The Supreme People's Court (SPC) on Sunday announced that by 2020, all courts in China's ethnic minority areas will be staffed with judges capable of using both Han and local ethnic languages.
The SPC and the State Ethnic Affairs Commission have jointly issued a circular on improving the education and training of bilingual judges for ethnic minority areas, pledging to train 1,500 bilingual judges as of 2020.
The circular said the authorities will work to ensure that every court in such areas has about four judges with bilingual competence and legal expertise.
China has 56 ethnic groups and citizens of all ethnic groups have statutory right to use their own ethnic language in litigations according to the Constitution and law.
