WANG Xigen*

 

Abstract: One basic conclusion which can be drawn from introspection on the evolution course of the right to development is that the realization of the right to development is not isolated but needs to be discussed from the three-dimensional perspective of war, peace and development. The study demonstrates that although the Charter of the United Nations doesn’t directly use the phrase “the right to development”, it comprehensively regulates the issues of war, peace and the right to development and provides four legal sources for the right to development. The Declaration on the Right to Development specifies the legal status of the relationship between peace and the right to development in terms of norms, values, consequences, methods and countermeasures. The just historical conception towards war is the value prerequisite for realizing the right to development through development and cooperation, and we should adhere to equal development, mutual development and sustainable development during the process of this value consensus’ being translated into system and action. Fully establishing the status of the right to development in the Post-2015 Development Agenda requirs widening the sphere and scope of the right to development, optimizing the concept and principle of the right to development and strengthening the efficiency and effectiveness of the right to development.

 

Keywords:  Right to Development    United Nations    the Post-2015 Development Agenda

 

Reflection on the Second World War (the “WWII” )from the perspective of human rights should not merely rest on the level of war and the right to peace, but should surpass the single dimension of “peace” and make an in-depth analysis of the experiences with human rights as the theoretical coordinates in the ternary interaction of war, peace and development. We hold that war is an issue of not just “peace” but also “development”. War exerts more influence than other factors on development.¹ In accordance with the result of research on the peace theory, the roots of war lie in “structural violence”—the structure resulting in unfair distribution of social products and uneven distribution of social value.² As to it, Marxism once sharply pointed out that all the conflicts in history resulted from social and economic campaigns in the final analysis; violence took roots in economy after all.³ It thus can be seen that the underdevelopment and marginalization of the economic society and the impossible implementation of the right to development will inevitably lead to the passive situation of being invaded and deprived. The war of aggression itself is the blatant trample on the right to equal development. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Global War against Fascism and the establishment of the United Nations as well as the 30th anniversary of the promulgation of the Declaration on the Right to Development, reflecting the relationship between war and the right to development, especially discussing post-war protection of the right to development boasts vital historic significance and practical value for preventing repetition of war and constructing the fair and reasonable new international development order so as to realize the right to equal development. 

 

 

The right to development is one of the most important emerging human rights reflecting on the “WWII”. The WWII swept more than 60 countries and territories in Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceanian and four fifths of the world population got involved in the vortex of war, causing more than 60million casualties. The losses of material properties were innumerable and simply the military expenditures of the belligerent states amounted to US$1300bn. The Japanese War of Aggression against China led to direct economic losses of more than US$100bn and indirect economic losses of more than US$500bn to China, making China retrogress by 102.9 years at least.⁴ The war was the severest infringement on human rights to peace and development. After the war, unreasonable and unfair international political and economic order severely constrained the equal development of the developing countries. It became the outcry of the times to change the old international order and system, independently choose the development paths of developing countries, seek equal opportunities for development and enhance the living standards of the developing countries. It was just the social history background of the emergence of the right to development. 

 

However, it is unfortunate that the international society misunderstand that the rights to development and peace are not human rights stipulated in the international law without the basis of the jus cogens such as conventions or treaties and even the Declaration on the Right to Development passed at the United Nations General Assembly in 1986 was simply a document in the superficial sense of declaration rather than jus cogens without any legally compulsory constraining force. So the right to development differs from the citizens’ political rights and the economic, social and cultural rights and the latter boasts the compulsory efficacy of conventions. As a matter of fact, if you carefully study the text of the present international human rights law, you can find that the right to development is legally based on the fact that the existence value of the international organizations and the fundamental objectives of human rights have been positioned to be international legal documents, especially the international human rights law focusing on “development”. The period from the end of the WWII in 1945 to the passing of the Declaration on the Right to Development in 1986 composed the first stage of the proposition and confirmation of the right to development, chiefly reflected in a series of international legal documents such as the Charter of the United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and Resolution on the Right to Development etc. As the most important text of the international law, although the Charter of the United Nations does not directly apply the wording “right to development”, it fully standardizes the issues of war and the rights to peace and development and provides directly legal sources for the right to development, specifically displayed in the following four clauses:

