With the deepening of reform and the gradual establishment of socialist market economy, China's society has undergone structural adjustment, social stratification has intensified, and a large number of socially disadvantaged groups have emerged. The term "vulnerable groups" has also begun to enter people's field of vision. If their rights are not effectively protected, it will cause increasingly serious social problems and lead to social instability. Paying attention to social vulnerable groups and improving their living conditions is a sign of social civilization and progress, an inherent requirement of building a well-off society in an all-round way and an important guarantee for social stability and long-term stability of the country.
First, the concept and characteristics of vulnerable groups
Regarding the meaning of vulnerable groups, there are mainly the following viewpoints: First, from the social point of view, vulnerable groups are social groups that lack the ability to cope with social problems and are prone to setbacks; Second, from the economic point of view, the disadvantaged groups are social groups that have difficulties in production and life due to various internal and external reasons; Thirdly, from the political and legal point of view, it is considered that the disadvantaged groups are social groups in a relatively unfavorable position in economy, culture, physique, intelligence and situation; Fourthly, the disadvantaged group is a special social group, with poor economic benefits, low quality of life and weak tolerance for social resource allocation. [1] From the current situation in China, the vulnerable groups are mainly composed of urban and rural poor, laid-off workers, unemployed people, migrant workers, landless farmers, retirees, disabled people, women, children, the elderly, people with difficulties in natural and man-made disasters and consumers.
Vulnerable groups have some comprehensive characteristics: (1) The economic income is lower than the social per capita income level, even hovering around the poverty line, and they are at a lower level of society. (2) Most or all of the income in the consumption structure is used for food, that is, the Engel coefficient is as high as 80%- 100%, which makes it impossible to make ends meet. (3) Low quality of life, using cheap goods, wearing shabby clothes, no education, no consumption and entertainment, and dropping out of school. (4) In addition to the pressure of economic life, the psychological pressure is also higher than that of ordinary people's congresses. They have no sense of occupational security, unstable or low economic income, often worry about food and clothing, and are pessimistic about the future. (5) Due to self-limiting factors such as poor ability and quality, or the physiological peak period has passed and lack of skills, there are fewer opportunities to change the status quo and it is more difficult to get rich. (6) This kind of economic poverty and social disadvantage will last for some time or even forever. [2]
Second, the legal basis for the protection of the rights of social vulnerable groups.
Famous American scholar Louis? Henkin pointed out in the preface to The Age of Rights: "Our time."
Generation is the age of power. Human rights are the concept of our times and the only universally accepted political and moral concept. "。 [3] Human rights pursue human dignity as human beings and abstract equality between people. Therefore, the concept of human rights is the value basis of protecting the vulnerable groups in society. Social vulnerable groups enjoy a decent life based on human rights.
The right to equal treatment. The legal practice of modern society is guided by the concept of human rights, and the ideal of human rights is realized as legal existence through legal rights. Social vulnerable groups have been protected by their rights. The recognition and special protection of the legal rights of the social vulnerable groups is the embodiment of human rights thought. Therefore, the rights of socially disadvantaged groups should be owned by them. Legal rights are based on human rights and take human rights as the key means, which makes the rights themselves legitimate.
As an inevitable requirement of the concept of human rights, providing legal protection for socially disadvantaged groups has undergone a transformation from simply pursuing formal equality to combining formal equality with substantive equality. Under the condition of formal equality, the "weak" characteristics of the socially disadvantaged groups are submerged in the abstract universal personality. Social vulnerable groups have obtained the same rights as normal people in form, thus eliminating discrimination against social vulnerable groups. However, under the guidance of formal equality, the protection of the rights of socially disadvantaged groups exposes the following drawbacks:
First of all, the socially disadvantaged groups only enjoy formal freedom, and these rights are often not realized. The abstract granting of rights does not mean that all people actually enjoy the means to realize these rights and can use these freedoms and rights to the same extent and scope.
Secondly, formal equality often leads to general inequality in the face of practical differences. Formal equality transcends the differences of individual characteristics in granting rights and pursues abstract equality. This kind of equality only requires that the legal system is applicable to all people, but everyone has obvious differences in the degree of realization of rights. The provision of freedom rights only provides people with an equal opportunity, and does not involve the final result. Therefore, it often leads to widespread inequality.
Finally, formal equality takes absolute freedom as its value concept, excludes state intervention, and leaves vulnerable groups unprotected. The formal equality of rights with absolute freedom as the value concept can make the strong get huge practical benefits, but it is meaningless to the weak. The state can only take a negative attitude towards this and cannot take positive measures.
Formal equality has caused serious social problems, leading to sharp conflicts between the strong and the weak. Under this background, the theory of substantive equality with revised formal equality came into being. The so-called "principle of substantive equality" mainly refers to the premise that in order to correct the inequality caused by formal equality to a certain extent, different ways are adopted according to each person's different attributes to ensure the development of individual personality in a substantive sense. [4] Substantive equality modifies formal equality from two aspects. One is to restrict economic freedom, and the other is to protect social rights. That is to say, on the one hand, it restricts the freedom of the strong, on the other hand, it guarantees the opportunities of the weak in society. Different from political rights, the actual enjoyment of social rights depends on the economic policy and strength of the country, which requires the state to actively intervene in the social and economic life of citizens. When protecting citizens' economic, social and cultural rights and interests, the state not only has the negative obligation of non-interference, but also has the obligation of actively promoting their real realization. Determining the basic status of social, economic and cultural rights is of great significance to the socially disadvantaged groups. Giving children, the elderly, the disabled, women, the mentally retarded and ethnic minorities economic, social and cultural rights makes the state have a specific obligation to provide opportunities for the socially disadvantaged groups to enjoy various rights, and even directly provide some basic needs to help the socially disadvantaged groups get out of the predicament and get rid of their disadvantaged position. The value orientation of special protection for social vulnerable groups is to seek justice by "inequality". Legislation does not prohibit different provisions on civil rights. This special protection in legislation is the proper meaning of justice. Therefore, the legal protection of the rights and interests of vulnerable groups pursues complete equality with equal emphasis on formal equality and substantive equality.
