The Ministry of Education and the State Council Information Office on July 22 announced the second group of national human rights education and training bases, including the Human Rights Research Center at Renmin University of China, the Human Rights Research Center at Fudan University, the Human Rights Research Academy at Wuhan University, the Human Rights Research Center at Shandong University and the Human Rights Education and Research Center at the Southwest University of Political Science and Law.

LuoHaocai, president of the China Society of Human Rights Studies (CSHRS), attended the announcement ceremony.

Cui Yuying, Vice minister of the State Council Information Office, said at the ceremony that respecting and ensuring human rights has become an important principle and the major task of the Communist Party of China in governing the country. Human rights education and training are fundamental tasks for ensuring human rights and play an important role in China’s human rights development and popularization. The establishment of national human rights education and training bases is a solemn promise from China to the international community and an important measure for pushing forward China’s human rights development.

In April 2009, the State Council mandated its information office to issue the National Human Rights Action Plan (2009-2010), specifying that it would choose a few higher learning institutions to serve as human rights education and training bases. In October 2011, Nankai University, the China University of Political Science and Law and Guangzhou University were selected as the first three national human rights education and training bases. The National Human Rights Action Plan (2012-2015) specified adding at least five such bases by 2015. Therefore, the second group of five universities has been named as national bases.

“This will further push forward China’s human rights development,” Cui said, hoping that all the national bases can adhere to the correct political orientation, build up the human rights dialogue system with Chinese characteristics, create human rights think tanks with Chinese characteristics and actively carry out international human rights exchange and cooperation, in order to make new contributions to human rights development in China.