 

Source 1: The Preamble and Article 1 of Charter of the United Nations. Charter of the United Nations explicitly stresses at the beginning to safeguard the mankind from the disasters of war and maintain international peace so as to “stimulate economic and social progress of the global people”. It also takes the economic, social and cultural affairs as one of the tenets of the United Nations, stipulating in Article 1 (3) to “achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character.” These problems are in essence the problem of development. Disregarding the above items is equivalent to depriving the right to development. 

 

Source 2: Article 55 of Charter of the United Nations. “With a view to the creation of conditions of stability and well-being which are necessary for peaceful and friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, the United Nations shall promote: (1) higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions of economic and social progress and development; (2) solutions of international economic, social, health, and related problems; and international cultural and educational co-operation; (3) universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.” The regulation has the following four implications: a. It establishes the legal relationship between peace and development, namely, peace and development are preconditions for each other, especially stressing that “welfare” is the condition of “peace” and also the contents and objectives of development. b. The United Nations should promote “higher living standards, full employment and economic and social development”. It is regarded as the most explicit basis of the right to development in the Charter. c. Development and cooperation especially international cooperation in economy, society, health, culture and education etc. is the inevitable path to the rights to peace and development. d. All the rights of the mankind including the right to development are equal and should be equally respected.

 

Source 3: Article 73 of Charter of the United Nations. It stipulates “to ensure, with due respect for the culture of the people concerned, their political, economic, social, and educational advancement, their just treatment, and their protection against abuses; (2) to develop self-government, to take due account of the political aspirations of the people, and to assist them in the progressive development of their free political institutions, according to the particular circumstances of each territory and its people and their varying stages of advancement.” The article implies two points: a. The Charter establishes the fundamental principle of development, namely, the principle of well-being first, namely, development with priorities. Changing from individual-based development to society-based development is the fundamental value transfer of the modern times moving towards modernity. After the appeals for the values of freedom and equality in modern times ended, people in the modern times called for more social solidarity, social equality and universal love of the mankind. The right to development came into being just under the guidance of such values. The advanced ideas in the Charter have surpassed the barriers of equality in the classical liberal and modern forms and laid solid value basis for the right to development. b. The Charter expands the dimension of development, namely, adding the rights to political development and freedom to economic, social and cultural development. That is because without the right to self-determination or independent sovereignty, the countries can not choose the modes or paths of development suitable for their subjective and objective requirements and characteristics or realize their rights to development. 

 

Source 4: Article 76 of Charter of the United Nations. “(2) To promote the political, economic, social, and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the trust territories, and their progressive development towards self-government or independence as may be appropriate to the particular circumstances of each territory and its people and the freely expressed wishes of the people concerned, and as may be provided by the terms of each trusteeship agreement; (3) to encourage respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without: as to race, sex, language, or religion, and to encourage recognition of the interdependence of the people of the world; (4) to ensure equal treatment in social, economic, and commercial matters for all Members of the United Nations and their nationals, and also equal treatment for the latter in the administration of justice, without prejudice to the attainment of the foregoing objectives and subject to the provisions of Article 80. This article specially stipulates that the trust territories further reveal development.” Although this article does not directly give the term “right to development”, the inherent correlation between “development” and “human rights” can be clearly seen. The Charter stipulates “development” in Clause 1, “human rights” in Clause 2 and “equality” of human rights in Clause 3. Hence the new concept of “the right to equal development” can be completely derived therefrom. 

 

Thereout, the following three elementary propositions can be brought forth: First, war brings the most disastrous destruction upon development and the right to development. Realizing the right to development is the need to oppose aggressive war and prevent repetition of war. Second, the Charter repeatedly describes the basic elements of the right to development with great efforts. Even though it does not apply the term “right to development”, its objectivity and scientificity as the source of the right to development can not be denied. Third, the right to development should shift from the right in the sense of morality to the legal human rights and actual human rights. The mainstreaming right to development has become the powerful and overwhelming international trend. 

