Appropriate Attitude and Principle for Strengthening Human Rights Protection

-- Speech at the Opening Ceremony of the 12th Sino-German Human Rights Symposium

Huang Mengfu, chairman of the China Human Rights Development Fund

July 13, 2014
 

Since 1999, there have been 11 Sino-German Human Rights symposiums. Due to the concept of peace and development and the principle of dialogue through consultation, non-confrontation and pragmatism with equality, which have been upheld by organizers, such symposiums have made great achievements. The dialogue mechanism for human rights topics between China and Germany has helped construct a common, accessible and interactive platform for pushing forward human rights legal advancement in both countries, which has brought about a positive influence on the development of the human rights cause in the two countries. Strengthening legal construction and ensuring human rights are not only the shared aspiration of all the people in the world, but also the irreversible historical trend of human civilization. The symposium, with the theme of international law and human rights protection, encourages participants to discuss and share theories and practices in human rights studies, which makes a significant contribution to enriching the modern human rights concept and building a new type of international cooperation. The international community always pays great attention to the relationship between human rights and legal governance. China always abides by international human rights conventions including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which set up fundamental principles for promoting and ensuring human rights, and has endorsed 26 international human rights conventions such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Meanwhile, China, through legislation, jurisdiction and administration, brings into full play the active role of international human rights conventions in ensuring human rights in the country.

Appropriate attitudes and principles should be adhered to in strengthening human rights protection. I suggest we stick to the following aspects.

First, human rights protection should combine the universality of human rights and the particularity of different countries. The idea of human rights is universal, interdependent and inseparable and the international community should fairly and justly deal with human rights issues in the world. Due to differences in history, culture, social institutions and economic development levels in more than 200 countries and regions, with a total population of more than 7 billion, there are different modes of human rights development. We respect and abide by the human rights protection principles and international legal norms based on the United Nations Charter, while advocating allowing various countries to choose their respective ways and measures for ensuring human rights in line with international norms and real national conditions. The world’s biggest developing country China places as the priority the people’s rights to existence and development, sticking to putting people first, comprehensively deepening reform and pushing forward progress in economic, social and cultural development. Since reform and opening-up, most of the 1.3 billion Chinese people have stepped out of poverty to livelihood with sufficient food, and further to well-off status. At the same time, China considers its own conditions, brings its institutional advantages into full play, organically integrates the democratic forms of election and consultation, sticks to the rule of law, constructs a country with legality, ensures equal participation and development of individuals, brings the results of development to the benefit of all the people, and helps every Chinese realize his or her dream of being outstanding, which indicates a human rights path that complies with international trends as well as national conditions.

Second, human rights protection should combine international and domestic laws. Against the backdrop of globalization, various countries are developing closer ties, expanding cooperation and signing international conventions to define obligations and responsibilities. Different national conditions determine that not all countries will take the same path and methodology for implementing international human rights laws. China, always sticking to the basic principle of international laws, earnestly implements relevant norms of international human rights laws and transforms such norms into domestic laws, which properly addresses some contradictions or discrepancies between international norms and domestic laws and ensures overall, comprehensive and effective implementation of international norms in China. China always improves human rights legislation to promote human rights protection, builds a fairly systematic human rights legal protection mechanism, which is based on the Constitution, supplemented by laws and regulations, and complies with international norms. In recent years, China has adopted a food safety law, which has helped ensure public health and the life of the people, revised the criminal law, which shows leniency to aged or minor criminals and has reduced the scope of crimes that might be eligible for the death penalty, and abolished the re-education through labor system, which indicates a big solid step forward in ensuring the fundamental rights of the people. Meanwhile, the country has comprehensively and effectively implemented the National Human Rights Action Plan, significantly improving human rights awareness among the Chinese and further promoting the human rights cause with reliable legal protection.

Third, respecting national sovereignty and safeguarding human rights should be regarded equally in ensuring human rights protection. In international human rights protection at present, national sovereignty coexists with human rights. Human rights are fundamental rights of individuals while national sovereignty indicates national independence and ensures national interests. Modern history in China and the world have proved that a country will lose everything without national sovereignty, let alone protection for other rights such as human rights. Countries should conduct effective dialogue and consultation, on the basis of equality and mutual respect, to address any human rights issues. Under the pretext of human rights being superior to national sovereignty, some advocate so-called humanitarian interventions, which run against the historical trend of human civilization, fairness and justice. All countries in the world should respect each other’s core interests and major concerns, abide by the UN Charter, and stick to respecting national sovereignty, in order to promote human rights protection. China always pursues the principle of non-interference in the domestic affairs of other countries, respects other countries in their choice of their own social institutions and development paths, and advocates multilateral dialogue to solve international human rights disputes.

Some countries often use certain rhetoric to tout their concepts of human rights, ignore international conventions and various national conditions, adopt hegemonism and double standards to criticize other countries’ human rights records, and rampantly infringe on the national sovereignty of other countries and the privacy of individuals, which not only runs against the motif and the principle of the UN Charter, but also does harm to international cooperation in human rights and consequently obstructs the realization of human rights and fundamental liberty. The international community should pay great attention to this and firmly oppose it.

Both China and Germany are influential countries in the world. In recent years, the two countries have developed their relations quite steadily, with frequent exchange of high-level visits and closer contacts and effective coordination in many aspects. With the bilateral partnership being further deepened, the two countries carry out more people-to-people exchange, such as the Sino-German Human Rights Symposium. Although we still have some disputes on certain issues, I believe the two countries, with a spirit of seeking common ground while maintaining differences and achieving a win-win situation, will learn from each other and increase mutual trust, as well as play an ever-greater role in promoting bilateral exchange and cooperation in human rights and jointly enhancing the world human rights cause. The China Human Rights Development Fund is willing to work with all friends to make concerted efforts.