1. Positioning

 

The Fudan University Human Rights Research Center is an interdisciplinary academic platform, based in China and looking outward to the world. The center integrates the academic resources of Fudan University, a comprehensive higher-learning institution, to organize multifaceted research on human rights issues. The center serves as an engine and a booster for human rights research and education at Fudan University.

 

2. Genesis

 

The center was established in tandem withChina’s economic and social development and the rising awareness of human rights in Chinese society. The center was set up to satisfy the general demand for human rights research in the country and the academic demands of Fudan University scholars for research on various issues in the human rights field and research on human rights-related issues in the socioeconomic and international relations fields. Based on previous research on human rights at Fudan University, the center integrates the academic strength of the university and is building a China-based, world-oriented platform for human rights research and education.

 

(1) In the 1980s, legal experts and political scientists at Fudan University, seeking to provide the country with policy advice amidst the international human rights struggle, began to study international human rights conventions, published books such as International Human Rights Theory and New Theory on Human Rights, and provided effective consultation.[page]

 

(2) Since the 1990s, human rights research has been further expanded to the fields of economics, philosophy, sociology, journalism and public health.

 

(3) At the same time, the university has increased its international exchange and dialogue in the area of human rights. Particularly in coordination withFudan University’s Scandinavian Research Center and European Research Center, the university has organized collaborative research on human rights with well-known human rights organizations in Scandinavia. Since 1999, the university has organized five international human rights law symposiums, which have greatly boosted related research at Fudan University.

 

(4) In order to integrate the university’s human rights research capabilities and expand itsresearch frontiers, the Fudan UniversityHuman Rights Research Center was established on April 21, 2002. The then-secretary of the Fudan University committee of the Communist Party of China became chair of the academic advisory board of the center. Dong Yunhu, Shen Guoming and Yu Xintian were selected as members of the academic advisory board. Experts in law, sociology, political science, journalism and economics were recruited as research fellows. From that point, human rights research at Fudan Universitymoved into a new stage.[page]

 

3. Organization

 

(1) The center has an academic advisory board, which is chaired by a leading figure of the university.

 

(2) The center is directed by influential experts at Fudan Universityand leading officials of ministries. This is conducive to coordinating or combining various academic resources at the university, organizing research, enhancing education, developing international exchange networks and increasing international human rights dialogue.

 

(3) The Fudan Law School is responsible for the administrative affairs of the center. Since the center is a university-wide academic platform, its activities are open to the whole university.

 

 

The center was established to serve the nation’s development. The major tasks of the center are scientific research, policy consultation, international cooperation, human rights and social service. The center has had abundant achievements, becoming a development mechanism with special Fudan University characteristics.

 

1. Interdisciplinary, multidimensional and multifaceted human rights research

 

The establishment of the center has further inspired enthusiasm and passion for studying human rights and has boosted human rights research at the university. Research fellows from various disciplines have made distinctive contributions to human rights research and education. The center has organized research on such topics as Marxist human rights theory keeping pace with the times; politics, diplomacy and human rights; international human rights law; socioeconomic development and human rights; cultural ethics and human rights; and education and human rights. This interdisciplinary research shows that Fudan University has a capableresearch team.[page]

 

Campus of Fudan University

 

On the basis of each discipline flourishing, Fudan University makes full use of the academic strengths of various disciplines. It relies on the development of key academic programs, research bases and research institutes to push forward research on human rights and related topics, producing results with theoretical value and pragmatic significance. For example, regarding political rights, scholars from the School of International Relations and Public Affairs, the School of Journalism and the School of Law have conducted a lot of research on human cloning and related human rights, intellectual property rights and human rights, the right to know, the right to civil participation, and international human rights protection, thus continuously boosting human rights research at Fudan University. For example, the School of Social Development and Reform Policy has been a national leader in studying economic, social and cultural rights as well as the rights of women, children and migrant workers. Publications in recent years have included Cloning Humans: Law and Society, Procedure and Justice, Constitutional Basis of Modern Politics, Research Paper on Labor Relations in Shanghai, Distributive Fairness and Social Security, Changes in Cultural Identity of Migrant Workers in Cities, Legal Phenomena and Concepts, Legal Theory of Procedure, Construction of Judicial Justice, and Gender Research on Media and Society: Theory and Practice. These publications have helped encourage further research on human rights at Fudan University.

