehensively strengthening and improving the mental health of students in the new era (2023— In 2025), we will continue to implement the China Program for the Development of Women and Children (2021— 2030), join hands with various functional departments and relevant parties to jointly hold up the sun of tomorrow.
