Strengthen the Confidence of Human Rights and Enhance the Guarantee of Nomocracy of Human Rights in an All-Round Way
FU Zitang*
Since the reform and opening up of China, the Communist Party of China has been committed to the continuous development of human rights theory and the pro- tection of human rights through legal construction, in order to promote the devel- opment of China’s human rights cause. The principle of “respecting and protecting human right” was first reported to the National Congress of the Party in 1997, and was included in the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China in 2004 and in the Constitution of the Communist Party of China in 2007. The 18th National Congress of the CPC in 2012 took to “respect and protect human rights cogently” as an import- ant goal of building a moderately prosperous society, the third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in 2013 put forward “perfecting the system of judicial protection of human rights”, and the fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee in 2014 proposed the requirement to “strengthen the judicial protection of human rights.” From the Report of the Party to the Constitution of the Party and from the constitutional confirmation to the judicial guarantee, and to the legal guarantee, it was pointed out that nomocracy is the ultimate approach to achieve the respect and protection of human rights, which should be more pragmatically and comprehensively realized.
In October 2017, with the centralized presentation of the Thought of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era of Xi Jinping, the 19th National Con- gress of the CPC further deepened the connotations of human rights, not only in the discourse of expressing rights and interests, but also by placing special emphasis on efforts to “enhance the guarantee of the nomocracy of human rights”, which estab- lished a new direction for the development of human rights and firmly strengthened the confidence in human rights in China.
First, the origin of human rights is highlighted. The core of human rights is not only to recognize and express rights, but also to realize the overall development of human beings. The report of the 19th National Congress of the CPC stresses the importance of adhering to the principle of being “people-oriented” and adhering to the “people-centered” principle, ensuring the principal status of the people, ensuring and improving living standards through development, seeing that the people run the country, and promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. These ideas are based on “human” as the starting point and foothold, providing basic
compliance for the realization of human rights.
Second, the integrity of human rights is emphasized. Human rights are the discourse propositions of the people’s reasonable requirements in economic, political, cultural, social and environmental aspects, as well as in other aspects. These aspects are closely connected with each other through interaction, and anyone can be influ- enced for the neglect of the other aspects. The “Eight Clear”, “Fourteen Plan” in the report of the 19th National Congress, which focuses on priorities, addressed the inade- quacies and shores up points of weakness, adequately protects the rights of the people to participate and develop as equals. These strict top-level design and scientific plan- ning provide an important guarantee for the overall promotion of human rights.
Third, the Chinese program for the realization of human rights has been contributed. By upholding dialectical and historical materialism, the CPC compre- hends human rights from the philosophical standpoint, and fundamentally interprets and accurately grasps the basic contradictions and the trend of the contradictions in human society. In order to truly respect and guarantee human rights, “reformation should be coherent to the people’s needs.” If this point cannot be held, the realization of human rights would only be a mirage. In recent years, more and more problems in human rights have emerged in the United States and other western countries, due to the failure to see or the whitewashing of social contradictions.
Human rights are the ultimate pursuit of nomocracy. In the new journey of the new era, the CPC deeply realizes that it is not enough to simply satisfy people’s re- quirements for their livelihoods, but the people’s “beautiful” living requirements also need to be met as well, with not one person left behind. The construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the realization of the goal of human rights in the new era cannot be separated from the comprehensive guarantee of nomocracy.
In order to enhance the guarantee of nomocracy of human rights in an all-round way, it is required that the guarantee of human rights should be upgraded, the quality and level of protection of human rights should be improved, and the imbalance of the rights guarantees between the east and west, as well as the north and south, and among industries, departments and individuals, should be eliminated, in order to fully safe- guard people’s rights. It is also required that the CPC should exercise leadership and governance to ensure that the power of state belongs to the people, and that the people run the country.
First, we should improve and perfect the way the Party exercises leadership and governance, and advance law-based governance, which requires us to carry out lawmaking in a well-conceived and democratic way, and in accordance with the law, so that good laws are made to promote development and ensure good gover- nance, strengthen the checks and oversight over the exercising of power, and ensure that this power is exercised under public oversight, in broad daylight and within an institutional cage. No organization or individual has the power to overstep the Consti- tution or the law, and no one is allowed in any way to override the law with his or her own orders, place his or her authority above the law, violate the law for personal gain, or abuse the law.
