Recently, the launch ceremony for the national "1+1" legal aid volunteering campaign for 2024 was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
Gu Xiulian, vice-chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress, addressed the ceremony. Vice-Minister of Justice Li Mingzheng presented a legal aid volunteer flag to the volunteer representatives and outlined the requirements for their work. Zhao Dacheng, president of the China Legal Aid Foundation, presided over the ceremony.
The third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) emphasized that ensuring and enhancing the people's wellbeing in the course of development is one of the major tasks of Chinese modernization, Gu said.
Noting that the "1+1" legal aid volunteering campaign was a livelihood project aimed at practicing the principle of justice for the people and ensuring impartial administration of justice, she called for strengthening political guidance, adhering to the people-centered principle, and thoroughly implementing the guiding principles of the 20th National Congress of the CPC, the second and third plenary sessions of the 20th CPC Central Committee, and Xi Jinping Thought on the Rule of Law.
The campaign must effectively fulfill its responsibilities and meet people's growing needs for promoting the rule of law with high quality, in a bid to ensure that overall law-based governance brings people a greater sense of fairness, inclusiveness and happiness, and contributes legal strength to the advancement of Chinese modernization, said Gu.
At the launch ceremony, representatives of the program and those from the judicial administrative organs of provincial-level regions receiving the volunteers delivered speeches.
Since the commencement of the "1+1" legal aid volunteering campaign in 2009, legal aid volunteers have been dispatched to more than 470 counties (districts) across 18 provincial-level regions in the central and western parts of the country and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.
Over the past 15 years, more than 2,500 volunteers have handled more than 107,000 legal aid cases, delivered over 28,000 lectures on legal education and the rule of law, resolved over 58,000 group conflicts and disputes, publicity and helped those receiving assistance recover economic losses or obtain legitimate economic benefits totaling 5.3 billion yuan ($755 million).
Ministry of Justice of the
People's Republic of China