East West Question: How can women's right to development in Xizang be fully guaranteed? State | Women | Xizang

China news agency, Beijing, June 18 (Xinhua): How can women's right to development in Xizang be fully guaranteed?

Author Bian Balam, Researcher at the Asia Pacific and Global Strategy Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

The right to development is an inalienable human right. Over the past 70 years since the peaceful liberation of Xizang, the protection of women's rights and interests in Xizang has gone into the track of rule of law from scratch. The extensive empowerment of the Constitution, laws and local regulations has provided Xizang women with full opportunities and conditions for development, and fully guaranteed Xizang women's right to development in politics, economy, culture, society and family. In the future, it is necessary to take into account the development interests of Xizang women in all aspects, fully combine the actual situation of Xizang and the special interests of women, and constantly improve the rights of Xizang women to equal participation and equal development.

The guarantee system of women's right to development in Xizang is becoming more and more complete

Women in Xizang had no real human rights in the long history before liberation. In old Xizang, women in Xizang who were regarded as "unclean" and "unlucky" were oppressed by divine power, political power and husband's power. In the private sphere of the family, women in Xizang are in a subordinate position and have no economic dominance, cultural rights and education rights; In the public sphere, the provisions of the old Xizang Code, such as "slaves and women are not allowed to participate in military and political affairs", led to the lack of the right of Xizang women to participate in political affairs; Influenced by slang and folk customs such as "dog meat is not meat, women are not human", many temples and places restrict the access of women in Xizang.

In September 1949, the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference adopted the Common Program of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which established the policy of implementing gender equality and protecting women in the country. Article 96 of the first Constitution of the People's Republic of China stipulates: "Women in the People's Republic of China enjoy equal rights with men in all aspects of political, economic, cultural, social, and family life. Marriage, family, mother, and child are protected by the state."

After the democratic reform in Xizang, especially after the establishment of the Xizang Autonomous Region, the rule of law in Xizang has developed from scratch. The protection of women's human rights in Xizang has entered the track of rule of law. The extensive empowerment of the Constitution, laws and local regulations has provided Xizang women with full opportunities and conditions for development, fully guaranteed Xizang women's right to development in political, economic, cultural, social and family aspects, and provided good practical conditions and institutional basis for the protection of the right to development at a higher level in the future.

In 1994, the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of the Xizang Autonomous Region passed the Measures of the Xizang Autonomous Region for the Implementation of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests, which is a specialized local legislation that serves as the basis for the legal protection of women's right to development in Xizang. In addition, the Standing Committee of the Xizang Autonomous Region People's Congress passed a number of local laws and regulations concerning the protection of women's right to development in Xizang, including the Regulations of the Xizang Autonomous Region on the Promotion of Rural Revitalization. The People's Government of the Xizang Autonomous Region and its functional departments also issued a series of normative documents such as the Opinions on Establishing a Gender Equality Assessment Mechanism for Laws, Regulations and Policies in the Xizang Autonomous Region, which provided legal and policy guarantees for the development of women in Xizang in many ways.

Positive achievements have been made in ensuring women's right to development in Xizang

Since the democratic reform in 1959, the greatest achievement of women's human rights protection in Xizang has been that women have become "people" with legal personality and equal status, enjoy equal status and rights with men, and enjoy the same status and rights as women from other regions and ethnic groups in China. With the idea of equality between men and women becoming more and more popular and women's self awakening and self-awareness gradually strengthening, Xizang women have participated in all aspects of social construction and played a decisive role, greatly improving the social status of Xizang women.

In the old Xizang period, even Tibetan women who were born in noble families and had good education did not have the right to participate in politics. After the democratic reform, the proportion and ability of women in Xizang to participate in decision-making and management have improved significantly. Statistics from the Women's Federation of the Xizang Autonomous Region show that by the end of 2022, women civil servants in Xizang accounted for 33.1% of the total number of civil servants; At the 10th Party Congress of the Autonomous Region, female representatives accounted for 32.4% of the total number of representatives; The proportion of female deputies to the National People's Congress and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference reached 30.61% and 27.99%, respectively; Female Communist Party members account for 30.25% of the total number of Party members in the autonomous region. In addition, in 2023, 100% of administrative villages had female members of the "two committees", and women accounted for 22.83% of the team members.

In the field of labor and social security, according to the statistics of the Bulletin of the Fourth National Economic Census of the Xizang Autonomous Region, at the end of 2018 in the middle of the 13th Five Year Plan, there were 803000 employees of legal entities in the region, 262000 of whom were women; There are 219000 self-employed households, of which 103000 are women, accounting for 47%. According to the data of the People's Government of the Xizang Autonomous Region in 2021, 926300 women will participate in basic endowment insurance for urban and rural residents, 201000 in medical insurance for urban employees and residents, 148000 in unemployment insurance and 189000 in work-related injury insurance.

In the field of education, more than 95% of women in old Xizang were illiterate, and after the liberation of Xizang, the guarantee of women's right to school and education in Xizang was constantly strengthened. In 2020, the proportion of female students in primary and junior high schools in Xizang will be about 49%, and the proportion of female students in general higher education, graduate education and adult higher education will be more than 50%. The proportion of women who enjoy special allowances from the State Council and the autonomous region government is 12.74% and 17.78%, respectively, and the proportion of female academic leaders is 27.45%.