 

 

The right to development should not only be a slogan or a right to morality but also be a stipulation of the international and domestic policies, laws and regulations. The Declaration on the Right to Development passed by the United Nations in 1986 provided the standard consensus and system frame for the realization of the right to development and laid the legal basis for the transfer from obligatory human rights to legal human rights and actual human rights as the landmark achievements of the right to development after war. 

 

The right to development is not only a simple right to economy, society and culture but also a vital human right in the political domain. The rational analysis of the relationship between war, the right to peace and the right to development is an assignable core topic in the theoretical research and practice of the right to development. Declaration on the Right to Development repeatedly determined the nature and positioning of the relationship between war, the right to peace and the right to development in at least five aspects: 

 

 

The functions of peace and security on the right to development have been officially established in the legal text. Charter of the United Nations and Universal Declaration of Human Rights composed the two most important sources of norms. Just as the Declaration pointed out in its Preamble, “according to Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized”; “Recalling further the relevant agreements, conventions, resolutions, recommendations and other instruments of the United Nations and its specialized agencies concerning the integral development of the human being, economic and social progress and development of all people, including those instruments concerning decolonization, the prevention of discrimination, respect for and observance of, hum an rights and fundamental freedoms, the maintenance of international peace and security and the further promotion of friendly relations and co-operation among States in accordance with the Charter.” It thus can be seen that the right to development does not only refer to economic, political, social and cultural development but also needs peace, stability, security and cooperation, which together create the excellent external environment and internal conditions. 

 

 

Peace and security are the requirements of the right to development while war and aggression are the most disastrous damage on it. As the Declaration points out, “the elimination of the massive and flagrant violations of the human rights of the people and individuals affected by situations such as those resulting from colonialism, neo-colonialism, apartheid, all forms of racism and racial discrimination, foreign domination and occupation, aggression and threats against national sovereignty, national unity and territorial integrity and threats of war would contribute to the establishment of circumstances propitious to the development of a great part of mankind”; “considering that international peace and security are essential elements for the realization of the right to development” It follows that the right to development, the same as development, does not exist in isolation. The Declaration has established the ideas of peaceful development, safe development, common development and equal development etc. 

 

 

Profoundly aware of the relationship between the war and the right to development in both positive and negative aspects, the Declaration clearly states the detriments of war and armed races to the right to development and the vital functions of disarmament on the right to development. The Preamble reads that “Reaffirming that there is a close relationship between disarmament and development and that progress in the field of disarmament would considerably promote progress in the field of development and that resources released through disarmament measures should be devoted to the economic and social development and well-being of all people and, in particular, those of the developing countries”. The negative effects of opposing war and realizing peace upon the right to development are saving the developing resources and preventing blocked development; their positive effects rest in motivating different countries and organizations to disregard previous enmity, cherish peace, put people first, join hands to cooperate with each other and jointly stimulate general realization of the right to development.

 

 

Opposing aggressive wars or threats of war is the essential condition to realize the right to development. Development is not only the economic, social and civil progress but also a right that should be viewed from a new perspective, namely, the perspective of peace and war. As Article 5 of the Declaration stipulates, “States shall take resolute steps to eliminate the massive and flagrant violations of the human rights of people and human beings affected by situations such as those resulting from apartheid, all forms of racism and racial discrimination, colonialism, foreign domination and occupation, aggression, foreign interference and threats against national sovereignty, national unity and territorial integrity, threats of war and refusal to recognize the fundamental right of peoples to self-determination.” For this reason, to realize the right to development, apart from building the new international economic order, priorities should also be shifted from simple economic development to the constraints of politics and military upon development. Safeguarding world peace and stability should also enjoy equal attention in a bid to implement the strategy for practicing the right to development. 

