Abstract: From December 10 to 11, 2019, the State Council Information Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs jointly held the 2019 South-South Human Rights Forum in Beijing. Participants from more than 80 countries, regions and international organizations discussed and exchanged views on such topics as “the practices and experiences of human rights protection in the countries of the Global South”, “path of human rights development against the background of the diversity of civilizations”, “building a Community with a Shared Future for Human Beings and global human rights governance”. Participants in the forum actively voiced their national human rights views, exchanged human rights development experiences, explored human rights development paths in developing countries, and reached broad consensus. In an international environment featuring the rise of unilateralism and hegemonism, the South-South Human Rights Forum issued a strong message of solidarity and cooperation among developing countries on human rights issues, and also conveyed to the world the firm determination of developing countries to jointly promote the healthy development of the world’s human rights cause.

 

Keywords: diversity of civilization · South-South Human Rights Forum · human rights governance

 

To strengthen the communication and cooperation among developing countrieson human rights, boost the rights and influence of developing countries in international rights and jointly promote the sound development of the cause of international human rights, the State Council Information Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs jointly held the “2019 South-South Human Rights Forum” in Beijing on December 10-11, 2019. Huang Kunming, member of the Political Bureau and Secretariat the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee , and Minister of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, attended the forum and delivered a keynote speech. More than 300 participants from more than 80 countries such as the Netherlands, France, Jordan, Peru, Niger, Togo, Mozambique, Mauritius and Pakistan, and representatives of more international organizations including the United Nations, were also present at the forum, including more than 20 state officials, chairmen of human rights organizations, advisers to the presidents, secretary-generals to the prime ministers and ambassadorial level diplomatic officials such as the former prime minister of Madagascar and vice chairman of the senate and more than 60 envoys to China and participants of such regional organizations as the UN organizations and League of Arab States to China. The participants discussed and exchanged views on such topics as “the practices and experiences of human rights protection in the countries of the Global South", “path of human rights development under the background of the diversity of civilization”, “building a Community with a Shared Future for Human Beings and global human rights governance” and reached broad consensus.

 

 

The South-South Human Rights Forum presents an important stage for developing countries to exchange experience and discuss problems. The participants held active discussions, exchanged views, shared achievements and experience of the development of human rights in the countries of the Global South and profoundly considered the modes and ways to conduct South-South cooperation in human rights. 

 

 

The participants pointed out that the human rights conditions in developing countries had seen constant improvement in recent years, bringing monumental contributions to the world’s human rights cause. However, due to the restrictions and influence of diverse factors, numerous obstacles are still in the way of guaranteeing the human rights level in developing countries. Among them, the hegemonism present in the international community is the severest obstacle to human rights development in the countries of the Global South. The Western countries headed by the United States practice hegemonism under the pretext that “human rights are superior to sovereignty” and adopted all measures to interfere with the internal affairs of other countries for their own interests. The experience of Iraq, Syria and Libya has showed that some countries headed by the United States have encroached on the sovereignty of other countries using the excuse of human rights, not merely deepening the independence of developing countries on developed countries and expanding the gap between the poor and the rich and polarization but also worsening the political ecology and social situation of related countries and producing enormous humanitarian disasters. Besides, a more covert hegemonism is also present in the international society manifested in the fact that a great number of international human rights norms didn’t fully reflect the appeals of developing countries due to their inadequate participation and they are reduced to being used as tools for the hegemonism of Western countries. In formulating numerous international human rights norms since World War II, despite the confrontations between capitalism and socialism and the struggles about the idea of human rights between the Global South and Global North, generally speaking, developing countries’ participation in formulating international human rights norms has been rather limited and exerted limited influence in their formulation. The understanding and interpretation of the idea of human rights of Western countries largely decided the formulation of related norms; as a matter of fact, even the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which is unanimously regarded as the world’s consensus on international human rights is not representative because many developing countries did not participate in its writing; consequently, the mode of expression of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was of the Western style without the human rights awareness of multi-dimensional view of other civilizations. Since the laws and basis of international human rights mechanisms mainly reflect the West’s ideas on human rights, the operation of the international human rights mechanisms objectively strengthened identification of all countries with the Western idea of human rights and required all countries to take actions accordingly. The position of human rights dialogue of Western countries has been boosted thanks to international human rights mechanisms.

