With the approval of the State Council, China's Ministry of Finance has allocated CNY50 million from the lottery public welfare fund to the China Legal Aid Foundation to subsidize legal aid cases.
According to Zhou Yuansheng, the secretary general of the foundation, the fund will only be open to migrant workers, disabled people, senior citizens, women, and teenagers who need financial aid for a lawsuit. Zhou said the fund will be available to all regions across China with the focus on the central and western parts of the country.
One of the highlights of the scheme is that the fund can also be used for cases going beyond the parameters stipulated by the Legal Aid Rule.
It is learned that the fund will be implemented by 722 units recommended by the National Lawyer's Association. Local lottery public welfare management offices will be responsible for monitoring the implementation of the fund and submitting a report to the central lottery public welfare fund office on a quarterly basis.
The China Legal Aid Foundation is a non-governmental and non-profit organization which accepts and manages donations from both China and abroad and subsidizes either those poverty-stricken citizens who are unable to engage private lawyers or the parties involved in some special cases for the purpose of protecting their legal rights and realizing social equity.
