Youth representatives of CPPCC appeal for formulation of Voluntary Service Law

Chinese youth representatives of CPPCC tabled a joint bill to the 1^st plenary session of the 11^th CPPCC calling for formulation of a voluntary service law to improve the social voluntary service system.

By December 2007, over 268 million Chinese including young people had contributed over 6.1 billion hours of voluntary service to poverty alleviation development, community construction, environmental protection, grand events, rescue and relief and overseas services. The number of registered volunteers totaled 25.11 million. By February 2008, over 930000 volunteers had applied to serve the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics. Volunteers topped two million including over 1.08 million from urban areas.

In the bill the youth representatives of CPPCC recommended the inclusion of  Voluntary Service Law into the plan of Chinese legislation. Quan Guishou, a CPPCC national committee member, said, “Enacting a national law on voluntary service will help establish the basic principles of voluntary service, push its leadership coordination, popularization, planning and entry, recruitment and training, input guarantee, encouragement and citation as well as rights protection.”