 

2. Policy advice to government

 

The center, as a university-wide research platform, not only integrates the academic resources of the university in order to specialize in research on human rights, but also embeds human rights in other research topics, especially research related to policy consultation on practical issues in China. For more than 10 years, the center has providedadvisory services, with dozens of reports, to the central government, the Shanghai municipal government and other local governments.[page]

 

3. International exchange and cooperation, dialogue, collaborative research networks

 

Being open to the world is one of the orientations of the center. The center has cultivated long-term relationships with Fudan’s Scandinavian Research Center and its affiliate universities and human rights research institutions in Scandinavia in order to carry out research programs, collaborative symposiums, and teacher and student exchange. Human rights topics are an integral part of research programs in the Scandinavian Research Center. Comparative studies increase mutual understanding of human rights concepts, systems and implementation.

 

Fudan University has also conducted extensive cooperation in human rights and related fields with human rights research institutions and scholars from the United States and Europe.

 

The university has set up the China Research Center in Copenhagen, Denmark and the Fudan-UC Modern China Research Center at the University of California. These serve as international platforms for studying human rights in China.

 

4. Human rights education and curriculum

 

In its general education curriculum, Fudan University offers two undergraduate courses: “Human Rights and the Law” and “The Rule of Law and Civic Rights.”It also offers the following graduate courses: “Special Topics in Human Rights Law,”“Special Topics in International Human Rights Law”and “Citizenship and Human Rights in the EU.” Fudan has also collaborated with foreign universities to launchdoctoral programs at Fudan.

 

The center encouragesstudents to learn more about human rights and conduct human rights-related activities. More and more candidates for master’s and doctoral degrees specialize in human rights issues and the number of master’s theses and doctoral dissertations on human rights has increased.

 

At Fudan University, study and practical activities related to human rights include legal aid, moot courts and international exchange activities related to human rights.[page]

 

In 1996, the Fudan School of Law set up China’s first student legal aid center, cooperating with the Shanghai Women’s Federation, the Shanghai All Workers’ Union and the Shanghai Department of Justice to offer legal aid to disadvantaged groups. Since 2003, Fudan University students have participated in the Jessup International Moot Court Competition. (The competition frequently touches on international human rights law.) Since 2006, Fudan University students have competed in the International Humanitarian Moot Court competition and have competed in the International Criminal Moot Court competition since 2012. In 2013, Fudan University students were invited to the University of Connecticut for a summer program in human rights, studying human rights and conducting dialogue with students from the rest of the world.

 

5. Human rights training and social service

 

The center promotes human rights training and spreading human rights knowledge, in a bid to serve society. The framework for human rights training has been initially shaped. It includestraining both within and outside the university, as well as domestic and international training.Spreading human rights concepts through training and publicizing China’s human rights development to the rest of world further boost the cause of human rights development in China.

 

Since 1999, Fudan University has cooperated with human rights research institutions in Scandinavia to organize five workshops, comprising discussion of human rights issues and professional training for college teachers nationwide. Fudan University has also cooperated with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the Danish Center for Asian Studies and Gothenburg University in Sweden to launch human rights training programs and courses at Fudan University. Experts from the center have also been invited to give lectures on international human rights law and human rights protection in judicial practice to Shanghai judges and prosecutors. In addition, Fudan University has cooperated with the Shanghai Red Cross to organize international humanitarian law training and an international humanitarian law debate competition, in which universities from both Beijing and Nanjing have participated.

 

Social service includesgiving aid to disadvantaged groups in society. Fudan University’s Women and Gender Research and Training Base cooperated with the Shanghai All Workers’ Union to launch a rights protection hotline for female employees in 1999, the first hotline of its kind. It provides consultation to thousands of female employees on employee rights protection.[page]

 

6. Human rights research development mechanism with special characteristics of Fudan University

 

After more than 10years’ efforts, the center has formed a development mechanism for coordinated research, international collaboration, human rights education and social service.

 

Coordinated research refers to the centercooperating, based on its needs, with all types of research centers both within and outside the university, through integration or coordination with the resources of different disciplines. Such research aims at deepening human rights researchthrough wider vision and different perspectives.

 

International collaboration refers to building stable international collaboration networks for human rights research and cooperatingwith foreign research institutions and experts in order to conduct research on international human rights, human rights in third countries and human rights in China.

 

Human rights education refers to the mechanism whereby Fudan University’s classroom curriculum and student research are combined with practical activities.

 

Social service refers to diversifiedhuman rights training and social services modes.

 

 

The center aims to become a national human rights research center that is also open to the world.

