China establishes system to ensure people's right to development: white paper

BEIJING -- China has established an integrated system of legislature, strategy development, planning, and judicial remedy to ensure its people's right to development, and makes continued efforts to improve it, said a white paper issued Thursday.

A legal system with Chinese characteristics has provided a legal basis for the people's right to development, said the white paper, titled "The Right to Development: China's Philosophy, Practice and Contribution."

China has promulgated and implemented a series of laws and regulations to protect the right to development of all citizens, especially that of the ethnic minorities, women, children, senior citizens, and the disabled, it said.

To ensure people's right to development, China has issued the National Human Rights Action Plan (2009-2010), (2012-2015), and (2016-2020), striving to address the most immediate problems that are of the most concern to the public, it added.

The Chinese government has also formulated special action plans in the fields of economy, culture, society, and environment, and built a judicial remedy mechanism to prevent and punish infringements of people's right to development, it added.

In 2014 and 2015, the central government and local governments allocated a total of 2.47 billion yuan and 2.95 billion yuan for judicial relief funds, benefiting over 80,000 parties concerned in 2014, it said.

The government has also made efforts to strengthen the effectiveness of legal aid and ensure the right of impoverished people to judicial relief, it said.

Over the past five years, the number of legal aid cases has been growing by 11.4 percent annually, and women, children, the elderly, the disabled, and rural migrant workers have received timely and higher quality legal aid services, it added.