FU Zitang *

 

At present, China is faced with two tasks in the human rights field: domestically, the country will continue pushing forward and promoting the healthy development of the human rights cause on the basis of previous achievements; internationally, the country will continue strengthening exchange and cooperation in human rights with the international community, making further contributions to a reasonable international human rights order, and addressing challenges to China from Western countries.

 

In recent years, China has had remarkable achievements in the human rights cause, with an even more important role on the world stage and with more confidence. At the end of 2014, the State Council Information Office organized completion of a mid-term review ofThe National Human Rights Action Plan (2012-2015).

 

In pushing forward the progress of China’s human rights cause, strengthening international cooperation in human rights and addressing challenges from the international community, particularly Western countries, China has to construct its own human rights discourse system, which is not a simple coinage of concepts, but a discourse system gradually developed based on reviews, summaries and extracts from the practice of China’s human rights development and guided by Marxist human rights theories.

 

China has to gradually establish its human rights discourse system involving practical human rights issues, such as Tibet and Xinjiang affairs, special groups of migrants, peasants, disabled persons and housekeepers, people’s livelihood, judicial protection for human rights, and other social topics like land seizure, domestic violence, crime, community management, law enforcement, mediation and cyberspace management. By showing evidence and statistics as well as summarizing facts that speak for themselves, China should gradually establish a practical human rights discourse that consequently helps shape the complete human rights discourse system and increases China’s influence in international human rights talks. National human rights education and training bases should take the responsibility of contributing to the construction of a logical and persuasive human rights discourse system with Chinese characteristics and international significance by academically explaining central policies, advancement of the human rights system and the real practices of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the state particularly since the 18th CPC National Congress.[page]

 

According to the two national human rights action plans, the Ministry of Education and the State Council Information Office established, in 2011 and 2014, eight national human rights education and training bases at Nankai University, the China University of Political Science and Law, Guangzhou University, Renmin University of China, Fudan University, Wuhan University, Shandong University and the Southwest University of Political Science and Law, respectively. These centers have greatly improved China’s human rights research, education and training, promoted the establishment and development of human rights research institutions, strengthened organization and management of these institutions, and changed the former situation that every institution acts on its own. In fact, the eight national human rights education and training bases conduct human rights research, education, training and international exchange in order to serve the nation’s human rights strategy. The establishment of such national human rights education and training bases, part of the national human rights strategy, is also an organizational guarantee for constructing China’s own human rights discourse system.

 

 In order to better play the national human rights education and training bases’ role of serving national human rights strategy, a top-down design and overall layout should be established under the united leadership of the State Council Information Office and the Ministry of Education and the guidance of the China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS). The eight national bases should combine their forces to share labor, cooperate with each other and coordinate to achieve innovation in human rights research, education and training, utilize their respective geographical strength, enhance development of their unique characteristics and enhance development based on their differing locations, avoid homogenization and repetitive construction, make concerted efforts to serve the national human rights strategy and promote China’s human rights development.

 

In accordance with the spirit of the Opinion on Strengthening New-type Think Tanks with Chinese Characteristics, which was approved on Oct. 27, 2014, by the sixth meeting of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reform, the selection of experts for a national human rights think tank should be accelerated under the guidance of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council Information Office. The national human rights think tank should serve national human rights strategy, seek the crucial reasonsfor human rights problems in China and offer solutions, and provide advice for decision-making by the central leadership. The national human rights education and training bases might cooperate with the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences to recommend candidates to serve as experts within the national think tank. They would be selected and confirmed by the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council Information Office. Experts should be selected from fields such as human rights publicity, human rights discourse and theory, human rights empirical research, human rights education and training, human rights international exchange and cooperation, civil rights and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights, ethnic minority rights and special group rights, international human rights theory and practice and international human rights protection mechanisms. The national human rights think tank should combine theory and practice, domestic and international issues, and principles and institutions.[page]

 

In order to make the national bases play an even bigger role in human rights education and training, the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council Information Office are advised to organize the national bases to train public servants in their respective regions in human rights knowledge. Over the past several years, public servants at all levels have conducted work related to human rights affairs, made strenuous efforts to enhance the human rights cause, and recorded great achievements. However, many public servants are still sensitive to the human rights concept. In order to change the situation that people who do human rights work do not talk about human rights stories and people who do a lot of human rights work do not or dare not talk about human rights, efforts have to be made to make public servants less sensitive about talking about human rights, and become willing to talk about human rights loudly and confidently. Human rights training should be included in annual training programs for public servants and a review and appraisal mechanism should be set up accordingly. Priorityforattending such training programs should be given to leading officials at various levels and officials working in the fields of foreign affairs, publicity, religious affairs, legal affairs and law enforcement.