 

The center should focus on human rights theory, laws and protection mechanisms with Chinese characteristics, as well as social development policies and social governance mechanisms with human rights protection at the core. The center is also a national think tank for human rights development, legal construction and modern governance.[page]

 

Based in Shanghai, where reform measures and innovative policies were first tried out, the center emphasizes research on the relationship between human rights and people’s participation in governance, human rights and national economic construction and corporate and business activities, human rights and social security, human rights and cultural construction, human rights and the environment, human rights and social management, and human rights and legal construction. The center explores policies, institutions and mechanisms that are reproducible and accord with Chinese realities.

 

To be open to the world also means to conduct research on international human rights legal mechanisms, international human rights standards and human rights development in other countries. Based on domestic research, the center should become a research institution that has a voicein international human rights discussions and is a research base for international scholars working on China human rights issues.

 

In order to fulfill its function as a human rights research institution, the center should become a base for human rights education and training, effectively popularizing human rights concepts and knowledge and satisfying people’s need for human rights education. The center plans to compile a Chinese-English bilingual journal on human rights research, build a database of human rights research and construct an online platform for human rights education.

 

 

1. The development goals of the center correspond with the goals set up for national human rights education and training bases.

 

2. The centeralready has the initial mechanisms for human rights research, education and training.

 

3. The center has a research team with a wide range of backgrounds and appropriate structure and that has attained outstanding achievements. This has created a solid basis for operating a human rights education and training base.

 

4. The center has already accumulated some experience in human rights education and training.[page]

 

5. The center has already initially established a network for international human rights exchange, education and training.

 

6. The university’s leadership pays great attention to the center and its application to become a national human rights education and training base.

 

 

 

The center will be led by a director under the guidance of academic, educational and training advisory boards. Fudan University Vice President Lin Shangli, who is in charge of humanities education, is scheduled to assume the directorship. The Fudan Law School will be responsible for administrative affairs of the center.

 

 

(1) Research on human rights theory and legal institutional construction with Chinese characteristics.

 

(2) Research on international human rights law, international human rights standards and practices in China.

 

(3) Research on human rights protection and relief mechanisms in China.

 

(4) Research on the relationships between human rights and socialist democratic and political construction, economic development, social development, cultural development and ecological civilization, as well as related public policies.[page]

 

 

Summarizing past experience in human rights education and training, the center will further integrate resources, improve the curriculum for human rights education and training and the system for cultivating human rights professionals, invent high-quality human rights education and training programs that are targeted at various trainees, spread correct human rights concepts, popularize human rights knowledge and cultivate a culture wherein people enjoy human rights in accordance with the law and their legitimate rights are strictly protected. The center will promote human rights education and training at the university and beyond the campus – in the municipality, the Yangtze River Delta region, and even the world.

 

(1) The curriculum of human rights education should be further strengthened and human rights education for students throughout the university should be strengthened.

 

First, the undergraduate human rights curriculum should be improved and the regularity of human rights teaching and practice should be studied, in order to shape a friendly environment forstudying, understanding and researching human rights.

 

Second, graduate students and postdoctoral researchers should be encouraged to conduct human rights research in a relaxed and free research environment.

 

Third, the center will offer master’s and doctoral degrees programs, and set up a postdoctoral research program.

 

(2) Short-term education and training programs should be improved to offer tailored education and training to various targeted groups in society.

 

First, education and training programs should be designed for public servants, corporate enterprises and institutions, and nongovernmental groups.[page]

 

Second, lectures and vocational training programs should be designed to spread human rights knowledge among youth. Human rights education and training should be extended to primary and middle schools in order to popularize human rights knowledge and concepts, particularly among middle school students.

 

Third, human rights knowledge and concepts should be popularized among all the people; this should be a regular task of the center.

 

(3) The center will provide more guidance to student legal aid groups, set up human rights legal clinics, and train students in using human rights law and carrying out human rights relief.

 

(4) The center will stick to the idea and principle of serving society, try to expand the scope of its social services, enable more people to receive human rights education and training, enable more people to enjoy human rights and ensure that human rights are well protected.

 

(5) The center will strengthen international cooperation, utilize all the resources of Fudan University, and promote China’s human rights education and training to the world.

 

(6) An online educational network will be constructed for online human rights training.

 

 

(1) The leadership of the universitywill guide the development of the center, which is affiliated to the School of Law.

 

(2) A cooperation mechanism will be consolidated between various disciplines and research organizations.

 

(3) International academic networks will be further strengthened.

 

(4) More actively train research and teaching talent.

 

 

(1) Goals: full-time researchers, part-time researchers, outside experts and professionals.

 

(2) Measures: attract outside talent and trainprofessionals.