 

 

Special priorities should be placed to the significance of disarmament and preventing arms race to the right to development. As Article 7 of the Declaration stresses, “All States should promote the establishment, maintenance and strengthening of international peace and security and, to that end, should do their utmost to achieve general and complete disarmament under effective international control, as well as to ensure that the resources released by effective disarmament measures are used for comprehensive development, in particular that of the developing countries.” It further details and strengthens the abstract pledge in the Preamble since war and arms race will not only bring catastrophic destruction or threats to the existence and development environment of the mankind but also generate persistent hazards to future human generations; the arms race and war threats in peacetime will not just directly endanger the right to subsistence but also seriously impact the right to development. The plunder and destruction upon the development resources caused by disastrous destruction or military consumption of the development environment, the emergency and non-continuation of the development policy made in war threats as well as war and military attacks will drastically infringe on and destroy the right to development.

 

In a word, the state of the relationship between war and peace directly constrains the right to development in such following six aspects as development environment maintenance, development opportunity enjoyment, development resources distribution, capacity of development subjects, development policy orientation and development benefit distribution etc.

 

 

Development and cooperation constitute the basic path to implement the right to development. The right to development will not be realized without the meaningful cooperation nationwide and even worldwide. For this reason, as Article 3 of the Declaration on the Right to Development stipulates, “The realization of the right to development requires full respect for the principles of international law concerning friendly relations and cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations”, “States have the duty to co-operate with each other in ensuring development and eliminating obstacles to development”; Article 4 points out, “As a complement to the efforts of developing countries, effective international co-operation is essential in providing these countries with appropriate means and facilities to foster their comprehensive development”; Article 6 stresses, “All States should co-operate with a view to promoting, encouraging and strengthening universal respect for and observance of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all.” It follows that without effective integration and adjustment of mutually conflicting and even opposite interest relationship, the right to development will not be realized. 

 

Nonetheless, “development and cooperation is a continuous course of history, which can be consolidated only on the basis of correct recognition of the history.”⁵ Deep obstacles lying across development and cooperation rest in different conceptions of history, war and values. Will peace breakers objectively, calmly and practically handle the crimes of aggressive wars or act arrogantly as a bulldozer rather than repent, to thoroughly rectify their errors or go their own way? Different attitudes to war will inevitably lead to different ways and outlooks of development. The world outlook and the epistemology to look on the history directly influence the orientation and nature of the development and cooperation of countries, regions and even the world; whether they will sincerely and deeply admit the nature and consequence of war crimes and willingly assume the historic responsibility directly exhibits the sincerity and depth of development and cooperation. 

 

On this account, stresses must be placed on digging the theoretical origin and ideological foundations of war, eliminating the cultural hotbed and spiritual legacy breeding the war and establishing the common understanding of value and the foundation of conceptual identification to realize the right to development in modern society. In the Western world, the ultranationalism and chauvinism theoretically originating from Machiavellianism, Neo-Hegelianism, Soler’s terrorism, Fichte’s Alldeutschtum and futurism bitterly rebuking everything composed the most direct source of fascism and atrocities of militarist wars. They always stressed to “energetically safeguard and popularize the national traditions, emotions and wills”, “realize complete unification of itself in history and geology,” and “recover national reputation.”⁶ They advocated national interests first and ethnocentrism foremost and clamored that “to fascism, the imperialist tendency, namely, the tendency of national expansion is a manifestation of vitality.”⁷ Conversely, they reprimanded pacifism, democracy, humanism, socialism and liberalism, advocated “the beauty and necessity of atrocities” and “eulogized war”.⁸ However in East Asia, the national culture, temperament and traditions of Japan were highly responsible for its increasingly rampant right-wing forces and inundant ideological trend of militarism. “The Japanese displayed the ungenerous national character and special living environment fostered the special cultural temperament of Yamato.”9 “Shinto”, the state religion of Japan, was once institutionalized and became the ideological and theoretical foundation for its outward aggression and expansion. “One of the most important representatives of Yamato is the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo and to enable Japanese Prime Minister’s visit to it to be an official action is one of the major objectives of the nationalist causes of the Yamato…The hazards of the unreasonable national mysticism may lead to domestic authoritarianism and international clashes.”¹⁰

