County in Henan distinguishes itself for promoting law-based rural governance

Qingfeng county in Central China's Henan province, which is known for its traditional filial culture, has been making earnest efforts to cultivate the culture of rule of law. 

By organically combining local administrative authorities, judicial system and people's mediation organizations over the past two years since it became one of the province's pilot regions for law-base rural governance in 2018, the county has established a three-pronged dispute mediation mechanism supported by professionals like lawyers and psychotherapists.

To strengthen legal services in its rural areas, the county has equipped each of its towns with a seven-member legal team consisting of four lawyers, two grassroots legal service workers and one full-time public legal specialist. It has also spent more than 1.23 million yuan ($187,206) annually in purchasing public legal services, and developed a well-conceived performance evaluation method to effectively motivate these legal service providers.

Apart from bringing in legal professionals, the county has also made persistent efforts to train law-conscious villagers in a bid to reduce social disputes caused by a lack of legal knowledge. 

So far this year, the county has organized 135 training sessions to this end. Those who received training have, in turn, actively participated in legal publicity campaigns to increase awareness of China's first Civil Code among their fellow villagers.

As a result of such comprehensive efforts villagers in Qingfeng are now able to solve most of their disputes locally, and have developed the habit of turning to law when encountering legal problems.