A Speech at the Opening Ceremony of the 7th Beijing Forum on Human Rights, Sept.17, 2014
Luo Haocai, President of China Society for Human Rights Studies
This session of the Forum has the theme, “The Chinese Dream: New Progress in the Cause of Human Rights in China.” This theme concentrates on such important subtopics as “The Chinese Dream and Human Rights,” “Innovation in National Governance and Human Rights Protection,” “Cross-cultural International Exchanges on Human Rights” and “Anti-terrorism and Human Rights Protection,” all of which generally relate to the entire society. The theme of this session has both Chinese characteristics and an international perspective. It is full of the spirit of the times and closely related to the pulse of development. It is expected to boost the continual deepening of research into human rights and the constant improvement of human rights protection.
The Chinese dream is an important guideline and a significant governing philosophy put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC). The fulfillment of the Chinese dream is just the realization of the great revival of the Chinese nation, and the actualization of the country’s prosperity, the nation’s rejuvenation and people’s happiness. The Chinese dream is the dream of the country, the nation and the people. The people are the very subject for the achievement of the Chinese dream, and the creator, pursuer and beneficiary of the Chinese dream. The Chinese dream has both its deep roots and fundamental goal in the people. In addition, the Chinese dream is a social goal and vision embracing human rights concepts, claims and values.
With the call of the Chinese dream, we have been advancing along the road to the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics, with various systems increasingly improved, and the cause of human rights achieving new progress.
1. Deepening Reform in All Aspects, with New Systems Invented to Boost the Modernization of Human Rights Protection Systems.
This year is the first year in the all-round deepening of reform. In the face of a new situation and a new task, we must make a new historical starting point to persistently boost the all-round deepening of reform, and improve the modernization of national governance systems and governance capability. In the same way, the modernization of human rights protection systems is an important part of the modernization of national governance.
In the past year, the construction of a democratic legal system has been further strengthened, and the restriction on power through systems has been vigorously intensified, corruption has been severely punished, and the building of clean politics has been carried out. In addition, the systemization of consultative democracy has been pushed forward, and basic-level governance has developed in a healthy way. This year, we have paid visits to some places in China, emphatically investigating the situation of community-level governance. In village- and community-level governance, local governments have fully respected and extensively asked for public opinion, mainly carrying out effective governance by means of soft laws and regulations such as self-governance pledges, village regulations and villagers’ pledges. Citizens have taken a more extensive part in the country’s social life, and the public’s rights to information, participation and supervision have been sufficiently protected. In addition, channels by which citizens can express opinions and speak out, including the Internet, have become even smoother.
In May 2014, the Interim Measures for Social Assistance were put into practice, making social assistance a factor in planning related to the national economy and social development. The Interim Measures basically aim at creating a minimum subsistence guarantee, support for destitute people, relief for people affected by disaster, medical assistance, educational assistance, employment assistance, temporary assistance and the participation of social forces, and establishing a complete and clear system of social assistance. As the first administrative regulation that plans various social assistance systems comprehensively in China, it is an important measure for China in further deepening its reform of social systems, pushing forward the equalization of its basic public services, and speeding up the formation of scientific and efficient social governance systems.
The Third Plenary Meeting of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC reiterated that “the State respects and protects human rights,” and proposed to “improve the judicial system of human rights protection.” The system of re-education through labor has been repealed by law, and a community corrections system is being improved step by step. As a result, the personal freedom of citizens is better guaranteed. In July 2014, the Supreme People’s Court proclaimed the Fourth Five-year Reform Plan of the People’s Courts (2014-2018), clearly proposing to initially establish by 2018 a system for the function of socialist jurisprudence with Chinese characteristics. It has continued to push forward the reform of complaints in the form of letters and visits involving law and litigation by establishing a work mechanism regarding complaints in the form of letters and visits involving law and litigation, which separates litigation from petitions and concludes cases in an orderly way. It has facilitated improvement of the judicial relief system, and constantly strengthened judicial guarantees for citizens’ personal rights, as well as their rights to property and litigation.
The people’s right to enjoy a better environment has also been better guaranteed. In April 2014, the Standing Committee of the 12th National People’s Congress passed the Environmental Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China (Revised Draft). This draft states the idea of giving priority to the environment, that is, “economic and social development should keep pace with environmental protection.” It has improved the basic system of environmental protection, and intensified the performability and operability of the law. So, it is another milestone in the history of China’s environmental legislation.
2. Continually Satisfying the Various Constantly Increasing Requirements of the People, and Building a Revised Version of People’s Livelihood Security
Human rights have never been an abstract concept; instead, they are closely related to the vital interests of the people, and are what the people think about and are concerned with. The livelihood of the people has always been a key point in human rights protection in China, and the improvement of the people’s livelihood has always been a starting point and a foothold both for the Party and the government’s work on human rights. For years, China has invested a lot in people’s livelihood and has achieved attention-grabbing success. That has been extensively recognized. With the constant development of social conditions, however, we cannot be content with existing achievements; instead, we should at all times pay attention to the various constantly increasing requirements of the people, and under the precondition of guaranteeing their basic requirements, we should pay more attention to the constant renewal of concepts, content and forms of guarantees, boosting the transformation and improvement of livelihood security.
