Legal Protection Of The Civil Rights And Interests Of The Elderly

Population aging is a worldwide social problem. As a result of the social and economic development, improvement of living standards as well as health and medical conditions, and successful implementation of the birth control policy, our country is also facing this global issue which will significantly affect the future sustainable economic development, social prosperity and stability, and construction of spiritual civilization. The promulgation and enforcement of the Law of the People's Republic of China on Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly and other related regulations is undoubtedly an effective promotion of socialist humanism and manifestation of socialist civilization.With decades of development in the socialist legal system, our country has developed a preliminary multidimensional legal system of protection of the rights and interests of the elderly, which not only affirms the equal rights and interests of the elderly and other citizens, but provides the elderly with special protection as well. However, in the implementation process, it has been noted that the existing Law on Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly is simply a collection of articles of various laws and regulations concerning the protection of the elderly instead of specially designed to protect them. This has led to infringement of the rights and interests of the elderly in their social life, and therefore has failed to ensure adequate and effective protection. The elderly is also a civil subject who is entitled to receive equal protection of rights and interests as other subjects. Their legitimate rights should not be deprived. Our society's neglect of their rights and interests, seeing them as a social and family burden that is useless and no longer contributive, has consequently resulted in cognitive and behavioral discrimination against the elderly. Since the elderly is a civil subject, they should be respected and treated equally, and their rights and interests should also be equally protected.Senior citizens in our country have experienced the establishment, construction and reform of the country, have made significant contributions in these processes, and have strong feelings for the Party and state. The majority of them have retired from working life. Therefore, how to effectively protect their legitimate rights and interests and ensure them a happy, healthy and satisfying later life is significantly important to the construction of a socialist harmonious society and the execution of rule of virtue in today's China.This paper consists of two parts. Part I examines the status quo of the civil rights and interests of the elderly, including the aging of the society, the current situation, characteristics and development trend of population aging in our country, and the existing laws and regulations on protection of the rights and interests of the elderly, and also summarizes and analyzes the infringement of the civil rights and interests of the elderly.Part II discusses how to improve our country's protection system of the rights and interests of the elderly, proposes the idea of establishing a support system for property disposition of the elderly, suggests developing a system for revoking the civil acts (property disposition) of the elderly, and proposes to regulate the elderly care organizations so as to achieve adequate and effective protection of the rights and interests of the elderly. This part also proposes to establish a special protection mechanism for the elderly by providing special protection of their right of abode, establishing a legal aid system for the elderly in legal proceedings, and attempting to introduce"reverse mortgage for the elderly"into the elderly support system in order to ensure the complete protection of the civil rights and interests of the elderly.