 

With regard to human rights education in schools, the Ministry of Education is advised to make an overall plan for human rights education, training programs and implementation plans in schools nationwide, spreading human rights knowledge in higher learning institutions, vocational colleges, and middle and primary schools, compiling various human rights textbooks, popularizing human rights video courses, helping cultivate appropriate concepts of human rights among people in school, and further enhancing human rights education and popularization in schools. Meanwhile, the ministry and the State Council Information Office are advised to strengthen support for human rights-related disciplines and academic majors and for academic research on human rights issues, pushing forward pilot projects for establishing an independent human rights discipline and major.[page]

 

On the societal level, social education about human rights should be further promoted. The central authorities and state agencies are advised to take more effective measures to further optimize mechanisms and encourage human rights popularization in work places, neighborhoods and communities. Media should be encouraged to spread correct human rights knowledge, explore more effective and diversified publicity methods and strategies to create an environment for human rights protection, improve human rights awareness among the people, and promote the gradual formation of a culture of respecting and ensuring human rights. Efforts should be made to eradicate the perception that any reference to human rights would destabilize society and that the human rights concept is sensitive, effectively resist and get rid of the misconception, misunderstanding and distortion of human rights and even confrontational stance towards human rights issues.

 

On the local level, various human rights research institutions should be established, such as various levels of human rights research societies under the leadership, guidance and management of CSHRS. Such human rights research societies at various levels are encouraged to coordinate with local governmental agencies involved with human rights affairs and provide consultation, which would be a good means of exploringthe establishment of a mechanism combining national and local human rights organizations and accumulating practical experience.

 

At present, the Human Rights Education and Research Center at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law is conducting seven projects. First, the center is strengthening its traditional area of study in which it has great competitive strength - Marxist human rights theory. It is also enhancing the summary and study of domestic and international human rights theories, exploring the human rights concept in traditional Chinese culture, and laying a theoretical basis for establishing a human rights discourse system with Chinese characteristics. Second, based on the compilation of the Chinese edition of China Human Rights Review, the center is working on compiling an English edition of China Human Rights Review. The center is also assisting the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, the State Council Information Office, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to improve publicity work related to human rights in China. Third, as part of the China Human Rights Review series, the center is kicking off aforeign language translation project for Chinese human rights publications, which will need necessary support from relevant governmental agencies. Fourth, the center is continuing to conduct empirical studies on China’s human rights issues, such as the people’s views on livelihood, duty, equality, dignity and marriage. Reports will be written on the results of the surveys to serve human rights decision-making by governmental agencies. Fifth, the center is offering a general Introduction to Human Rights course to nearly 5,000 university freshmen, compiling the textbook Introduction to Human Rights, and spreading the human rights concept through human rights stories. Sixth, the center is establishing a subdiscipline in human rights law, under the law discipline, and offering master’s, doctoral and post-doctoral programs in the field as well as training advanced professionals in human rights research and practice. Seventh, the center is pushing forward development and construction of a China human rights studies database.[page]

 

From the Decision on Certain Major Issues on Comprehensively Deepening Reform, approved in 2013 by the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, to the Decision on Certain Major Issues on Comprehensively Advancing the Rule of Law, approved in 2014 by the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, we can see that judicial protection for human rights, under different themes, and related measures have become more and more detailed and specific. The Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee expounded on the meaning of “earnestly respecting and ensuring human rights,” which was put forth by the 18th CPC National Congress. In this sense, the Decision of the fourth plenary session is both a manifestation of the rule of law and a manifestation of human rights. Meanwhile, the Decision indicates that the era for comprehensively advancing the rule of law is also the era for comprehensively ensuring human rights. In the future, the national human rights education and training bases will study and implement the spirit of comprehensively advancing the rule of law, continue sticking to the guidance of Marxist human rights theories, take responsibility to serve the nation and society, focus on major theoretical and practical issues involving human rights in economic and social development, and actively work for the construction of the rule of law in China and the cause of human rights protection.

 

* FU Zitang (付子堂) , director of the Human Rights Education and Research Center ,and president of the Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Chongqing, China.