Women's NGO outreaches to grassroots women in ethnic minority areas in Yunnan. Credit: Yuan Feng
Earlier this year, Ms. Dai was awarded compensation by a court which recognised that her then husband, Mr Liu, had committed domestic violence. However this same court awarded Mr Lui custody of her son, despite the fact that Mr Lui had abducted the child in 2014 when he was 17 months old, ruling that it was in the best interests of the child for the father to have custody. The court has since issued a protection order for Ms. Dai. But as I write this article she has been blocked from seeing the child by Mr. Liu and his family, and her personal information such as her home address has been posted on the internet by him.
This case reflects the contradictory effects of the first domestic violence (DV) law in China which came into effect on March 1, 2016.
