The Central Ministry of Social Work, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Justice recently jointly issued the "Opinions on Strengthening Volunteer Legal Aid Service in Colleges and Universities" to encourage and guide teachers and students in colleges and universities to participate in volunteer legal aid services, providing strong support for the development of legal aid, the protection of the people's lawful rights and interests, and the advancement of the establishment of a rule of law society.
The Opinions put forward that by 2025, the working mechanism for legal aid volunteer service in colleges and universities will be basically complete, and the standardized construction of legal aid workstations in colleges and universities will be basically completed. By 2035, legal aid volunteer service work will become an important position for the practical education of law teachers and students in colleges and universities, and a socialist legal aid volunteer service system with Chinese characteristics will take shape. The Opinions are clear that personnel engaged in legal education and research work in colleges and universities, students majoring in law, sociology, psychology, or other related majors with legal knowledge, or those who are proficient in special languages and sign language, are to register on the National Volunteer Service Information Platform on the National Volunteer Service Information Platform or through the recruiting unit to become legal aid volunteers after being reviewed by the recruiting unit. Legal aid volunteers may, on the basis of their own professional knowledge and skills, lawfully provide legal aid services such as legal consultation and drafting legal documents to citizens with financial difficulties and other parties who meet the legally-prescribed requirements. The Opinions emphasize innovating ways and means of volunteer service, and encourage colleges and universities and legal aid institutions to organize volunteers to carry out legal aid volunteer services in areas where there is a shortage of legal talent, through the establishment of legal aid volunteer service groups, the establishment of university legal aid alliances, and the development of academic practice projects, to promote the cross-regional flow of legal service resources. It is understood that legal aid institutions nationwide have set up more than 400 legal aid workstations relying on colleges and universities, and there are 62,000 registered legal aid volunteers nationwide. (Reporter Qi Qi)
丨Source丨Xinhua News Agency丨Production丨Pingliang Rong Media Center
丨Review丨He Jun Liu Yingna
丨Editor丨Wu Peng