In the field of health care, before the liberation of Xizang, there were only three medical institutions, with more than 400 medical and health personnel. The vast number of serfs, who accounted for 95% of the total population, were ill and could not be cured. After the peaceful liberation, the state implemented a free medical policy for farmers and herdsmen in Xizang. By 2020, Xizang will officially implement a unified basic medical insurance system for urban and rural residents, establish a green channel for pregnant and lying in women to give birth in hospital, and implement 100% reimbursement of expenses. At present, there are 1661 medical and health institutions and 172 hospitals in Xizang. Maternity critical surveillance has achieved full coverage at district, city and county levels, and the mortality rate has dropped to 4.8 per 10000. The average life expectancy in Xizang has reached 72.19 years, double that of 1951, and the average life expectancy of women is higher than that of men. There are currently 93 women's "two cancer" screening institutions, and as of the end of 2021, the region has completed nearly 400000 women's "two cancer" screenings; Further expand the pilot program for free HPV vaccination, with 135 eligible HPV vaccination institutions for female students.

In the field of the development and security of women's groups, the Women's Federation of the Xizang Autonomous Region, for example, has won 21.3816 million yuan in training funds for skills training, carried out more than 560 skills training sessions, and about 27000 poor women have received employment support; In terms of women's entrepreneurship, the Women's Federation of the Autonomous Region has implemented a women's entrepreneurship guarantee loan of 54.33 million yuan, helping more than 1000 women from 825 households to start businesses. The Xizang Autonomous Region has issued a number of policies and regulations, set up an autonomous region's gender equality assessment committee for laws, regulations and policies, improved the land ownership confirmation and registration system in agricultural and pastoral areas, established 156 legal aid institutions, 31 women and children's rights protection collegiate panels, and established 860 "women, children and children's rights protection service posts" at 110 police stations for the convenience of the people in the region. 74 counties have opened a "12338" legal aid service hotline, and strengthened the judicial protection of women's rights to development in Xizang by settling disputes and punishing infringements according to law.

Prospects for the Guarantee of Women's Right to Development in Xizang

We will strengthen the supply of legislation and improve the legal guarantee system for women's right to development in Xizang. Based on the revised Women's Rights and Interests Protection Law in 2022, optimize the Measures and clarify the content and methods of protecting the development rights such as the right to survival, basic standard of living, political rights, education, cultural development, labor employment, social security, property rights, and personal rights. Empower specific rights and obligations such as priority and unimpeded rights based on core indicators such as protection types, risks, tasks, subjects, participation methods and content, supervision, and dispute resolution; Connecting with special laws such as the Civil Code, the Labor Law, etc., sorting out the relevant provisions on women's right to development and incorporating them into the special chapter on the protection of women's rights and interests in Xizang, carrying out precise and targeted empowerment, solving problems such as the inequality and imbalance of the right to development, and improving the legal system that guarantees Xizang women's equal access to development resources and opportunities.

In combination with the Outline for the Development of Chinese Women, we will integrate policies such as the Women's Development Plan of the Xizang Autonomous Region, which is the basis for the policy guarantee of Xizang's women's right to development, and optimize the policy support for the government to purchase various areas of service guarantee, so as to provide long-term, sustainable and refined services for Xizang's women's right to development guarantee, and pay attention to and respond to the value of individual and group's differentiated and personalized right to development guarantee needs. Xizang women's awareness of the rule of law should be greatly improved, and Xizang women should be encouraged to participate in legislation, law enforcement, justice and law popularization through multiple channels.

Gather joint efforts to improve the overall social security level of women's right to development in Xizang. We will improve the working mechanism of Xizang women's health security led by the government, coordinated by departments, social participation, industry supervision, and science and technology support, deepen the joint reform of medical care, medical insurance, and medicine in the Xizang Autonomous Region, ensure that Xizang women have access to high-quality, efficient, and affordable medical and health services, and improve the comprehensive prevention and treatment system and relief policies for cervical and breast cancer; We will improve the social security system that benefits women in Xizang, care about and protect women's special interests and needs, and improve the social security system that covers women in Xizang.

We will strengthen ideological and political education for women in Xizang, continue to consolidate Xizang's achievements in literacy among women, ensure that women and children in Xizang have equal access to education, improve the modern vocational education system that places equal emphasis on academic education and training, train women with complex technical skills, and encourage vocational colleges to carry out employment, entrepreneurship, and vocational skills training for women in Xizang. Fully implement local policies and laws to eliminate gender discrimination in employment. The government, colleges, enterprises, social organizations, etc. provide continuous online employment services, broaden the market-oriented and socialized employment channels for women in Xizang, increase assistance to women in Xizang in employment and entrepreneurship, support the development of rural e-commerce characteristic industrial projects and traditional ethnic handicrafts industrial projects suitable for the independent development of women of all ethnic groups in Xizang, and support women of all ethnic groups in Xizang to find jobs nearby and achieve income growth and wealth