Exhibition on human rights development in China

The Fourth Work Experience Exchange Meeting of Human Rights Research Institutions took place from December 26th to 28th, 2012 at the Center for Education and Study of Human Rights at Southwestern University of Political Science and Law in Chongqing. Attendees discussed topics pertaining to the the message released by the 18th Party Congress and furthering progress in China’s approach to promoting human rights education and work.

Luo Haocai, president of the China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS) and Vice Chairman of the 9th and 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), Chen Shiqiu, vice president of the CSHRS and an expert on the United Nations Human Rights Council Advisory Committee, Li Buyun and Liu Hainian, honorary member of  the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Fu Zitang, president of Southwestern University of Political Science and Law, were among the notable attendees.  Around 80 participants representing more 30 institutions, including the Ministry of Justice, the Information Office of the State Council and other research institutions attended the workshop.

 

18th Party Congress provides guidance for human rights development in China

 

In a speech addressing the opening ceremony of the meeting, Luo Haocai said that the spirit of the 18th Party Congress should serve as a guide for human rights research and work.  In past few years, he elaborated, human rights research institutions have developed rapidly and become prominent. Moving forward, Luo suggested that these institutions have several key responsibilities in the future.  Firstly, he iterated that they should continue expanding human rights education and human rights training. Correspondingly, he said institutions should simultaneously develop the theory behind human rights while summarizing practical experience; together, these joint endeavors could serve as a basis for future theoretical innovation.  Lastly, Luo noted that human rights education would benefit from further inter-institutional exchange, both domestically and internationally.  To the latter, he added that Chinese institutions have the responsibility of participating in process of formulating international regulations and pushing for greater authority in the international human rights discourse.

Chen Shiqiu noted several areas for theoretical innovation. Foremost, he explained that any study of the theory behind human rights needs to have a proper orientation—it should take improving socialism with Chinese characteristics as its cornerstone.  Speaking from a broad perspective, he also noted the importance of keeping abreast of the times.  He appealed to researchers and scholars to refine the position and conception of human rights by following international trends and developments.  Additionally, Chen affirmed that the theoretical study of human rights needs to keep a liberal, all-encompassing attitude, actively making use of humankind’s political and cultural achievements. He concluded that it should be based in the present but with an eye toward the long-term future.

 

Human rights education finds its basis in China’s national conditions

 

Zhang Yonghe, vice dean of the Center for Education and Study of Human Rights at Southwestern University of Political Science and Law, discussed the empirical research on human rights that the school has carried out, and emphasized the importance of empirical methods.

Feng Jiancang, a researcher at the Ministry of Justice’s Crime Prevention Institute, Liang Hongxia, an associate professor at the Center for Human Rights Education and Research, and many other scholars representing their institutions also shared their practical experience and theoretical achievements in human rights education, including curricula on human rights, in law enforcement training, and even in overseas experience.  Attendees noted that the number and quality of China’s human rights institutions has improved greatly within the last few years and that correspondingly the study of human rights and work within the field have also undergone major developments.

During the meeting, aside from exchanging experiences, attendees also worked on the following issues: establishing a theoretical system for human rights; conducting dialogue between Chinese and western discourse on human rights; opening courses on human rights at colleges and universities; the activities of human rights think tanks; and implementation of the human rights in the legal sphere and among immigrants and ethnic minorities.  Attendees expressed that, in advancing human rights, especially through international exchange, the foremost priority is to safeguard China’s national dignity and protect the sanctity of Chinese scholarship.

In his closing remarks, Chen emphasized the breadth of human rights research as a discipline, noting that it has expanded year after year.  Drawing from his long engagement with foreign human rights, he emphasized that in participating in the international human rights movement, China should “insist on its principles, stand firm in its position, and make steady progress.” Additionally, Chen expressed that the theoretical study of human rights is an incremental process; human rights are not only a legal issue—they are also a political issue.  Today, the right to subsistence is the foremost right in the development of human rights, Chen noted. Many countries have decided this is a priority issue, which does not mean that other rights are not important. Furthermore, the right to subsistence also raises new demands for the study and foundation of human rights in China.

 

The Chinese version appeared in Chinese Social Sciences Today, No. 400, Jan 4, 2013

(Translated by Charles Horne)