 

Different values exert sharply different influence upon development cooperation and equal development. Germany’s introspection and apologies for its crimes in the fascist wars broke down the psychological obstacles to the establishment of the European Union to a certain extent. Japan’s “Murayama Talk” once promoted the development of Asia especially the Sino-Japan relationship. However, the forces attempting to erase the “critical clauses” aiming to establish the peace of Asia after the war and rewrite the pacifist constitution to repudiate its colonialist aggression are still set in their way. “Asia is still confronted with problems left over by history and conventional and unconventional security threats. It is still a bitter task to develop economy, improve people’s livelihood and eliminate poverty in the countries and regions there.”¹¹ Dominated by the irrational and unjust values, Asia is facing an unoptimistic situation.¹²

 

For this reason, three major fundamental principles must be followed to “urge the establishment of the community of human destiny” and the peaceful realization of the right to development: All countries must “respect and treat each other equally”. The core essence of the right to development is the equality of opportunity for development. Developed powers and developing countries stay in different stages of advancement with disparate strengths, but equal sovereignty, as the most basic rule of law stipulated in Charter of the United Nations, should be fully respected and widely applied to implement the right to development, including respecting the choice of development paths and modes of different nations, equal participation in regional affairs and global governance and respecting the development benefit and major demands of each other. Second, reciprocal development. “Cooperation for win-win development” should be followed. Different development degrees should not become the excuse for monopolizing the right to development which is the basic human right for every person and even all the mankind to participate in development, stimulate development and fairly enjoy the achievements of development. The equality of the subjects is the basic pursuit to realize the right to development. Stresses should be attached to completely eradicating the traditional thought of zero-sum game, optimizing the governance system, constructing the inclusive and open economic development system and jointly coping with challenges to and risks of development. Third, sustainable development. The right to development is not only the product of static economic, social, cultural and political development but also a right to sustainable development. After being included into the right to development, sustainable development is becoming a new type state of right—the right to sustainable development¹³. “Realizing shared, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security”¹⁴ is the indispensible guarantee for the mankind to advance towards the community of common destiny and to seek shared development. We should not merely firmly oppose the repetition of war, but also abandon the Cold War mentality; not just passively oppose wars but also positively prevent war and promote the general realization of the right to development through dialogue and joint development of countries on different paths of development. 

 

 

Establishing a stable and open international economic order beneficial for development is the fundamental way to avoid economic crisis and social, political and military crises therefrom. The right to development of all the mankind is the key to restricting wars. In the social value system, order is the most fundamental mode of value. Order is not only regional in the sovereign scope of a country but also global. Peace reflects the pursuit of man for order to the maximum extent. Development without peace is futureless. From the perspective of right, both the order and peace reflect the inherent demands and interest pursuit of the mankind. The right to peace is just the externalization of the inherent benefits. Lasting and permanent peace of the mankind must take roots in the endowment of the rights of all world members including all the countries, nations and individuals to enjoy the human dignity and freedom to pursue independence, self-governance and self-progress, fairly participate in the affairs for human development, jointly stimulate development and especially justly share the accomplishment of development. Only when each subject has the equitable opportunities and freedom for development and corresponding status and strengths of development can global justice and opposition against external aggression and plunder be genuinely materialized. Consequently, practical actions and new ideas should be applied to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Global War against Fascism and the establishment of the United Nations. That is to say, we should constantly create the modes and methods of development to register lasting peace on the basis of equality, mutual benefit, cooperation and all-win and pursue more equitable right to development in the peaceful environment. The WWII tells us that, “without universal development, extensive and permanent peace can not be gained; without fair and effective international coordination, universal development might give rise to universal warfare. Therefore, whether coordination of development interests can be fairly and effectively realized is decisive for the issues of war and peace”¹⁵. It thus can be seen that the realization of the right to development should be based on the following points: 

 

