Recently, All-China Women's Federation released the list of advanced individual (collective) recognition for urban and rural women in 2021. Among them, the Legal Aid Center of Wuhan University was awarded as the "National Women's Civilized Post", which is one of the only two units of Wuhan University to be honored in this selection.

Wuhan University Legal Aid Center (hereinafter called " Center "), as the first private legal aid center in China, was formerly known as "Wuhan University Center for the Protection of the Rights of the Disadvantaged" founded by Professor Wan Exiang in 1992, and has been committed to providing free and professional legal aid services to the disadvantaged groups in society since its establishment. The Center is operated by full-time teachers and student volunteers. In the past five years, it has provided legal advice to more than 15,000 people and represented 195 lawsuits, with a success rate of more than 90%. In 2020, the "Rural Legal Aid - the first domestic private legal aid agency to empower rural revitalization" project under the guidance of the Center's teachers, based on years of accumulated experience, used information technology to strengthen rural public legal services, and visited Lushui in Yunnan, Macheng in Hubei, Jishui in Jiangxi, and Xinzhou in Wuhan. The project won the gold medal in the 7th China International "Internet+" Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition in Hubei Province. In the summer of 2021, the Center organized social practice teams again to carry out research in rural areas of Hubei and Jiangxi provinces, continuously empowering rural revitalization, giving practical legal knowledge to villagers and spreading advanced rule of law concepts to the countryside. Through law promotion activities and surveys, the volunteers also gained a deeper understanding of the current status of public legal services in rural areas.

Center also committed to the moral and legal training of volunteers. Center has carried out a wide range of high-quality training and volunteer activities, including the "Wuhan University Legal Aid Center" WeChat public number, which is jointly maintained and regularly updated by teachers and students, and has continuously outputted more than 200 legal literacy tweets to the public. Over the past 30 years, more than 1,500 volunteers have grown up to become university teachers, lawyers, judges and prosecutors, working on various fronts in the construction of China's rule of law. As a result, the Center's volunteer team won the Gold Award in the Fifth China Youth Volunteer Service Competition. In addition, the center continues to pay attention to women's and children's rights and interests, and regularly undertakes cases of women's and minors' rights and interests. The book "Protection of the Rights of Children Left Behind in Rural Areas" written by the director of the Center, Professor Xiang Yan, was included in the "China Human Rights Blue Book"; The Center recently edited "Access to Justice: The Theory and Practice of Legal Aid in China", which has been published. This book conducted from the perspective of empirical research, which can provide an important reference for national legal aid legislation. The Center has also conducted several trainings on the topic of anti-domestic violence, which has achieved good social benefits and has been widely recognized by the recipients, their families and the society.

The National Women's Civilized Post is an award given by the All-China Women's Federation to honor women's groups that have made outstanding contributions to the country, society and people. In the context of the new era, Wuhan University Legal Aid Center will continue to explore effective ways to protect the rights and interests of socially disadvantaged groups.

Edited by Wang Yuting & Wu Liuqing