 

 

At the forum, many participants introduced the practice and experience of their own governments to stimulate economic growth, boost people’s livelihoods and promote human rights progress. Among them, China, starting from its national conditions, promoted the development of the human rights cause, registered huge accomplishments thereof, delivered pivotal contributions to the world’s human rights cause and won high praise from the participants. Kolo Roger, vice chairman of the Senate of Madagascar, pointed out that any human rights should be gained through development on a solid foundation; the Chinese government had found the solid foundation which is the Communist Party of China. Aslan Abashidze, a member of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and head of the Teaching and Research Section of International Affairs of Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, pointed out that China had chosen a unique path of human rights development and had attained great progress in universal education and social security system, etc. Dheerujlall Seetulsingh,a member of the UN Human Rights Advisory Committee and president of Mauritius National Human Rights Commission, said that China had achieved high-level economic and social growth in a short period of time which was only attained by other countries after centuries and it had become the model of human rights development,civilization and progress. Leonardo Simao, former minister of foreign affairs of Mozambique, pointed out that China had chosen a stable path of human development since the launch reform and opening-up in 1978 and harmoniously and comprehensively promoted human rights development; the Chinese people enjoyed more and more happiness; China’s valuable experience would continuously encourage African countries and other regions to move for further development. 

 

 

The participants pointed out that it is the shared pursuit of the whole human society that human rights belong to everyone rather than be the exclusive rights of a minority of countries; developing countries are important participants in the world’s human rights cause and a pivotal power to promote its development and progress. Nonetheless, in the present international environment, the development of human rights in developing countries is still confronted with mountains of difficulties and challenges, human rights exchanges and cooperation between developing countries are inadequate and developing countries still have a weak voice within the international community. The participants universally expressed their hopes that the South-South Human Rights Forum could become a leading brand of South-South cooperation in the new era and an authoritative platform for developing countries to exchange views, enhance mutual trust and reach consensus. They also universally expected that China could propose the idea of human rights suitable for developing countries and lead human rights development in the new era. Kadara Harith Swaleh, in charge of political affairs of the ruling Jubilee Party of Kenya, reviewed Kenya’s human rights development process and said that Western countries only stressed citizenship and political rights while neglecting economic and social rights; saying it was time to break the monopoly of Western human rights values. Deputy Director Mirzatillo Tillabaev of the Uzbekistan National Human Rights Center pointed out that China had found its own path of human rights development and proposed that China’s slogan of human rights in the new era initiated a new stage in China’s human rights development. Bouthaina Shaaban, political and press adviser to the Syrian president, pointed out that China could help the countries of the Global South redefine and reassess human rights and take the lead in formulating and proposing the new concept of human rights.

 

 

The diversity of civilization is a basic characteristic of mankind and an important factor endowing human rights with particularity. Only when the diversity of civilizations is respected will the world’s human rights blossom. The core topic of this forum was “Choice of path of human rights development under the background of the diversity of civilization”. Many participants discussed and exchanged views on the important value of the diversity of civilization and how to promote human rights dialogue between different civilizations.

 

 

The participants held the view that human rights, as the shared values, are the unity of universality and particularity. Although human rights boast the particularity of being universally shared by the people surpassing different civilizations, nationalities, races and congenital and acquired individual differences, people in reality are not abstract. Instead, they have different understanding and recognition of human rights due to their different living environment and national culture. In this sense, human rights are particular and relative and their universality is shown through their particularity and relativity. As Hercule Poirot, chairman of the Togolese Human Rights Commission,said, the foundation of human rights is to respect human dignity and value, the universality of human rights and the diversity of civilization are inseparable; the diversity of culture is the drive of development and the rights and basic freedom of humans can be well protected under the condition of fully respecting cultural traditions; keeping cultural diversity helps better understand the complexity of mankind and we should discard discriminatory values in civilizations and culture and regard cultural diversity as great wealth. Director Aray of the Iran Department of Human Rights and Women’s Affairs stressed that from the perspective of international obligations, on the international level, respecting cultural and religious diversity is one of the foundations of peace and security and respecting cultural diversity means respecting human rights which can enhance different civilizations, cultures and religions that create global civilization; the UN organizations should include respecting cultural diversity in different areas into the mainstream and establish related systems integrating the charter-based mechanism objectives in the area of cultural diversity into the commitments and obligations of the member countries.

 

 

We should respect and maintain the diversity of world’s human rights civilization, adhere to the unity of the principle of human rights universality and the specific situations of different countries, jointly oppose cultural hegemonism on human rights and foster the consensus on human rights through dialogue between different civilizations. As to how to break cultural hegemonism, most participants stressed the importance of dialogue between different civilizations and agreed that dialogue is the most reliable channel to eliminate the international tensions and confrontations relating to human rights. Professor Cheng Yanjun of Inner Mongolia University pointed out that: “The formation and development of the idea of human rights originated in the mutual collision and absorption of diverse culture. They are cultural consensus of different cultures facing modern threats and predicaments. The idea of human rights should be constantly enriched and developed through equal dialogue based on mutual respect, and researching and discussing the theories of the relationship between human rights and culture are inevitable to promote world’s consensus on human rights. Many participants further put forth that the concept of human rights should be reflected and criticized and human rights should be redefined from the perspective of pluralism; the South-South Human Rights Forum provided a historical opportunity for the developing countries to get together, which helped break the monopoly of the concept of human rights defined by Western countries and redefine human rights based on the interests of the whole world. 

