At a press conference held on the morning of December 22 by the spokesman of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Zang Tiewei, spokesman of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said that the upcoming seventh meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress will deliberate on the draft decision on the revision of the Charity Law.
The current Charity Law stipulates that urban and rural community organizations and units may carry out mass mutual aid and mutual aid activities within their own communities and units, providing a legal basis for individuals to seek help and carry out mass mutual aid and mutual aid activities within a certain scope. In recent years, with the development of network information technology, the phenomenon of personal online help has been increasing, beyond the specific scope of communities and units. The relevant network service platforms have shown large-scale development and have played a positive role in helping patients with serious illnesses to raise medical expenses, but there are also some chaotic phenomena, which have aroused public doubts and negative public opinion, and have a negative impact on the credibility of the entire industry and even the development of philanthropy. Zang Tiewei introduced that the revision of the Charity Law, taking into account the opinions of all parties, added a special article in the supplementary provisions, and made provisions on individual help-seeking behavior and personal help-seeking network service platforms, on the one hand, requiring that help-seekers and information publishers should be responsible for the authenticity of the information, and must not defraud assistance by fabricating or concealing facts;On the other hand, it is clarified that platforms engaged in online services for personal help-seeking shall be designated by the civil affairs department to conduct a verification of the authenticity of the help-seeking information released through them. At the same time, considering that the specific provisions on online service platforms for individuals seeking help involve all aspects of seeking help and services, and it is difficult to make comprehensive and detailed provisions in the supplementary provisions, the draft authorizes the civil affairs department to formulate specific management measures in conjunction with departments such as for internet information, industry and information technology. Relevant departments shall draft specific rules in accordance with the provisions of the Legislation Law and their respective duties, making provisions on the publication and inspection of information on requests for assistance, platform services, oversight and management, and so forth, to promote the healthy and standardized development of online service platforms for individual requests for assistance.
Charitable organizations are an important subject of modern philanthropy. Improving the transparency and credibility of charitable organizations is an intrinsic requirement for promoting the sustainable development of philanthropy, and is also an important part of the revision of the Charity Law. According to Zang Tiewei, from the perspective of actively guiding the healthy development of charitable organizations, the draft further improves the provisions on information disclosure of charitable organizations. First, where charitable organizations with public fundraising credentials cooperate with organizations or individuals that do not have public fundraising credentials to carry out public fundraising, they shall conduct an assessment of the partners, sign a written agreement, indicate the relevant information of the partners in the fundraising plan, and conduct guidance and oversight of the partners' relevant conduct, and conduct financial accounting and management of the funds and materials raised through the cooperation. Second, it is required to disclose in detail the fundraising, project implementation, and use of funds and materials raised within three months of the conclusion of public fundraising activities or charitable projects. Third, where public fundraising is carried out in response to major emergencies, the receipt of funds and materials raised shall be disclosed at least once every five days during the emergency response and rescue phase, and the distribution and use shall be disclosed in a timely manner. Fourth, it is clarified that charitable organizations shall follow the principle of the most necessary cost of fundraising, fully and efficiently use charitable assets for charitable activities, report the cost of fundraising to the civil affairs departments, and disclose it to the public. In addition, the legal liability of charitable organizations and relevant responsible persons for illegal acts has been further tightened.
Philanthropy is an important part of the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and is of great significance to promoting social fairness and justice and promoting the realization of common prosperity. Zang Tiewei pointed out that promoting the development of philanthropy is one of the key points of the revision of the Charity Law, which mainly includes the following aspects: First, all levels are required to include charity in the national economic and social development plan, formulate policies and measures to promote the development of philanthropy, and relevant departments will include information such as charitable donations and volunteer service records into the credit records of relevant entities, and improve the credit incentive system. The second is to encourage, guide, and support natural persons, legal persons, and unincorporated organizations that are willing and able to actively participate in charitable undertakings, implement preferential tax policies for charitable undertakings, establish charitable trusts to carry out charitable activities, and implement special preferential policies for charitable activities that carry out poverty alleviation, participate in major emergency response, and participate in major national strategies. The third is to encourage the application of modern information technology in the field of charity, encourage social forces to provide financial support and capacity-building services for charitable organizations, and encourage the development of community philanthropy. Fourth, encourage international exchanges and cooperation in philanthropy.
During the public consultation period on the Chinese National People's Congress website, the draft amendment to the Charity Law received 1,114 comments from 670 people and 10 letters. Zang Tiewei said, "The public mainly put forward opinions and suggestions on regulating cooperative public fundraising activities, strengthening the supervision of personal help-seeking online service platforms, improving promotion measures, and increasing the intensity of commendations." ”
The grassroots legislative contact points of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress actively organized activities to solicit opinions, and people's congress deputies, grassroots people, and contact point staff actively participated and put forward many valuable and good suggestions. Zang Tiewei said that for example, the staff of the contact point of Tianjin Xiaobailou walked the streets and alleys to solicit the opinions of the community on the draft amendment to the Charity Law, and at the same time visited the visually impaired patients in the community and the people who sought help and received preferential care, and had an in-depth understanding of the problems existing in the current practice of charity work, and submitted opinions and suggestions to the Legal Affairs Commission. The contact point in Huangdao, Shandong Province not only solicited opinions through the "Navigation Station, Wisdom Chain Ten Thousand Homes" system, but also conducted field research and visits, held many symposiums, communicated with the public, people's congress deputies, district civil affairs bureau and district disabled persons' federation and other departments, sorted out and studied the provisions of the draft law one by one, and collected a total of 82 suggestions. Zang Tiewei said that some of the opinions have been incorporated into the draft submitted to the current Standing Committee meeting for deliberation.
**: National People's Congress