The protection of the rights of farmers’ groups has been strengthened. China has further pushed forward reform of the household registration system, abolishing discrimination between agricultural households and non-agricultural households, setting up a unified household registration system applicable both to urban and rural areas, and steadily improving basic urban public services to cover all residents. It has integrated the new rural social old-age insurance with the urban social old-age insurance, establishing a unified system of basic old-age insurance for residents both in urban and rural areas all over the country. Moreover, China has granted more property rights to farmers, abolished the urban-rural dual structure, pushed for balanced development in urban and rural areas, and protected farmers’ legal rights and interests.
Bread is the staff of life, so the guarantee of food security has always been the focus of the whole society. For years, China has made great contributions in protecting the rights of subsistence and development, solving the food problems of more than a billion people. But now we not only want to be full, we also expect to be fed well with safe, healthy and nutritious food. In June 2014, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress examined the revised draft of the Food Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China, and publicly asked for opinions from the whole society. It has tried its best to improve unified, authoritative food and drug safety oversight organizations, establish very strict supervision rules that cover the entire process, and establish a food production origin tracing system and quality labeling system to guarantee food safety. Meanwhile, China has vigorously implemented special controls and regulations for food and drug security, doing its best to make people feel safe.
It takes 10 years to grow a tree but 100 years to cultivate people. The right to education is not only an important human right, but determines the future of a nation. In 2013, China launched a project to alleviate poverty through education, and implemented a plan to rebuild rural schools where compulsory education is weak, along with a program for student nutritional improvement benefiting 32 million children. Subsistence allowances have been granted to rural teachers in poverty-stricken areas, and the number of students from poor areas who have enrolled in leading universities increased 8.5 percent in the last year. It has continued to push forward the development and reform of education, pay further attention to fairness in education, boost reform of the examination and enrollment systems, set up a modern examination and enrollment system with Chinese characteristics, and promote education with universal “equality, balance, uniqueness and high quality.”
What specially deserves mention is that during the serious natural disaster of the 6.5-magnitude earthquake in Ludian, Yunnan, on August 3, 2014, both the State and society responded immediately, going all out on relief work. Depending on an emergency disaster relief system with hierarchical responsibilities and cooperative interaction, the central government planned the assistance and relief as a whole, and local governments directed the relief work in the neighboring vicinity as a whole, giving full play to the advantages of these systems. In so doing, China protected the life and property of the masses to the maximum. That is a very vivid case of human rights protection in China.
3. Taking Actions Actively to Deepen Research into Human Rights and Extending Both the Breadth and Depth of Cross-cultural International Exchange on Human Rights
During his visit to Britain in June this year, Premier Li Keqiang said that human rights have abundant content, and the understanding of human rights may vary because one country remains in a different stage of development or several countries have different historical and cultural backgrounds, and that due to this, it appears more necessary to have a mechanism for dialogue and exchange on human rights.
Over the past few years, China has played an important role in international human rights activities, making full use of the UN’s human rights mechanism to promote the cause of human rights in China and facilitate international exchange and cooperation on human rights. In October 2013, China underwent its second universal periodic review by the UN Human Rights Council. In November, it was again elected to be a member state of the UN Human Rights Council by an overwhelming vote. In May 2014, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights smoothly completed its examination of China’s second report on its implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The aforementioned achievements sufficiently indicate the international community’s recognition of China’s human rights work. Moreover, China has actively boosted international exchange and dialogue on human rights, holding dialogues on human rights with the European Union, the United States, Germany, and the Netherlands, etc, and has invited the EU’s special representative for human rights to pay a visit to China. The exchange and cooperation on human rights between China and the international community has become routine, and the development of human rights in China has turned out to be an important aspect of global human rights efforts.
The China Society for Human Rights Studies has also actively fulfilled its own role in deepening theoretical research and boosting human rights practices. On October 22, 2013, when China underwent the universal periodic review by the UN Human Rights Council, the China Society for Human Rights Studies held a meeting at the Palace of Nations in Geneva, under the theme, “China’s Human Rights: An Integrated Approach.” That was the first time for the China Society for Human Rights Studies to send a delegation to attend the universal periodic review activities of the UN Human Rights Council, and also the first time for a Chinese nongovernmental organization to appear on such an occasion. During the meeting, several directors of the Society for Human Rights Studies, as well as Chinese and foreign experts who were invited to the meeting, delivered themed speeches on the subject, among which were speeches made by two foreign experts, namely Mr. Tom Zwart and Mr. Otto Kolbl, who are old friends we made at the Beijing Forum on Human Rights. In early 2014, the China Society for Human Rights Studies also actively organized and took part in the selection of the second group of national human rights education and training bases, integrating higher education resources to push forward the popularization of human rights education.
Improvement and modernization of human rights protection systems, the transformation and upgrade of livelihood security and the continual deepening of international exchange about human rights are all important aspects of the Chinese dream. As General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out during his visit to Europe in March this year, “The Chinese dream is about the pursuit of peace and happiness and devotion to the world.” The Chinese dream is closely related to the dreams of all the other peoples in the world, and they depend upon each other. The Chinese dream is not only a goal of the Chinese nation and the Chinese people in their struggle, but also will benefit the whole world.
The Beijing Forum on Human Rights has been held seven times in succession. It has always held to the principle of frank exchange, learning from each other and making progress together, and thus has become an important mechanism for many countries to carry out human rights exchange and dialogue, and is an important platform for displaying China’s achievements in human rights. We hope that the Forum will further play this role and continue to make contributions to the cause of human rights.
