Zhicheng Public Interest Lawyers, part of Beijing Zhicheng Law Firm, has become China's largest public interest legal service provider after nearly 20 years of selfless service, which shows that lawyers attach great importance to safeguarding the legal rights and interests of the vulnerable groups in society.

The ZPIL has established separate legal aid-cum-study centers for juveniles and migrant workers in Beijing, with full-time lawyers handling their cases for free. The two centers play an important role in helping juveniles and migrant workers to use the law to safeguard their legal rights and interests.

The legal aid-cum-study center for juveniles was established in 1999, and has received more than 50,000 visits for consultation, successfully handled over 500 cases exerting considerable social influence, and organized more than 500 training sessions. All this has directly benefited more than 100,000 juveniles.

The legal aid-cum-study center for migrant workers was established at the end of 2005, and has offered a great deal of legal service. By the end of last year, the center had received consultation visits for nearly 80,000 cases from more than 200,000 migrant workers in Beijing, and over 10,000 of these cases have been settled with the migrant workers getting 160 million yuan ($24 million) in compensation.

The center for juveniles has published more than 30 books on issues such as medical care for juveniles, assistance for street children, special protection for girls, measures against sexual assault, reformative work-cum-study programs and the juvenile judicial system, and helped draft and amend some laws and rules related to children.

The center for migrant workers, on its part, has published research reports on migrant workers' rights and interests, work-related injuries and other subjects, apart from taking part in the drafting and amending of some laws and rules on migrant workers.

The ZPIL researches the cases it handles, and also offers practical suggestions to the legislature and judicial authorities, in order to help improve relevant laws, rules and policies. Its lawyers have also shouldered some social responsibilities, providing extended services for the migrant workers and juveniles after the end of court trials. In some cases, the defendants are too poor to pay compensation to the victims, and despite the court orders, the juveniles may still be denied compensation. In such cases, the lawyers use their social connections to raise donations for the victims. By the end of March, the lawyers had provided more than 1,100 juvenile victims with more than 1.4 million yuan in financial aid.

The ZPIL launched a Countryside Kindergarten Development Plan in May 2014, offering free training to kindergarten teachers in rural areas and seeking the help of philanthropists to take care of left-behind children. By the end of August last year, teachers from more than 350 kindergartens in over 20 provinces had undergone training to take better care of the left-behind children. The plan has benefited tens of thousands of left-behind kids.

In 2006, the ZPIL set up a legal aid center for migrant workers in Shijiazhuang, North China's Hebei province. A year later, it received $500,000 in fund support from the United Nations Development Programme.

It should also be noted that China Legal Aid Foundation started receiving monetary support from the national public welfare lottery fund in 2010. After the lottery fund became a stable source of monetary support, an increasing number of lawyers has been offering legal aid service. More than 30 public legal aid agencies for juveniles, migrant workers and senior citizens had been established nationwide by the end of last year. And the number of lawyers who have volunteered to provide free legal aid service for juveniles has crossed 9,000.

The author is a council member of China Society for Human Rights Studies and director of Beijing Juvenile Legal Aid and Studies Center.

(China Daily 07/20/2017 page9)