The two sessions of the National People's Congress are about to be held, and the representatives of the Shanghai delegation are carefully polishing their proposals and suggestions. This year, many representatives have continued the theme of suggestions from previous years. They plan to continue to optimize through long-term tracking and patient research to promote practical matters for people's livelihood or the transformation and implementation of scientific and technological achievements. Yao Zhuoyun, who has been paying attention to the discretionary guardianship system for a long time, will continue to refine relevant suggestions this year, hoping to quickly build a multi-level discretionary guardianship service system and supervision system after the new regulations on discretionary guardianship are implemented.
Last month, Yao Zhuoyun, a representative of the National People's Congress, learned that after the newly revised "Shanghai Regulations on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly" were officially implemented, a voluntary guardianship case had been implemented, and he hurriedly came to Jing'an Court to learn about the situation.
At the scene, a president of the Jing'an Court recalled: "The client said that I am worried about my own pension. Now I am the guardian of my son. Next time I will be old and no one will care about me. What will happen to me and my son?"
It turned out that the client's son had been mentally disabled since childhood and was unable to take care of himself. The client was worried that there would be no one to take care of the mother and son after he became incapacitated in the future, so he wanted to entrust the guardianship responsibility to his close nephew. Finally, under the guidance of the new regulations on discretionary guardianship, the client signed a consent-related guardianship agreement under the guidance of the Jing'an Court judge and the witness of the staff of the neighborhood committee. At the scene, Yao Zhuoyun also raised concerns about the difficulties in grassroots practice and prepared to incorporate them into the representatives' suggestions.
In fact, in the 2015 revision of the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly, my country proposed the "voluntary guardianship" system for the first time. However, this guardianship system faces many challenges in actual operation. Previously, Yao Zhuoyun had already collected some difficult and blocking issues in the grassroots courts.
Lu Wenjia, deputy director of the Jiading Court, told Representative Yao: "In-process supervision measures are still in the stage of judicial exploration and experience, and have not yet risen to the level of legal norms. Therefore, they can only be applied with the consent of the parties involved. The overall application rate needs to be improved. There are contradictions between the case trial cycle, the essence of the custody dispute, the difficulty of review, and the contradiction between the principles of punishment and debate and the principle that is most beneficial to the ward."
Since the operating rules are not yet complete, the grassroots are "crossing the river by feeling for the stones" when handling cases related to voluntary guardianship. There have been confusions but also useful attempts have been accumulated. For example, in order to strengthen the effectiveness of supervision, in 2024, when handling an elderly guardianship case, the Jiading Court produced and sorted out "two tables and one instruction", namely: adult guardianship instructions, a list of the ward's personal and property situation, and a guardianship ledger. Guardians must fill in the forms strictly in accordance with the forms and send them to other brothers and sisters regularly to accept supervision. Yao Zhuoyun carefully recorded the handling details as a reference for subsequent formulation of representatives’ proposed countermeasures.
Ji Xuepeng, deputy director of the Civil Division of Jiading Court, said: "The specifics include, for example, during this period, what property income the ward had, what property he spent, what he did, as well as his residence, life, If there are any particularly major changes in medical care, they will also be reported. The design of such a system effectively helps guardians to fully and effectively perform their guardianship duties, and is also a manifestation of the principle that is most beneficial to the ward. Therefore, I think our two tables and one directive also have certain reference and application space for discretionary guardianship. "
As a deputy to the National People's Congress, Yao Zhuoyun has been concerned about the implementation of voluntary guardianship for many years. Last year at the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress, Yao Zhuoyun submitted a "Recommendation on Accelerating the Legislative Process of the Elderly Determined Guardianship System." During this year, the implementation process also pressed the accelerator button, especially in local practice. In November last year, The newly revised "Shanghai Regulations on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly" were officially implemented, clarifying for the first time the two main paths for the elderly to establish voluntary guardianship. At the same time, the "Shanghai Municipal Opinions on Promoting the Implementation of the voluntary guardianship system for the elderly (Trial)" was approved by the municipal government executive meeting and was officially issued in early December. The introduction of these new regulations has ensured the implementation of discretionary guardianship in Shanghai.
Bai Yun, the president of the Comprehensive Tribunal for Juvenile and Family Cases of the Jing'an District People's Court, believes that there is a huge demand for discretionary guardianship in grassroots cases: "The new regulations have detailed requirements for the witness of the village committee who decides on discretionary guardianship. This is more complete for the signing process of discretionary guardianship. It puts a safety lock on the effectiveness of subsequent performance throughout the process. In fact, it also points out the direction for more people who want to decide on guardianship, and plays an important role in promoting the implementation of this system."
Of course, it will take a long time for voluntary guardianship to give full play to the advantages of the system. Yao Zhuoyun plans to further digest this year's new progress, new problems, and new thinking into this year's representatives' suggestions, so that a wider group of people can understand and use voluntary guardianship as soon as possible.
In this regard, Yao Zhuoyun, a representative of the National People's Congress, said: "After putting forward this representative proposal last year, we knew that this representative proposal cannot be stopped abruptly, because it is just in its infancy. As a representative of the National People's Congress, in fact, I think we also need further research and discussion, in order to make the legal system of voluntary guardianship more complete and truly achieve its original intention and goal."
Reported by reporter Zhao Yifan
Look at the news reporter: Zhao Yifan
