NGOs allowed to sue polluters in China
Hundreds of campaign groups in China have been granted the unprecedented right to bring legal action over environmental damage. The number of NGOs in China concerned with environmental protection has grown significantly in the past decade. According to Liao Hong, vice-director of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, there are now 569,000 licensed NGOs in China, with about 7,000 registered as groups campaigning on environmental issues. This is a conservative estimate and does not include the plethora of unlicensed NGOs and ad hoc activist groups focusing on environmental issues at both the national and local level. However, it’s long been debated what exactly environmental NGOs can actually do in China. Campaigns are possible, but often restricted; mass gatherings, protests and rallies are virtually always deemed illegal; and perhaps most importantly, the ability of an NGO – whether registered or not, international or domestic – to actually seek prosecution against a Chinese enterprise for breaching environmental regulations has been almost non-existent in China’s arcane and highly politicised legal system. That has changed somewhat in 2015. In December 2014, the Ministry of Civil Affairs approved 700 NGOs as eligible to launch public interest litigation over violations of environmental law. This is the first time any NGOs have been granted the legal status necessary to take violators to court, rather than simply report violations to the authorities. Seven hundred may only be one-tenth of registered NGOs but, looking on the bright side, it is a start. The Beijing-based Friends of Nature and Fujian province-based NGO Green Home tested the new legislation with a lawsuit, lodged on 1 January this year in Fujian’s Nanping Intermediate People’s Court, against four mine operators accused of carrying out illegal mining activities since 2008 in a mountainous area of natural beauty and environmental conservation. The case lasted a couple […]