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With the development of the era, the traditional concepts of marriage, family and child-bearing are changing gradually by trial marriage, unmarried cohabitation and extramarital affairs. Nowadays, illegitimate children have become the unavoidable social problem. In China, illegitimate children face the problem of “unregistered household”, namely no household registration and identity card. Though they live actively in society, they are not recognized by society. So, the survival and the legitimate rights and interests of illegitimate children become one of the focuses of public opinion.
Sadness of illegitimate children
In recent years, tragedies of illegitimate children often appeared in newspapers. A few days ago, a chilling and shocking scentence gathered people's attention after it was reported on Sina, Sohu, and other mainstream portal websites, as well as some traditional news media like Shanghai Daily. “In my opinion, people of Population and Family Planning Commission and Public Security Bureau are so bad that when I grow up I will join the gangdom to revenge them.” While the public were eager to label this sentence as "anti-society" and "anti-humanism", they found that the peoson who said this amazing scentence turned out to be an eight-year-old student of the first grade of an elementary school.
It is reported that this boy was a “illegitimate child. His embarrassing identity with no registered permanent residence causes great pressure on his heart. On the one hand, in terms of the invisible culture level, he was a product of immorality; on the other hand, in terms of reality,he was a child with no "rights" -- because he had no account and no ID card, which meant that he was unable to prove his legal identity, even couldn't receive the free compulsory education. With these problems, it was not surprising that the child of eight spoke out these words that couldn't be imagined by other children of the same age.
China is one of the few countries in the world which implements the management of household registration system. Since Chinese citizens are born, their personal rights have been closely linked with their registered households. Although the registered household is only a proof of identity, it plays a very important role in today's society. It decides the legal status of a natural person as a civil subject. Specifically speaking, it affects an individual’s education, employment, social security and other aspects. If you have no registered household, you cannot enjoy the benefits of different kinds of social insurance, apply for subsistence allowance, apply for low-rent houses, conduct marriage registration, open a bank account or even get a driving license... This group is free from the social security system. With the nationwide network of identity management, they are faced with more and more difficulties. In fact, Xiaojie is only one of the children with the same experiences. According to the sixth nationwide census, there are 13 million people with no registered households, accounting for 1% of the total population throughout the country. That is to say, in every 100 people, there is a person without a registered household. To most people with no registered households, it is really very hard to get a registered household.
In fact, the growing number of illegitimate children is not unique for China. According to latest data of the national bureau of statistics in UK, the number of illegitimate children makes the historical record in 2012, accounting for 47.5%. In England and Wales, nearly 347,000 newborns are born in illegitimate families or "civil partners", the ratio of which is as high as 47.5% (“civil partner” is a peculiar legal concept in the countries such as Britain, particularly referring to the registered same-sex partners protected by law). This proportion is increased by 7% compared with 10 years ago. According to the trend, it is predicted that by 2016, the proportion of illegitimate children in Britain will exceed 50%. Tim Lawton, Former Minister of British Children Affairs, said, “The environment of illegitimate families” is not conducive to the healthy growth of children. Illegitimate children are more likely to become poor students in school, or have different kinds of psychological problems, and are more easily infected with drugs, alcohol and other bad habits. Christie Gay, principal of “Social Justice Center", a Right-Wing Think-Tank Organization founded by Minister of British Employment and Pensions Ian Duncan Smith, said that children growing in married families could better choose their own life according to some evidence.
Who makes me become an illegitimate child with “unregistered household”?
Like Xiaojie, many children come to the world before their parents get marriage registration. In fact, when the children “with unregistered households” grow up year by year, they can't enjoy the benefits of legitimate children, which lays deep hidden danger for society. If the words of the 8-year-old boy are innocent, who can guarantee that when they become adults, they will not have “anti-social” feeling in their hearts. In today's society, nobody is an isolated island. If the hidden trouble of people with no resigtered households can’t be solved, they will violate the rights of innocent people and everyone may be associated with their trouble. Besides, from the perspective of relevant departments, if they open up the household registration, it will cause new problems. In the reporter’s interviews, many parents can understand the difficulties of administrative department of household and think that it is reasonable to have the management of household registration. For those people who do not conform to the rules to give birth to children, if they easily let go of household registration, it may cause reckless overrunning births, or the parents may gave children at will without marriage registration. However, if parents ignore the government's punishment to bring their children to the world, perhaps even parents are unable to receive the punishment, so should these children face their fates with “unregistered household” in their whole lives?
