Education and the Law
Evaluate the similarities and differences with respect to the protection of the fundamental rights and responsibilities of pupils and parents and the treatment of the powers of state education authorities in the Scottish and Chinese education systems. In the UK context, this should be with particular reference to the legislative treatment in the UK of the European convention on human rights and the UN convention on the rights of the child, and relevant case law.
Fan, Yi Jun
Scotland (2003～2004)
教育与法律
评估在保护学生和家长的基本权利与责任，以及在苏格兰和中国教育体系中，国家教育当局权力处理方面的异同。在英国，这应特别参照《欧洲人权公约》和 《联合国儿童权利公约》在英国的立法，以及有关的判例法。
作者：范 宜 君
苏格兰 2003～2004
The fundamental rights and responsibilities of children and parents and the treatment of the powers of state education authorities are the concerns in the Scottish and Chinese education systems.
The Scottish education system earns international reputation. The Chinese one is in a process of changing and developing with its further opening to market economy. During this time, through evaluating their similarities and differences of the concerns in their systems in the scope of education and the law, some states or features in both systems would be illustrated. They then more or less might learn from each other.
儿童和父母的基本权利与责任，以及国家教育当局权力的处理，是苏格兰和中国教育体系中所关注的问题。
苏格兰的教育体系赢得了国际声誉。中国经济正随着市场经济的进一步开放而不断变化和发展。在此期间，通过对两国在教育和法律范围内制度所关注问题的相似性和差异性的评价，说明两国制度的一些状态或特点。从而它们或多或少会互相取得借鉴、学习。
Evaluate the similarities and differences with respect to the protection of the fundamental rights and responsibilities of pupils and parents.
The followings state that the laws or principles are used in Scotland and China to protect the fundamental rights and responsibilities of pupils and parents:
The UN Convention on the rights of the Child states that children and young people have the right to be protected from all forms of cruelty, torture and exploitation. The convention also states that children have the right to an education which develops their skills and abilities, encourages them to respect their parents and their own and other cultures. The convention also states children have the right to leisure and play to express their views and to have those views listened to regardless of their faith, race or culture. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was ratified by the UK in 1991. It binds the UK in international law and has some effect in the courts alongside relevant UK and Scottish legislation. The Children's (Scotland) Act 1995 sets out key rights of children in Scotland and the responsibilities of adults and public organizations to care for and protect them. The Act was informed by commitments under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
评估在保护学生和家长的基本权利与责任方面的异同。
以下声明，苏格兰和中国使用法律或原则来保护学生和家长的基本权利与责任:
《联合国儿童权利公约》规定，儿童和青年有权受到保护，免受一切形式的残暴、酷刑和剥削。《公约》还指出，儿童有权接受发展其技能和能力的教育，鼓励他们尊重父母、自己的文化和其它文化。《公约》还规定，儿童有权在闲暇时和玩耍时表达他们的意见，并使这些意见得到听取，不论其信仰、种族或文化如何。英国于1991年批准了《联合国儿童权利公约》。它使英国在国际法上具有约束力，并在法庭上与英国和苏格兰的相关立法具有一定效力。1995年《儿童(苏格兰)法》规定了苏格兰儿童的主要权利以及成人和公共组织照顾和保护儿童的责任。根据《联合国儿童权利公约》作出的承诺通知了这项行动。
The Children's (Scotland) Act is founded on the key principles that:
each child has a right to be treated as an individual;
each child who can form his or her views on matters affecting him or her has the right to express those views if he or she wishes;
parents should normally be responsible for the upbringing of their children and should share that responsibility;
each child has the right to protection from all forms of abuse, neglect or exploitation;
in decisions relating to the protection of a child every effort should be made to keep the child in the family home;
any intervention by a public authority in the life of a child should be properly justified and should be supported by services from all relevant agencies working in collaboration.
In support of these principles, three main themes run through the Act:
the welfare of the child is the paramount consideration when his or her needs are considered by courts and children's hearings;
no court should make an order relating to a child and no children's hearing should make a supervision requirement unless the court or hearing considered that to do so would be better for the child than making no order or supervision requirement at all;
the child's view should be taken into account where major decisions are to be made about his or her future.
《儿童(苏格兰)法》的基本原则是:
每个儿童都有权被当作个人对待;
每一个能够就影响他或她的问题形成意见的儿童，如果他或她愿意，都有权表达这些意见;
父母通常应负责抚养子女，并应分担这种责任;
每个儿童都有权得到保护，免受一切形式的虐待、忽视或剥削;
在有关保护儿童的决定中，应尽一切努力使儿童留在家庭中;
公共当局对儿童生活的任何干预都应有适当的理由，并应得到所有有关机构合作提供的服务支持。
为了支持这些原则，《行动纲领》贯穿三个主题:
当法院和儿童听证会审议儿童的需要时，儿童的福利是最重要的考虑因素;
任何法院都不应作出与儿童有关的命令，而儿童聆讯亦不应作出监督要求，除非法院或聆讯认为这样做比根本不作出命令或监督要求对儿童更有利;
在对孩子的未来做出重大决定的方面，孩子的观点应该被考虑进去。
Chinese Children's rights are protected through legislation, judiciary, organization and international cooperation.
Protection through Legislation: In accordance with the actual conditions in China and by reference to relative legislation in other countries, especially to the laws and international documents on the protection of children's rights and interests, China has worked out a series of laws concerning children's survival, protection and development. The Constitution of China clearly specifies: ``The state promotes the all-round moral, intellectual and physical development of children and young people,'' ``... child are protected by the state,'' and ``maltreatment of ... children is prohibited.'' Formulated according to the Constitution, China's relevant laws include comprehensive and systematic provisions on children's right to life, survival and development, as well as basic health and health care. From these it can be seen that China's legal framework for the protection of children's rights and interests and its social guarantee mechanisms are effective in practice.
