The Beijing Platform for Action listed "girls" as one of its 12 critical areas of concern and also set the elimination of violence against girls as a strategic objective. The vast majority of girls will grow up to be mothers. As such, girls, collectively, are a group that requires special care and compassion. Protecting girls' rights and interests is critical to realizing the UN Millennium Development Goals, promoting economic growth and building a harmonious society.

Laws Help Protect Girls

The Chinese government has long attached great importance to girls' survival, protection and development. For example, the government implemented both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children. The National People's Congress, China's top legislature, adopted the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Minors (amended in 2012), and the Law of the People's Republic of China on Compulsory Education (amended in 2006), as well as the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, all of which contained special articles addressing the protection of girls' rights and interests.

The China National Program for Child Development (2011-2020) not only spells out the basic principle of giving priority to children but also makes insistences on the elimination of discrimination against girls. The program advocates the concept of gender equality to strengthen the social awareness of the issue. It requires that mechanisms for guaranteeing the interests of girls and their families be established and that the socio-economic status of rural households with girls be improved.

The 12th Five-year Program of the People's Republic of China for National Economic and Social Development (2011-2015) includes, for the first time, a section called "giving priority to children's development," stipulating "elimination of discrimination against girls" and "severely cracking down on trafficking of children and the abandoning of infants."

The report delivered at the 18th National People's Congress spelt out the basic State policy of equality between men and women and guaranteeing the lawful rights of women and children.

Safeguarding Girls' Right to Receive Education

In addition, the National Program for the Development of Chinese Women (2011-2020) contains a set of objectives for guaranteeing girl's equal access to educational opportunities.

The Law on Compulsory Education emphasizes protecting girl's equal rights to education. The government has also strengthened support for girls in poverty. With these efforts, gender-based differences in compulsory education have been largely eliminated. In 2013, 99.7 percent of school-age girls and boys were enrolled in primary schools. By the end of 2012, the "Spring Bud Project," implemented by the All-China Women's Federation, had funded the establishment of more than 1,200 Spring Bud schools, provided support to more than 2.3 million girls in poverty, and provided practical technical training for 0.4 million girls who were past school age. Since 2009, the project "Family Education for Adolescent Girls," which focuses on girl's equal, healthy development, has distributed publicity materials in 20 cities, organized 50,000 classes, and established 156 practical education centers, benefiting a total of 12 million households with girls.

Policies and Measures to Keep Girls from All Forms of Violence

Compared with boys, girls are more vulnerable, globally, to violence. To prevent sexual assaults against children, China's ministries of Education, Public Security and Justice jointly issued a notice in 2003, in an attempt to eliminate sexual assaults in kindergartens and primary and middle schools.

In 2006, the Ministry of Education and 10 government agencies jointly issued the Regulations on Campus Safety Management for Kindergartens and Primary and High Schools. The regulations required schools to establish safety-management systems to protect the personal safety of the children.

In October 2013, the Supreme People's Court and four government agencies jointly issued the Opinions on Punishment by Law for Sexual Assaults against Juveniles (Opinions), which contained a definition of sexual assault on an underage girl. Furthermore, the document called for more legal aid and compensation (from perpetrators) for underage victims.

The Chinese government has stepped up specialized efforts to combat the trafficking of women and children. In 2009, the NPC adopted the decision to accede to the Supplementary Protocol of the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime on Preventing, Prohibiting, and Punishing Human Trafficking, Including Trafficking of Women and Children. In 2010, the Supreme People's Court issued the Suggestions on Punishing Trafficking of Women and Children According to Law. The government will continue to implement the document China's Program of Action against Trafficking of Women and Children (2013-2020) and earnestly carries out the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

'Protecting Girls' Program

The Protecting Girls Program, under the Child Safety Fund of the China Social Assistance Foundation, is a charitable initiative with the objectives of raising children's awareness of protection, and protecting children from sexual assaults. The program was established by 100 female journalists from across China on International Children's Day (June 1) in 2013.

Sun Xuemei, a journalist with Beijing News, is one of the women who helped start the program. After media had reported (on May 8, 2013) that a primary school principal, in Wanning, in South China's Hainan Province, had been "having sex with pupils," several QQ and WeChat journalist groups (online instant messaging forums) were rife with discussions, says Sun.

All of the groups' members were outraged, and they believed they should take action, as soon as possible, to help protect girls. Organizers decided to teach girls in remote areas how to prevent sexual assault. "We wanted to tell girls what they should do, and what they should not do," says Sun.

The first lecture was presented in a rural primary school in Yangbi Yi Autonomous County, in Southwest China's Yunnan Province. To date, the Protecting Girls Program has held lectures in 20 provinces, distributed 120,000 sex-assault-prevention brochures and trained 1,000 volunteers. More than 100,000 students have benefited from the program.

Bud Protection Action

As the Protecting Girls Program was being implemented, China's first charitable organization, the China Children and Teenagers' Foundation (CCTF), was doing its part to raise awareness about the protection of girls.

On September 13, 2013, CCTF announced the launch of the Spring Bud Project's "Bud Protection Action," an initiative by the ACWF to focus on girls' safety and protection. The initiative has two purposes: to strengthen the awareness of precaution, by conducting publicity, education and training related to girls' safety and protection; to provide training to parents, girls, community workers and teachers; and, to compile and distribute handbooks to parents and children. The second objective is to provide legal and psychological assistance to girls (and their families) who have been sexually assaulted, and to help victims' recovery.

Song Xiuyan, Vice-President and First Member of the Secretariat of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), said preventing sexual assaults against women, especially against girls, will be one of the federation's priorities during the next 10 years.

Challenges Ahead

Gender-based awareness of children's issues is still lacking in such fields as legislation, policy-making, education and mass media in China. Girls' development is threatened by all forms of violence, and the subsistence and development of different groups of girls are still subject to various forms of restrictions. The mechanisms on children's work need to be further improved.

Data Speaks

* In 2013, 99.7 percent of school age girls and boys were enrolled in primary schools.

* By the end of 2012, the "Spring Bud Project," implemented by the ACWF, had funded the establishment of more than 1,200 Spring Bud schools, provided support to more than 2.3 million girls in poverty, and provided practical technical training for 0.4 million girls who were past school age.

*Since 2009, the project "Family Education for Adolescent Girls," which focuses on girl's equal, healthy development, has distributed publicity materials in 20 cities, organized 50,000 classes, and established 156 practical education centers, benefiting a total of 12 million households with girls.

* The Protecting Girls Program has held lectures in 20 provinces, distributed 120,000 sex-assault-prevention brochures and trained 1,000 volunteers. More than 100,000 students have benefited from the program.

(Women of China)