On legislation, compared with foreign countries, China doesn’t establish the principle of children's maximum benefits. In the protection of illegitimate children, even in the whole parent-child relationship, China still has no clear unified guiding principles. Throughout China's legal systems, there are less than five laws directly involved with the protection of illegitimate children and less than ten laws indirectly involved with the protection of illegitimate children. Because of the lack of essential legal systems, such as the claiming system of illegitimate children, China is strong in will but weak in power in the protection of illegitimate children. In reality, when the basic rights and interests of illegitimate children are violated, they can’t be relieved by law.
Illegitimate children's way to become legitimate
In order to reduce the damage of illegitimate births to illegitimate children, Tim Lawton, Former Minister of Department of British Children Affairs, a few days ago called on the government to provide preferential tax policies for married couples to contain the falling marriage rates. “Because the parents’ relationship will directly affect their next generation, the government needs to send a clear signal to support marriage.” The British Prime Minister David Cameron said at the end of this year that it would make laws for married couples to reduce the tax of 150 pounds.
Fortunately, nowadays, reform on the household registration in China is on schedule. In the terms of legitimate interest of illegitimate children, Shen Liang, Professor of Science of Criminal Law of School of Law of East China University of Political Science and Law, said that illegitimate children are a special group. The protection of their interests is a legal problem as well as a social problem, which deserves high attention of the whole society. At present, it gradually becomes a consensus to emphasize the principle of children’s maximum benefits in legislation. The principle of children’s maximum benefits in legislation is an international guiding principle of protecting children’s rights established in Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959. After that, this principle was reiterated for many times in several international conventions and regional treaties. The formulation and enactment of Convention on the Rights of Child in 1989 was a milestone to determine the maximum interests of children. Article 3 of the convention stipulates that “all actions about children, whether executed by the company social welfare institutions, courts, administrative authorities or legislative institutions, shall take the maximum interests of children as the top priority.” In addition, article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulated that human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Article 25 in this declaration stated, all children, whether born legitimate or legitimate, shall enjoy the same social protection.
"As the participating and contracting country of drafting the UN Convention on the Rights of Child in 1989, China has the obligation to implement the rules of the convention in domestic legislation, law enforcement and administration of justice. At present, China has made a significant breakthrough in the protection of illegitimate children in legislative and judicial practices and endows illegitimate children equal legal status as legitimate children. With the social strength of moral norms and public opinions, the state should use the power of laws to protect the personal and property rights of illegitimate children from infringement and their respected human dignity, enable illegitimate children to have the equal legal status as legitimate children, and seriously crack down on the crimes such as abandonment, abuse or drowning which harm the safety and physical and psychological health of the illegitimate children."
Sadness of illegitimate children
In recent years, tragedies of illegitimate children often appeared in newspapers. A few days ago, a chilling and shocking scentence gathered people's attention after it was reported on Sina, Sohu, and other mainstream portal websites, as well as some traditional news media like Shanghai Daily. “In my opinion, people of Population and Family Planning Commission and Public Security Bureau are so bad that when I grow up I will join the gangdom to revenge them.” While the public were eager to label this sentence as "anti-society" and "anti-humanism", they found that the peoson who said this amazing scentence turned out to be an eight-year-old student of the first grade of an elementary school.
It is reported that this boy was a “illegitimate child. His embarrassing identity with no registered permanent residence causes great pressure on his heart. On the one hand, in terms of the invisible culture level, he was a product of immorality; on the other hand, in terms of reality,he was a child with no "rights" -- because he had no account and no ID card, which meant that he was unable to prove his legal identity, even couldn't receive the free compulsory education. With these problems, it was not surprising that the child of eight spoke out these words that couldn't be imagined by other children of the same age.
China is one of the few countries in the world which implements the management of household registration system. Since Chinese citizens are born, their personal rights have been closely linked with their registered households. Although the registered household is only a proof of identity, it plays a very important role in today's society. It decides the legal status of a natural person as a civil subject. Specifically speaking, it affects an individual’s education, employment, social security and other aspects. If you have no registered household, you cannot enjoy the benefits of different kinds of social insurance, apply for subsistence allowance, apply for low-rent houses, conduct marriage registration, open a bank account or even get a driving license... This group is free from the social security system. With the nationwide network of identity management, they are faced with more and more difficulties. In fact, Xiaojie is only one of the children with the same experiences. According to the sixth nationwide census, there are 13 million people with no registered households, accounting for 1% of the total population throughout the country. That is to say, in every 100 people, there is a person without a registered household. To most people with no registered households, it is really very hard to get a registered household.