 

The follow-up actions to implement the right to development should be mutually linked with the development agenda of the United Nations after 2015. The eight major aspects of the Millennium Development Goals should be further expanded to other domains related. The responsibilities mechanism should clearly stipulate that any human right divorced from obligations and responsibilities mechanism will not be realized. Consolidating the strength and dimension of the responsibility for the right to development is critical for the right to development. Just as the UN Human Rights Office pointed out, “In the procedure and essence, the development agenda after 2015 must focus on the right to development. The objectives, specific targets and indexes of the new development agendas must clearly specify the consistence of the development framework and the human rights including the right to development. Additionally, the new development agendas must set up a forceful accountability mechanism specifying the owners of the rights and the principals to realize the rights and the mechanism to define all the levels to make sure that the related institutions will perform their duties and take compulsory measures in case of ineffective performance. Everyone enjoys the right to participate in the development process that can materialize all the human rights. This awareness stands as the core of the development methods based on human rights. The responsibilities for such development should be expanded to the agents of the private sectors, especially the major companies and international companies.” In terms of the cooperation domains, apart from the traditional issues concerning the right to development, stresses should also be pinned on “strengthening the efforts of fund-raising for development, reinforcing human resources development and institutional capacities, establishing the sound mechanism of transferring development technologies to developing countries, setting up effective global development policy coordination mechanism and cementing global economic governance”¹⁶. In terms of the mode of cooperation, South-North Cooperation is always the decisive element. Far from it, South-South Cooperation and Triangle Cooperation must also top the agenda. 

 

 

The principle of equality in form should be transferred to the principle of substantial justice to establish the justice principle featuring fair opportunities, fair rules and fair rights. The Declaration on the Right to Development of the United Nations highlights “equality of opportunity for development” to be the core essence of the right to development. It is certainly correct and necessary. Nevertheless, the realization of the right to development should not halt at this point. More priorities to the right to development should aim at the equality in the process of realization and its final results on the basis of equal opportunities. Therefore, in the economic and political domains, the principle of traditional and quantitative equality in form should give more place to the non-reciprocal special preferential treatment based on the fair results to implement the Rawls’ theory of justice that the social and economic inequality can make them: (1) conform to the maximum benefits of the most disadvantageous and the principle of justice deposit, and (2) link with the official positions and duties of free entry for all in the circumstances of equal and fair opportunities¹⁷ so that the economic structure of the society should be arranged to the maximum interest of the most disadvantageous in the society. Among it, equal opportunities are the first but not the only principle. Additionally and more importantly, the difference principle can maximally ensure substantial equality. However, in building and practicing the system of the right to development, more attention has been placed to opportunities than differences or the attention to both elements awaits enhancement. 

 

 

The equality at whatever level will not do without the guarantee of the system of rules. Compared with equality in form, the substantial equality and outcome equality need the protection of regulatory documents of legal effectiveness. Nevertheless so far, no text or guideline of the right to development functioning as the logical norm has been issued, let alone a convention on the right to development of legal effectiveness. In accordance with the current status of the practice of the right to development in the United Nations and areas, we hold that the most urgent and viable program is to formulate a comprehensive and systematic Guide to Implement the Right to Development in the modern society of immature conditions for a convention and related international organizations and countries inside and outside the United Nations system should respectively formulate the specific Plan to Implement the Right to Development. The former should comprehensively stipulate the fundamental principles to realize the right to development, the forms of the rights, obligations and responsibilities of the right to development, the modes, forms and measures of international, regional or bilateral cooperation for the right to development, the laws, regulations, policy programs or plan concerning the right to development, methods to share and promote the practical experiences in implementing the right to development, the application of the evaluation system of the right to development and the contrast with the subjects of the implementation of the right to development, the crisis preventing, tackling and intervening mechanisms in implementing the right to development, the issues on the right to development needing the most urgent solution and the groups of people needing the most urgent protection and the corresponding handling or protecting programs. It must be pointed out that the guide does not have the compulsory judicial executive force because it is not a compulsory law. But it is actually binding on the international community and all the countries. Its actual effects rest on that it can help provide the overall guidance featuring integral contents, rigorous system, clear mentality and specific programs for practicing and implementing the right to development, offer a reference for implementation of the right and change the traditional recognition of the people for the right to development that is abstract, dim and hard to operate. The latter refers to the pertinent and enforceable programs of all regions or countries to implement the right to development made by the subjects of practice according to the guide to action formulated by the United Nations. Between countries or in a sovereign country, legally potent bilateral or multilateral treaties on the right to development or the legal documents of a country to protect the right to development can be formulated. Such a progressive way to protect the right to development and perform their own duties, both pragmatic and realistic, can surely enhance the practical efficiency and effectiveness of the right to development. 