Third, suggestions to improve the legal protection of vulnerable groups in China.
Under the equality concept of paying equal attention to formal equality and substantive equality, the protection of vulnerable groups depends on specific systems. Therefore, perfecting and implementing relevant systems is the core link of legal protection for vulnerable groups.
The protection of vulnerable groups, no matter what strength, can not be separated from the protection of the law. Since the reform and opening-up, the legislature of China has made great efforts to protect the human rights of the social vulnerable groups and achieved universally recognized achievements. At present, the laws of various departments in our country all embody the contents of protecting vulnerable groups in their legal norms, such as Constitution, Marriage Law, Education Law, Civil Law, Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests, Law on the Protection of Minors, Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly, Law on the Protection of the Disabled, Law on the Protection of Consumers' Rights and Interests, and so on. According to incomplete statistics, over the past 20 years, China has enacted more than 1000 laws and regulations to confirm and protect human rights. However, in terms of systematicness, integrity and practicality, there is still a big gap between the legislative protection of vulnerable groups and the requirements of real life, and it is difficult for ordinary people to understand the actual protection spirit of the law for vulnerable groups in many cases. Moreover, although China's Constitution and laws stipulate that citizens are all equal in law, due to the complex changes in economic, political and social relations, the restriction of various interests and the spread of corruption, the equal spirit of the rule of law is greatly reduced in the application of law, which directly shows that the legitimate rights and interests of vulnerable groups cannot be effectively protected by law. From the legislative point of view, its shortcomings mainly include: first, the specific measures of social security are too simple and abstract, and the operability is not strong; Second, the lack of procedural provisions; Third, the legal accountability system is not clear.
In order to strengthen the legal protection of vulnerable groups, it is necessary to improve and implement this system. The author believes that the following three aspects are the key points to improve the legal protection system for vulnerable groups in China:
First, improve the social security system. A perfect social security system covering the whole society is the fundamental way to solve the problem of vulnerable groups. The framework of China's social security system has been basically established, but its narrow coverage and single level have seriously restricted its function. Therefore, it should be improved from the following aspects: (1) Expand the coverage of social security system, establish a social security system covering urban and rural areas, including state-owned enterprises, private enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises, and finally cover the whole society. (2) Strengthen social assistance and provide all-round social assistance such as minimum living security, low-rent housing and low-cost medical care for vulnerable groups. (3) Improve the legal system of social insurance. Mainly to improve the basic old-age insurance, unemployment insurance and industrial injury insurance and other multi-level social insurance system. Endowment insurance should focus on system construction, gradually realize universal pension and differentiated occupational pension system, and take into account the differences between urban and rural areas and regions, and adopt a flexible and diversified system. Establish an industrial injury insurance system covering all workers in non-agricultural industries as soon as possible, focusing on establishing an industrial injury insurance system for migrant workers, a serious illness protection mechanism and a corresponding social assistance system.
Second, improve the judicial relief procedures and improve the legal aid system. In providing judicial protection for vulnerable groups, there is a prominent problem: high litigation cost. When the rights and interests of vulnerable groups are infringed, they cannot seek judicial protection because they cannot afford expensive litigation fees. In this way, the judicial protection of the weak is only a possibility and cannot be translated into reality in time. Therefore, to strengthen the judicial protection of social vulnerable groups, we should explore ways to simplify procedures, facilitate litigation and reduce litigation costs, so that vulnerable groups can afford the law and become necessities of life. Therefore, China's civil summary procedure should be improved to make it play a greater role. At the same time, the beneficial experience of foreign "small litigation" and the establishment of non-litigation judicial procedures is also worth learning. While perfecting the judicial relief procedure, we should also improve our legal aid system. Legal aid system is a universally recognized judicial system in the world today. In China, although the legal aid system has begun to take shape, there are still many unsatisfactory places to be improved.
Third, continue to improve the special protection laws for specific vulnerable groups. While perfecting the existing special legislation, we should also strengthen the special protection legislation for other specific vulnerable groups. At the same time, due to the diversity and variability of vulnerable groups, the protection of a vulnerable group cannot be solved by a single law, but requires the comprehensive coordination of laws of various departments, and even a unified law on the protection of the rights and interests of vulnerable groups is formulated when conditions are ripe.
In short, the legal protection system for vulnerable groups is a comprehensive and systematic social project, which involves many other aspects of social work in addition to the above three points. Only by starting from all aspects, taking a multi-pronged approach and going hand in hand, and establishing a perfect legal protection system for vulnerable groups can we truly protect the rights and interests of vulnerable groups and realize social justice and social order.