In fact, the growing number of illegitimate children is not unique for China. According to latest data of the national bureau of statistics in UK, the number of illegitimate children makes the historical record in 2012, accounting for 47.5%. In England and Wales, nearly 347,000 newborns are born in illegitimate families or "civil partners", the ratio of which is as high as 47.5% (“civil partner” is a peculiar legal concept in the countries such as Britain, particularly referring to the registered same-sex partners protected by law). This proportion is increased by 7% compared with 10 years ago. According to the trend, it is predicted that by 2016, the proportion of illegitimate children in Britain will exceed 50%. Tim Lawton, Former Minister of British Children Affairs, said, “The environment of illegitimate families” is not conducive to the healthy growth of children. Illegitimate children are more likely to become poor students in school, or have different kinds of psychological problems, and are more easily infected with drugs, alcohol and other bad habits. Christie Gay, principal of “Social Justice Center", a Right-Wing Think-Tank Organization founded by Minister of British Employment and Pensions Ian Duncan Smith, said that children growing in married families could better choose their own life according to some evidence.
Who makes me become an illegitimate child with “unregistered household”?
Like Xiaojie, many children come to the world before their parents get marriage registration. In fact, when the children “with unregistered households” grow up year by year, they can't enjoy the benefits of legitimate children, which lays deep hidden danger for society. If the words of the 8-year-old boy are innocent, who can guarantee that when they become adults, they will not have “anti-social” feeling in their hearts. In today's society, nobody is an isolated island. If the hidden trouble of people with no resigtered households can’t be solved, they will violate the rights of innocent people and everyone may be associated with their trouble. Besides, from the perspective of relevant departments, if they open up the household registration, it will cause new problems. In the reporter’s interviews, many parents can understand the difficulties of administrative department of household and think that it is reasonable to have the management of household registration. For those people who do not conform to the rules to give birth to children, if they easily let go of household registration, it may cause reckless overrunning births, or the parents may gave children at will without marriage registration. However, if parents ignore the government's punishment to bring their children to the world, perhaps even parents are unable to receive the punishment, so should these children face their fates with “unregistered household” in their whole lives?
On legislation, compared with foreign countries, China doesn’t establish the principle of children's maximum benefits. In the protection of illegitimate children, even in the whole parent-child relationship, China still has no clear unified guiding principles. Throughout China's legal systems, there are less than five laws directly involved with the protection of illegitimate children and less than ten laws indirectly involved with the protection of illegitimate children. Because of the lack of essential legal systems, such as the claiming system of illegitimate children, China is strong in will but weak in power in the protection of illegitimate children. In reality, when the basic rights and interests of illegitimate children are violated, they can’t be relieved by law.
Illegitimate children's way to become legitimate
In order to reduce the damage of illegitimate births to illegitimate children, Tim Lawton, Former Minister of Department of British Children Affairs, a few days ago called on the government to provide preferential tax policies for married couples to contain the falling marriage rates. “Because the parents’ relationship will directly affect their next generation, the government needs to send a clear signal to support marriage.” The British Prime Minister David Cameron said at the end of this year that it would make laws for married couples to reduce the tax of 150 pounds.
Fortunately, nowadays, reform on the household registration in China is on schedule. In the terms of legitimate interest of illegitimate children, Shen Liang, Professor of Science of Criminal Law of School of Law of East China University of Political Science and Law, said that illegitimate children are a special group. The protection of their interests is a legal problem as well as a social problem, which deserves high attention of the whole society. At present, it gradually becomes a consensus to emphasize the principle of children’s maximum benefits in legislation. The principle of children’s maximum benefits in legislation is an international guiding principle of protecting children’s rights established in Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959. After that, this principle was reiterated for many times in several international conventions and regional treaties. The formulation and enactment of Convention on the Rights of Child in 1989 was a milestone to determine the maximum interests of children. Article 3 of the convention stipulates that “all actions about children, whether executed by the company social welfare institutions, courts, administrative authorities or legislative institutions, shall take the maximum interests of children as the top priority.” In addition, article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights stipulated that human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Article 25 in this declaration stated, all children, whether born legitimate or legitimate, shall enjoy the same social protection.
"As the participating and contracting country of drafting the UN Convention on the Rights of Child in 1989, China has the obligation to implement the rules of the convention in domestic legislation, law enforcement and administration of justice. At present, China has made a significant breakthrough in the protection of illegitimate children in legislative and judicial practices and endows illegitimate children equal legal status as legitimate children. With the social strength of moral norms and public opinions, the state should use the power of laws to protect the personal and property rights of illegitimate children from infringement and their respected human dignity, enable illegitimate children to have the equal legal status as legitimate children, and seriously crack down on the crimes such as abandonment, abuse or drowning which harm the safety and physical and psychological health of the illegitimate children."