The $50 million allocation will finance various investment projects, among others. (Photo : Reuters)
A senior official at the Ministry of Justice said on Thursday that China would broaden its scope on legal aid in an attempt to protect the legal rights of those who belong to vulnerable groups.
The ministry issued a notice that said legal aid services are to be extended to migrant workers, the elderly, women, minors and the disabled to ensure justice and social equality.
"Apart from the vulnerable groups, free legal aid will be extended to those involved in civil disputes and criminal cases involving people's livelihoods, such as marriage and family, food safety, education and healthcare," said Vice-Minister Zhao Dacheng at a news briefing on Thursday.
People with very low incomes will also be eligible for free legal aid, he added.
Ministry director to the legal aid department, Sun Jianying, said that China is transforming its political and economic growth platform, which definitely shakes up different kinds of social conflicts, risking the interests of vulnerable groups.
Ministry numbers in 2003 reveal that the national legal aid department took on 7.5 million cases and offered aid to around 9 million more.
Legal funding from last year reached 1.7 billion yuan ($274 million), reaching a 4.8-percent increase, the ministry said.
As many as 3,700 legal aid centers are presently dispersed across the country, with 14,000 lawyers who offer legal services, such as consultation, representation in criminal cases or mediating civil disputes, it added.
Over 70 percent of the disputes were mainly civil, with most cases involving payment, employment, marriage, domestic affairs, and traffic accidents, while others involved criminal and administrative litigation.
"Ninety percent of the defense opinions issued by the lawyers have been adopted by the judicial authorities," according to Zhao.
The legal aid expansion has been approved at a key livelihood project meeting headed by President Xi Jinping.
"The purpose of improving legal aid is to expand the scope of free aid services and improve its quality so that eligible people will have equal access to justice," a statement from the meeting said.
China has many poor victims unable to hire a lawyer for lawsuits or legal consultation, but if small disputes are left unresolved, they may turn into a bigger social conflict or mass incident, ministry director Sun said.
Meanwhile, Zhao stated that, when the police detain a criminal suspect, the lawyers are able to immediately meet with the individual and offer legal assistance.
In the past, detained criminal suspects' legal rights were seriously undermined as they had no way of contacting lawyers in 48 hours, and were not given information regarding their cases' progress, Zhao said.
Things will be different now, Zhao said, adding that "after suspects are captured, lawyers will provide them free legal aid services during the whole judicial procedure, including in police interrogations, prosecution, and court sentencing, to protect their human rights."
