Chinese city launches domestic violence database for couples considering marriage
The city of Yiwu in eastern China is set to
begin a pilot programme that allows residents to check whether their partner
has a history of domestic abuse before getting married.
According to a notice on the Yiwu
government website, the city will on 1 July unveil a searchable database that
includes the information of offenders from across the country, those who have
been convicted, subjected to restraining orders or sentenced to detention over
domestic violence since 2017.
“In many cases, the parties involved only
know about domestic violence after marriage. By establishing an inquiry
database, partners can know beforehand and consider whether to marry,” Zhou
Danying, Vice Chairman of Yiwu Women’s Federation, one of the government bodies
involved in the programme, told the Paper
The database is the first of its kind in
China, according to the All China Women’s Federation. Officials have assured
the public that privacy concerns were considered. Those using the database must
provide their ID as well as the ID of the person they intend to marry, their
application to the marriage registry office. They must sign a confidentiality
agreement.
Those who disseminate or use the
information in the database for any purposes other than their own matrimonial
decisions will “bear legal consequences”. Users can only search the database
twice the year, to look at the records of at most two people.
The database comes after an uptick in
domestic violence during lockdowns and quarantine measures across China during
the Covid-19 outbreak. Observers say Yiwu’s initiative may be limited by the
fact that many cases of domestic abuse go unreported and those that do are
often rejected by the courts. Police are also often reluctant to file such
complaints.
In 2016, China passed its first law on domestic violence, giving partners new protections but other measures threaten to undermine that. A recently passed civil code requires couples to undergo a 30 day “cool off” period, which critics say could put victims of domestic violence at risk. Defenders of the law said it would not apply to such cases.