 

· WANG Xigen, Executive Director of Wuhan University School of Law and Wuhan University Human Rights Research Institute. My sincere thanks should go to the UN Human Rights Council and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for inviting me to attend the UN high-grade expert group conference and working team conference on the right to development and for providing me the latest data and information.

 

· 1. Casualties of 35million Chinese soldiers and civilians and indirect economic losses of US$500bn during the War of Resistance. Refer to the central government portal website.

 

· 2. Cf. Johan .Galtung: Violence, Peace, and Peace Research. Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 6, No. 3 (1969), pp. 167-191; Kathleen. Ho: Structural Violence as a Human Rights Violation. Essex Human Rights Review Vol. 4 No. 2 (2007); Robert Gilman: Structural violence. Can we find genuine peace in a world with inequitable distribution of wealth among nations? In Context, The Foundations of Peace (IC#4), p.8, 1983.

 

· 3. Collected Works of Marx and Engels (Volume I), People’s Publishing House, 2009, pages 567-568; Collected Works of Marx and Engels, People’s Publishing House, 1999, page 509-510.

 

· 4. Guo Qiangui. China’s Economic Development Losses during the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression. China Collective Economy, 2010, (11) II.

 

· 5. Zhong Sheng. The 70th Anniversary of the Victory of the Global War against Fascism: Learn from Mistakes and Look ahead. People’s Daily, Jan 13, 2015.

 

· 6. On China's Study of Fascism, edited by Zhu Moguang, Chongqing Publishing House, 1991, p 32.

 

· 7. Quoted from On China's Study of Fascism, edited by Zhu Moguang, Chongqing Publishing House, 1991, page 91.

 

· 8. [U.S.] Edward Mike Burns. Political theory in Modern World. Commercial Press, 1990, p437.

 

· 9. [U.S.] Edwin O. Reischauer. Japanese, translated by Meng shengde, Liu Wentao. Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 1980.

 

· 10. Ian Buruma: A New Japanese Nationalism. in The New York Times Magazine, April 12 (1987).

 

· 11. Keynote speech of Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony of 2015 Boao Forum for Asia. Source: China News Service.

 

· 12. European Union was officially founded in 1993, African Union in South Africa in 2002 and Union of South American Nations in 2004. But there is no “Asian Union” in Asia. The Progress of Asian Economic Integration Annual Report 2014 released at Boao Forum for Asia in March 2014 pointed out that Asian economic integration is still in progress. Due to complicated factors, trade growth and integration process slowed down in Asia.

 

· 13. Xigen Wang,“ Right to Sustainable Development: Foundation in Legal Philosophy and Legislative Proposals，”in Stephen P. Marks ed., Implementing the Right to Development: The Role of International Law, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Geneva, 2008, p39.

 

·14. “Keynote speech of Xi Jinping at the opening ceremony of 2015 Boao Forum for Asia，” in China News Service.

 

· 15. Ruan Jianping,“ Contemporary Significance of the Commemoration of the 70th Anniversary of the Victory of the Global War against Fascism，”People’s Tribune, June 4, 2015.

 

· 16. The latest position paper of China on the development agenda after 2015 handed in to the United Nations. China News Service.

 

· 17. John Rawls, A Theory of Justice，Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971.