Guo Jianmei

Guo Jianmei (Simplified Chinese: 郭建梅; Hanyu pinyin Guō Jiànméi; born October 1961) is a Chinese lawyer and human rights activist. She is the head of an organization to help women with legal problems.  In 2011, she received the International Women of Courage Award from the United States Department of State.
 Life 
Guo Jianmei was born in a poor area of Hua County, Henan Province, in China.  Both her parents were teachers.  Guo saw poverty and  problems with women's rights in her village. This gave her the idea to work for women's rights in China. She is married to writer Liu Zhenyun. 

 Work 
When she was 18, Guo went to law school at Beijing University.  She graduated in 1983. After she graduated, she worked at the Ministry of Justice, The All China Federation of Women, and The All China Association of Lawyers.  In 1989, Guo helped to write the law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests. Guo traveled to more than 20 areas of China to learn about the lives of Chinese women.

In 1995, Guo went to the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. When a foreign lawyer asked about non-governmental organizations to help women with legal problems, everyone was silent.  They understood that women had very little help in China. Later that year, Guo and her friends started the Beijing University Law School Women's Legal Research and Services Centre, China's first NGO non-governmental organization for legal help for women.

Guo helped write China's new marriage law in 2001.  In 2003, she helped write the law for Regulations for Legal Aid. Guo wrote 8 books.  She is also editor of three volumes of "Everyday Life Law", and "A Guide to Women's Legal Aid Cases".

 Awards 

In 2010 Guo Jianmei received the Simone De Beauvoir Prize.  
Also in 2010, the International Labor Organisation (ILO) named her China’s first anti-AIDS discrimination ambassador. 
In 2011 she received the International Women of Courage Award from the United States Department of State.

 References  

 Other websites 

  Women’s Legal Research and Service Centre
  PeaceWomen Across the Globe
  ILO
 Guo Jianmei   Video produced by Makers: Women Who Make America
 2011 International Women of Courage Awards, U.S. State Department photostream on Flickr 
Secretary's International Women of Courage Award (U.S. Department of State)

Category:Women who received the International Women of Courage Award
Category:Living people
Category:1961 births
Category:Chinese lawyers
Category:Chinese human rights activists
Category:People from Henan