Inner Mongolia Legal Provisions Include Focus on Ethnic Minority Women

December 20, 2008

The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR) government has included focus on ethnic minority women in recent legislation on women's rights, but its impact may be limited given a track record across China of weak implementation of provisions to protect both women's rights and ethnic minority rights. The IMAR implementing measures for the national Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women (IMAR implementing measures), adopted November 14, 2008, and effective March 1, 2009, include three articles with provisions on ethnic minority women.

The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (IMAR) government has included focus on ethnic minority women in recent legislation on women's rights, but its impact may be limited given a track record across China of weak implementation of provisions to protect both women's rights and ethnic minority rights. The IMAR implementing measures for the national Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women (IMAR implementing measures), adopted November 14, 2008, and effective March 1, 2009, include three articles with provisions on ethnic minority women. While the provisions are generally more protective than those included in national law and the implementing measures of other ethnic autonomous regions (see below for a comparison), the implementing measures do not incorporate other protections in the 1995 IMAR supplementary provisions to the national law, which the implementing measures appear to supersede.

The IMAR implementing measures include the following provisions:

  • Article 8 promotes the training, selection, and employment of women cadres, "especially ethnic minority women cadres," by state offices, social organizations, and enterprises, a provision similar to that in national law (see analysis below) and some other provincial-level legal measures.
  • Article 11 calls for special consideration in the recruitment of female ethnic minority students.
  • Article 15 calls for preferential job hiring for ethnic minority women, where all female candidates have the same qualifications, and preferential recruiting in exams for government jobs where candidates have the same qualifications.

In contrast, the 1995 supplementary provisions had five provisions that included mention of ethnic minority women, including a stipulation to guarantee their participation in people's congresses (article 5), a stipulation providing moderate protections for their participation in employees representative meetings (article 7), protections for the freedom of women of all ethnicities to use their languages and preserve or change their customs (article 8), and articles on the training and selection of cadres (article 6) and on preferential job hiring for ethnic minority women, where all female candidates have the same qualifications (article 15). Although the national Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law includes various protections for local languages and cultures, it lacks specific attention to ethnic minority women except in the training of cadres (article 22). As noted in the Congressional-Executive Commission on China 2008 Annual Report, ethnic minority women are among populations who face extra vulnerabilities when defending their rights.

While altering protections in the 1995 provisions, the IMAR implementing measures also include protections not present in other parts of China, including in China's four other ethnic autonomous regions. At the same time, the IMAR implementing measures lack specific provisions on ethnic minority women's participation in local people's congresses and in leadership roles at certain levels of government, present in some other regions. (For a comparison with legal measures from other autonomous regions, see articles 12 and 14 of implementing measures from the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, article 6 of implementing measures from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and article 6 of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Implementing measures from the Tibet Autonomous Region do not have provisions specifically on ethnic minority women but have several provisions that refer to "each ethnicity." See articles 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, and 9.) The national Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women contains one provision providing that the state "attaches importance to the training and selection of ethnic minority women cadres" (article 12), within an article devoted to training and selecting women cadres. It also notes that women's organizations in China protect the rights and interests of women of all ethnicities (article 7) and states that governments in ethnic autonomous areas can pass alterations to national law or supplementary provisions to suit conditions for women in ethnic groups in those areas (article 60). Outside of autonomous regions, some provincial-level implementing measures, such as from Guangdong and Jilin provinces, do not include any mention of ethnic groups or ethnic minority women. Other provinces, such as Sichuan (article 10) and Guizhou (article 11), have provisions on training ethnic minority women cadres. Others, such as Shanghai (article 7) and Shanxi (article 6), include general mention of women of all ethnicities.

While the IMAR implementing measures represent more detailed protections for ethnic minority women than protections in many other local legal measures--even as the IMAR measures cut back on some protections in the 1995 supplementary provisions--their potential impact remains unclear. As noted in the CECC 2007 and 2008 Annual Reports, vague language and weak implementation have hindered the effectiveness of legal protections both for ethnic minorities and for women. As also discussed in the reports, policies implemented in the IMAR have threatened the protection of local ethnic minority cultures. At the same time, as women in China have made some advances in using the legal system to defend their rights, stronger protections for ethnic minority women within legislation could provide a basis for stronger protections in practice.

For more information on conditions for ethnic minorities in China, including in the IMAR, and on the status of women, see Section II--Ethnic Minorities and Section II--Status of Women in the CECC 2008 Annual Report.