By Fu Zitang

The Southwest University of Political Science and Law is one of the earliest higher-learning institutions that conducted human rights education and research, with a long history and rich experience in human rights education and research and a great number of professionals. After many years’ efforts, the Human Rights Education and Research Center at the university has cultivated an excellent academic team, consisting of four leading experts, experienced professionals and younger-generation researchers. The center has made achievements in research on Marxist human rights theories and China’s human rights practices as well as human rights education and training and promotion of the human rights cause.

By choosing the university as a national human rights education and training base, the Ministry of Education, the State Council Information Office and the China Society for Human Rights Studies has given credit to the university for its work in human rights education, research and training. This trust in us will spur us on and give us momentum. The university will use all its resources to support construction and longer-term development of the national base, giving preferential terms to the base, optimize resource allocation, design measures and mechanisms, create favorable conditions for development of the base, and build a more solid university platform that will give full play to the function of the national base.

At present, the university is carrying out six tasks. First, the university is strengthening research on Marxist human rights theories, an area in which it enjoys traditional academic strength. Second, the university is going to compile the English edition of China Human Rights Review, which will be published together with the Chinese edition. The university is also going to assist the State Council Information Office to work on overseas publicity of China’s human rights. Third, the university is going to survey human rights consciousness among Chinese people, conduct empirical studies on human rights issues, in order to make further contributions to China’s human rights development, the display China’s human rights achievements and the formation of China’s human rights discourse, because the latter is not a simple coinage of concept but an analysis and a summary of China’s human rights development. Fourth, starting in 2014, the university began to offer the course “Introduction to Human Rights” to nearly 5,000 students, offer the second-tier discipline of human rights, give preferential terms to master’s and doctoral programs, and train a new generation of professionals in human rights research and practice. Fifth, the university is going to develop and build a database for China’s human rights research. Sixth, the university, based on the convenience of its location, is going to study the protection of human rights for ethnic minorities in West China.

In the future, the university will implement the national strategy, give full play to its function as a think tank, stick to Marxist guidance, serve the country and society, focus on economic and social development, study key human rights theories and practical issues concerning people’s livelihood, implement the National Human Rights Action Plan, highlight the three aspects of spreading and popularizing China’s human rights ideas, human rights education and training and theoretical research and empirical studies on human rights, enhance international cooperation and exchange, and actively serve construction of the rule of law and the cause of human rights protection.

We sincerely hope the Ministry of Education, the State Council Information Office, and the China Society for Human Rights Studies will continuously pay attention to, support and assist the university as it builds and improves this national base. We will also strengthen cooperation and coordination with other universities to develop our respective academic strengths, complement each other, actively apply for human rights research projects, and make great contributions to the human rights cause and the legal development of human rights in China.

(This is a speech by Fu Zitang, director of the Human Rights Education and Training Center at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law, delivered at the ceremony announcing the second group of national human rights education and training bases.)