Judicial Protection: China's judicial procedure attaches great importance to the protection of juveniles' legal rights and interests. To the juveniles who break the law and commit crimes, China adopts the policy of education, help and reform and adheres to the principle of relying mainly on education while making punishment subsidiary. All criminal cases of persons aged 14 and 15 are not tried publicly by the people's court; and in general, criminal cases of persons aged 16 and 17 are not tried publicly. Before a criminal case of a teenager is judged, it is stipulated that the press, films, TV programs and public publications should not reveal the teenager's name, home address, photo and other identifying data.
中国儿童的权利通过立法、司法、组织和国际合作得到保护。
立法保护: 根据我国的实际情况，借鉴其他国家的相关立法，特别是有关保护儿童权益的法律和国际文件，制定了一系列有关儿童生存、保护和发展的法律。中国宪法明确规定: “国家促进儿童和青年的德、智、体全面发展。” 儿童受国家保护。虐待儿童是被禁止的。中国有关法律是根据宪法制定的，对儿童的生命权、生存权、发展权、基本健康权、保健权等作出了全面、系统的规定。由此可见，中国保护儿童权益的法律框架及其社会保障机制在实践中是有效的。
司法保护: 我国司法程序高度重视对未成年人合法权益的保护。对违法犯罪的未成年人，中国实行教育、帮助、改造的方针，坚持教育为主、惩罚为辅的方针。十四、十五岁的犯罪案件，人民法院不公开审理; 一般来说，十六岁和十七岁的刑事案件不公开审理。在对未成年人刑事案件进行审判前，规定新闻、电影、电视节目、公共出版物不得泄露未成年人的姓名、家庭住址、照片等身份资料。
Organizational Guarantee: to truly protect children's rights and interests, China's legislation, judicial and government department concerned as well as mass organizations have set up corresponding mechanisms to supervise, effect and propel the healthy development of the work impacting children's protection. As the highest organ of state power in China, the National People's Congress (NPC) has a Committee for Internal and Judicial Affairs responsible for legislation for the protection of children's rights and interests and for the supervision and check-up of law enforcement. The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) has a Subcommittee on Social and Legislative Affairs, one of whose responsibilities is to supervise and promote the implementation of the state's laws and regulations on children and raise proposals on work in this regard to the state's legislation and administrative departments.
International Cooperation: to promote international cooperation in the protection of children, the Chinese Government and society at large have taken an active part in global and regional international cooperation and exchanges regarding children's survival, protection and development while devoting themselves to this cause in a down-to-earth and effective manner. In recent years, China has achieved great success through cooperating with the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) in its work to protect children. In this regard, China has been highly praised by international organizations and authoritative persons in the child protection field.
组织保障: 为切实保障儿童权益，中国的立法、司法、政府有关部门和社会团体都建立了相应机制，对激励儿童保护工作的健康发展进行监督、实施和推动。全国人民代表大会是中国最高国家权力机关，设有内部和司法委员会，负责保护儿童权益的立法和执法监督检查。中国人民政治协商会议(政协)社会和立法事务小组委员会的职责之一是监督和促进国家法律和法规对儿童的实施, 提高这方面立法和行政部门的提案工作。
国际合作: 为推动儿童保护领域的国际合作，中国政府和社会广泛参与儿童生存、保护和发展领域的全球和地区国际合作与交流，并脚踏实地、卓有成效地致力于儿童保护事业。近年来，中国与联合国儿童基金会(UNICEF)、联合国教科文组织(UNESCO)和世界卫生组织(WHO)在儿童保护方面开展了合作，取得了巨大成功。在这方面，中国在儿童保护领域得到了国际组织和权威人士的高度评价。
Summarily, through the above statements, the similarities from both sides on this issue can be found:
The laws and policies are developed or working closely with UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child.
Children's welfare, overall development, protection from family, school and society are highlighted.
Children as individuals, their rights towards privacy, dignity etc. are protected.
The differences are:
The concept of protecting children's rights is different from each other in terms of the cultural backgrounds. In Scottish context, it is clearly showed that protecting children's rights is based upon treating them as individuals. Therefore, their personal views and decisions are highly respected from the whole society. In Chinese context, children are looked as a whole rather than individuals. So laws and policies are not directly made towards children themselves.
Child-centered and equality with adults are the cores in Scottish policies. In Chinese relevance, the concern is the implementation of certain procedures and put children in a weak position in the society. These imply that we are at different levels on protecting children's rights.
Parental responsibility for upbringing children is clearly stated in the Children's (Scotland) Act 1995. It seems that Chinese relevant authorities play the central role in promoting Children's rights.
综上所述，可以看出双方在这个问题上的相似之处:
这些法律和政策是与联合国儿童权利公约制定或密切合作的。
强调儿童福利、全面发展、家庭、学校和社会的保护。
儿童作为个人，他们的隐私权、尊严等权利受到保护。
差异是:
在不同的文化背景下，儿童权利保护的概念也不尽相同。在苏格兰的背景下，它清楚地表明，保护儿童权利的基础是把他们当作个人来对待。因此，他们的个人观点和决定受到全社会的高度尊重。在中国，孩子被视为一个整体而不是个体。因此，法律和政策并不是直接针对儿童本身制定的。
以儿童为中心、与成年人平等是苏格兰政策的核心。在中国，令人担忧的是某些程序的实施，将儿童置于社会弱势地位。这意味着我们在保护儿童权利方面处于不同的水平。
1995年《儿童(苏格兰)法》明确规定了父母养育子女的责任。中国有关部门在促进儿童权利方面也发挥了核心作用。
