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National law and policies on minimum ages – China

 

According to the CRC, laws and policies must be directed to the best interest of the child. This is especially so in provisions that aim to safeguard the child against exploitation or an early end to childhood, i.e. in the instances where children are most vulnerable and at risk. Yet such safeguards are often ignored and different areas of legislation found to clash with each other. What happens if the age for the end of compulsory education is 14 but the minimum age of employment is 12? Or vice versa? What if a girl can be married before school leaving age - will she then return to school? And who ensures schooling in prisons, when in reality education should protect children from incarceration?

 

 

 

 

With 192 parties to it, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is the most widely ratified UN treaty. Each State Party must submit periodic reports to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, which uses this process to monitor State compliance with the treaty. The vast majority of the information on minimum ages presented on these pages is taken directly from such reports (occasionally, if these failed to include relevant information concerning minimum ages, other components of the reporting process - such as the Committee’s Concluding Observations - were consulted). States Parties’ reports constitute self-assessment by governments and are therefore authoritative sources, emanating directly from those empowered to make decisions. Using this type of sources also permits a range of actors to hold governments accountable for the standards which they report under the CRC. The sections of these reports have been reproduced faithfully, and readers are encouraged to make use of the full original text, available here.

 

Individual country reports are often written by diverse parts of the government, and frequently run to more than 100 pages. Moreover, within some states’ legal systems there are various recognised sources of law, which frequently generate conflicting minimum ages. Distilling precise numbers out of such documents is therefore a precarious task. While we would encourage cross-country comparison, we would also stress the danger that those countries with a more honest engagement with the reporting process might come off worse when compared with those which would mis-represent the degree of compliance, whether wilfully or not. For a full explanation of the principles that guided us in our analysis, please visit the introductory pages here.

Sources:
2nd periodic report: CRC/C/83/Add.9, 15 July 2005
Initial report: CRC/C/11/Add.7, 1 August 1995
Minimum age for the end of compulsory education
From 2nd report
25. With regard to the age when compulsory education ends, China has a system of nine years’ compulsory education which, according to the Education Act, may not begin before the age of 6. In actual practice, owing to differences in regional conditions, the age at which children begin their education varies nationwide, and the age at which they finish it varies accordingly, usually between 15 and 17. By law, the youngest age at which a worker may be hired is 16, and the great majority of children in China have finished their compulsory education by that age. 
 
Minimum age for admission to employment
From 2nd report
336. On 1 October 2002, the State Council promulgated amendments to the regulations prohibiting child labour, article 2 of which now states: “State organs, social organizations, commercial and non-commercial institutions, civil non-commercial agencies and individual enterprises may not employ minors under the age of 16. It is prohibited for any agency or individual to take on a minor below the age of 16, and for any minor below the age of 16 to found a business or undertake private business activities.” These regulations clearly demonstrate that the minimum age for employment permitted under the laws and regulations of China is 16. The law also prescribes penalties for the employment of child labour. 
 
Minimum age for marriage
From initial report
19. Article 5 of the Marriages Act states: "The marriageable age for boys shall be not less than 22 years, and for girls, not less than 20 years."
 
Minimum age for criminal responsibility
From 2nd report
23. […] Article 17 of the Criminal Code stipulates, “A person who has reached the age of 16 and who commits a crime shall be held criminally liable. A person aged between 14 and 16 who commits intentional homicide, intentionally hurts another person so as to cause serious injury or death, or commits rape, robbery, drug-trafficking, arson, explosion or poisoning, shall be held criminally liable. A person aged between 14 and 18 who commits a crime shall be given a lighter or mitigated punishment.”Article 49 states: “The death penalty shall not be imposed on offenders who were under 18 at the time the crime was committed or on women who are pregnant at the time of trial."
 
Sources:
2nd periodic report: CRC/C/83/Add.9, 15 July 2005
Initial report: CRC/C/11/Add.7, 1 August 1995