Second, the integrity of human rights is emphasized. Human rights are the discourse propositions of the people’s reasonable requirements in economic, political, cultural, social and environmental aspects, as well as in other aspects. These aspects are closely connected with each other through interaction, and anyone can be influ- enced for the neglect of the other aspects. The “Eight Clear”, “Fourteen Plan” in the report of the 19th National Congress, which focuses on priorities, addressed the inade- quacies and shores up points of weakness, adequately protects the rights of the people to participate and develop as equals. These strict top-level design and scientific plan- ning provide an important guarantee for the overall promotion of human rights.
Third, the Chinese program for the realization of human rights has been contributed. By upholding dialectical and historical materialism, the CPC compre- hends human rights from the philosophical standpoint, and fundamentally interprets and accurately grasps the basic contradictions and the trend of the contradictions in human society. In order to truly respect and guarantee human rights, “reformation should be coherent to the people’s needs.” If this point cannot be held, the realization of human rights would only be a mirage. In recent years, more and more problems in human rights have emerged in the United States and other western countries, due to the failure to see or the whitewashing of social contradictions.
Human rights are the ultimate pursuit of nomocracy. In the new journey of the new era, the CPC deeply realizes that it is not enough to simply satisfy people’s re- quirements for their livelihoods, but the people’s “beautiful” living requirements also need to be met as well, with not one person left behind. The construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the realization of the goal of human rights in the new era cannot be separated from the comprehensive guarantee of nomocracy.
In order to enhance the guarantee of nomocracy of human rights in an all-round way, it is required that the guarantee of human rights should be upgraded, the quality and level of protection of human rights should be improved, and the imbalance of the rights guarantees between the east and west, as well as the north and south, and among industries, departments and individuals, should be eliminated, in order to fully safe- guard people’s rights. It is also required that the CPC should exercise leadership and governance to ensure that the power of state belongs to the people, and that the people run the country.
First, we should improve and perfect the way the Party exercises leadership and governance, and advance law-based governance, which requires us to carry out lawmaking in a well-conceived and democratic way, and in accordance with the law, so that good laws are made to promote development and ensure good gover- nance, strengthen the checks and oversight over the exercising of power, and ensure that this power is exercised under public oversight, in broad daylight and within an institutional cage. No organization or individual has the power to overstep the Consti- tution or the law, and no one is allowed in any way to override the law with his or her own orders, place his or her authority above the law, violate the law for personal gain, or abuse the law.
Second, we should strengthen institutional guarantees to ensure that the people run the country and improve the Party and state oversight systems, which requires us to enable people’s broad, continuous and intensive participation in day-to- day political activities, in order to support and ensure the people exercise state power through people’s congresses, support and ensure the exercise of people’s congresses’ statutory powers to enact laws, conduct oversight, make decisions and appoint and remove officials, and deepen reform of the national supervision system, ensuring that the supervision covers everyone working in the public sector who holds public power.
Third, we should pay attention to the protection of people’s civil and political rights, which requires us to consolidate the government and improve the institutions of democracy at the primary level, and ensure that people’s rights to be informed, par- ticipate, be heard and overseen are upheld, in order to accelerate the development of a crime prevention and control system, combat and punish all illegal and criminal activ- ities in accordance with law so as to protect people’s rights, property rights, and right to dignity, safeguard the property rights and interests of rural people, and strengthen basic services in rural communities and improve the rural governance model, which combines self-governance, the rule of law and the rule of virtue.
Fourth, we should emphasize the protection of the basic rights of specific groups, which requires us to adhere to the fundamental national policy of gender equality, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of women and minors, in order to promote the coordinated development of compulsory education in urban and rural areas, and strive to see that each and every child has fair access to education, and pro- tect the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors, military personnel and their families.
In a word, the realization of the guarantee of nomocracy of human rights in an all-round way is one of the major soft powers of China in the future. It is a sustainable way for the development of human rights in China, which is consistent with the coun- try’s national conditions, in order to strengthen the overall promotion of advancing law-based governance and combine the development of human rights with economic, political, cultural, social and ecological civilization construction. It is of great signifi- cance to strengthen the confidence of human rights in China, in order to promote state influence and construct a human rights discourse system, and master the discourse of human rights.
(Translated by HU Liang)
