A speech by Vice Minister of Education Li Weihong at the ceremony announcing the second group of national human rights education and training bases, July 22, 2014

In order to implement the National Human Rights Action Plan (2012-2015), the Ministry of Education and the State Council Information Office named the Renmin University of China Human Rights Research Center, the Fudan University Human Rights Research Center, the Wuhan University Human Rights Research Academy, the Shandong University Human Rights Research Center and the Southwest University of Political Science and Law Human Rights Education and Research Center as national human rights education and training bases. This has a significant bearing on further improving human rights training and theoretical research at universities in order to better serve the country’s human rights cause.

In 2011, the Ministry of Education and the State Council Information Office approved Nankai University, the China University of Political Science and Law and Guangzhou University to be the nation’s first national human rights education and training bases. In the past three years, with concerted efforts from various sides, the national human rights education and training bases have made remarkable achievements in theoretical innovation, capacity building, education and training and serving the general situation.

Today, the overall strength of such national bases is further enhanced, which also means higher standards for construction of such bases. In elaborating on the goals of comprehensively completing the construction of a well-off society and comprehensively deepening reform, the report to the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) specified including the goal of earnestly respecting and ensuring human rights, summarizing the glorious and arduous tasks as further pushing forward scientific development, promoting social harmony, further improving people’s livelihood and increasing benefits for the people. In order to fulfill the tasks and realize the blueprint of national human rights development, the implementation of respecting and ensuring human rights, which is required by the Constitution and other laws, is very significant. In a period when the government is working hard to deepen reform and opening-up and speed up the transformation of economic development, China is faced with an important period of strengthening human rights construction and accelerating the human rights cause. A big developing country, China has many imbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable problems in its process of development, which have triggered many difficulties and challenges to human rights development. China faces a long road in realizing the goals set up by the National Human Rights Action Plan. Human rights problems are always a card played by antagonistic forces in the world to launch an ideological war against China. The United States and other Western countries pursue the so-called diplomacy of the value concept, relating human rights issues to China’s domestic issues, attacking China’s political system under the pretext of human rights violations and destabilizing Chinese society. At the same time, some within China make a fuss over human rights issues, stir up trouble, and employ various ideological trends to negate the achievements of reform. In a sophisticated global situation and at a time when reform needs a stable domestic environment, the national human rights education and training bases must stick to Marxist stands, viewpoints and methodologies, with real national conditions and development stages in mind, and carry out human rights education, theoretical research and practice under the guidance of Marxist human rights theories.

In the past several years, China has made continuous progress in human rights development. Experts and scholars at universities always stick to Marxist guidance and conduct activities with Marxist principles in development, thus making great contributions to shaping the framework of human rights theory with Chinese characteristics and providing powerful theoretical support for China’s human rights cause. Under the new circumstances, the universities and the national bases should follow the requirements of the ministry and the information office in making their overall plans, work out detailed measures and speed up the construction work. I would like to emphasize a few points as follows.

First, the national bases should focus on key national needs and pay great attention to research on key strategic and comprehensive issues related to international human rights development and human rights theory. With their eyes on the strategic needs of China’s human rights development, the national bases should more vigorously and effectively employ their research results in policy and action proposals promoting human rights protection. They are required to strengthen studies on heated current issues, including social construction with a key of improving people’s livelihood, democratic and legal construction, the diversification of democracy, expansion of democratic expression, protection for people’s rights to know, to participate, to express and to supervise, and construction of a fairer and more harmonious society, which should be regarded as service of the university think tanks to the CPC central leadership.

Second, the national bases should summarize the experience of China in pushing forward human rights development, innovate human rights theories, construct and improve the socialist human rights theoretical system with Chinese characteristics and construct China’s human rights discourse system. The national bases should actively occupy ideological publicity fronts and actively respond to concerns of the international community regarding China’s human rights issues. They should create objective and friendly international opinions, fight against ideological permeation by antagonistic Western forces, and safeguard national security and ideological security. At the same time, they should bring into full play the advantages of professionals, disciplines and academic research at universities, employ mass media to spread human rights knowledge among the public, help form the overall consciousness of respecting and ensuring human rights in society, and more confidently work for human rights development in China.

Third, the national bases should vigorously deepen comprehensive reform and push forward construction through reform. They should have a clear mind that China’s human rights education and theoretical research are not yet compatible with national development and the progress of human rights in discipline design, talent training, capacity building and education and publicity. Coordinated innovation, which shows integrated strength, has yet to be achieved. There are many problems that restrict development and management. There are many difficulties that require great effort and effective measures in order to solve. They should promote all efforts in reform and innovation in order to do their work better.

Building national human rights education and training bases remains a daunting task. All concerned universities and national bases should deeply understand their mission, draw lessons from experience, acquaint themselves with new circumstances, integrate good resources and cultivate the brands of the universities. The coordination center for human rights construction should also play an active role in enhancing deeper cooperation among the eight national bases, creating a bigger platform for cooperative development, and constructing a capable think tank network that will encourage distinctive strengths and lead to synergy.

We believe, with the strong support of the ministry and the information office and academic guidance from the China Society for Human Rights Studies, the national human rights education and training bases will make further achievements and contribute more to the cause of human rights development in China.