A/HRC/45/14/Add.1 Congress and its Standing Committee. Once this has occurred, action can then be taken at the level of administrative regulations enacted by the State Council. Finally, local regulations may be enacted by local People’s Congresses with legislative power.13 19. In 1996, the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People’s Congress adopted the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Older Persons, which was further amended in 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2018. The Law has 9 chapters and 85 articles to further clarify the rights and interests of older persons and relevant legal responsibilities in terms of family support and care, social security, social services, social preferential treatment, a liveable environment and participation in social development. 14 The law transposes and concretizes the protection of fundamental rights specifically formulated for older persons in the Constitution.15 20. Since 2012, China promulgated a number of policy documents of specific relevance to older persons. This includes the thirteenth Five-Year Plan for the Development of Ageing-Related Work and the Construction of Pension Service System, the thirteenth FiveYear Plan for Healthy Ageing and the Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Promoting the Development of the Pension Service System. 16 21. Moreover, the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government in China have all formulated regulations on the protection of the rights and interests of older persons and/or have taken measures for the implementation of the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Older Persons. Local laws and regulations are mainly designed by local governments in line with their actual conditions, to conform to local characteristics and to be more specific and easier to operate. 17 22. China established the National Commission on Ageing as a deliberation and coordination body on ageing issues in 1999, with a mandate to coordinate and promote ageing-related work across the country. The Office of National Commission on Ageing was set up to undertake the daily work of the National Commission on Ageing. In 2019, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (the Political Bureau of the Party) and the State Council issued a national medium- and long-term plan for actively responding to population ageing, which clarified the strategic target and deployed specific tasks on actively responding to population ageing.18 23. China has not yet established an independent national human rights institution in accordance with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles). 19 IV. Independent Expert’s main findings A. Discrimination 24. While China does not have a comprehensive anti-discrimination law that protects all marginalized and disadvantaged individuals and groups in the enjoyment of their rights, 20 the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Older Persons stipulates that discrimination, humiliation, maltreatment or abandonment of older persons is prohibited. 25. Further, under section III of the National Human Rights Action Plan (2016–2020), China guarantees expressis verbis the protection of the rights and interests of specific groups, including ethnic minorities, women, children, older persons and persons with 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 6 Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. A/HRC/WG.6/31/CHN/1, para. 64. Government submission on the protection of rights and interests of older persons in China, p. 4. Ibid., p. 3. CEDAW/C/CHN/CO/7-8, para. 16; CRC/C/OPAC/CHN/CO/1, para. 8. E/C.12/CHN/CO/2, para. 14.