 

 

The Chinese nation boasts a continuous history of civilization of more than 5,000 years and has delivered brilliant contributions to the legacy of world civilization. At this forum, the ideological resources of human rights in the excellent traditional Chinese culture were hotly discussed by the participants. Professor Zhang Guogang of the Department of History of Tsinghua University pointed out that from the perspective of a comparison of the Chinese and Western culture that Western countries’ pursuit for such individual rights as “freedom, equality, democracy and human rights” was promoted to be universal values in the Western world but the interests and rights of “group” were intangibly neglected; comparatively, the ideal of great harmony, namely, “the whole world as one community” advocated by the Chinese civilization, the Confucius thoughts of “harmony supremacy, kindheartedness and justice priority” and the state ideology of grand unification boast paramount significance for solving the present worldwide crisis. Lionel Vairon, CEO of Luxembourg and senior researcher of Charhar Institute, pointed out that the Chinese civilization boasts open, inclusive characteristics and more balanced idea of moral and profit; although China has been successively influenced by foreign cultures such as Buddhism, Mohammedanism and Christianity, the entry of foreign cultures did not destroy the internal harmony of the Chinese society; compared with Western civilizations, China’s Confucian philosophy stresses respecting and treating other civilizations as equals and having dialogues with other cultures; Confucianism focuses on “benevolence” and emphasizes the people’s senses of responsibility and obligation, remarkably neutralizing the Western civilizations excessively stressing rights. Professor Li Erping of Kunming University of

Science and Technology pointed out that “exchanges and mutual learning of civilizations” has become an international consensus; based on exchanges and mutual learning with other countries in the world, China’s human rights circles injected such ideas as “human-oriented”, “benevolent government”, “harmony in diversity” and “work can be well done with the unity of all forces”, which further enriched and developed the meaning and practice of the world’s human rights civilization.

 

 

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at the core has penetratingly identified the characteristics of the times and the overall development tendency of human society and proposed the idea of a Community with a Shared Future for Human Beings. In recent years, the idea of building a Community with a Shared Future for Human Beings has become a pivotal part of the international human rights dialogue system. At the sub-forum, the participants discussed the practical challenges faced by global human rights governance, highly affirmed the importance of the idea of a Community with a Shared Future for Human Beings in global human rights governance and analyzed many key topics in global human rights governance so as to promote the building of a Community with a Shared Future for Human Beings. 

 

 

The participants pointed out that as globalization has entered a new stage of development, global human rights governance faces many new problems and challenges. As to the right to development, apart from the realized equality of the right to development of developing countries, the problem of intergenerational equality in sustainable development and rights to enjoy the fruits of development also arose. As to the right to peace, apart from curbing wars and arms races, terrorism and extremist violence fueling terrorism and abusing human rights was also raised. As to the right to the environment, apart from environmental pollution, people paid more attention to the influence of climate change on people’s living environment. As to the right to freedom, apart from international free migration and international free information spreading, people attached more attention to the problems brought to human rights by the internet, big data and artificial intelligence technology. Innovation and improvement of the present global human rights governance system should be promoted to adapt to its new requirements. The participants agreed that these new problems and challenges concerned not merely the realization of human rights but also the shared future of mankind. Nonetheless, such problems as the politicalization of human rights,the prioritization and selectivity of the interests of individual countries as well as double standards existing in the current global human rights governance system have made it impossible to effectively promote joint human rights development of all countries or effectually address the global problems posed to human rights. Without further reform, the global human rights governance system would not tackle the requirements of global human rights governance.

 

 

The China-proposed idea of building a Community with a Shared Future for Human Beings puts forth a shared vision for humanity and has opened up a new path for addressing the challenges of global human rights governance. Firstly, the idea of a Community with a Shared Future for Human Beings takes humans as the main body of the community which is inclusive and universal, surpasses the narrow scope of national interests, breaks through the limitations of regional groups and is based on globalization. Second, the idea stresses the integrality, inseparability and interdependence of rights and regards the economic, social and cultural rights as important as the citizens’political rights. Third, the idea requires that the standard of global human rights governance respect the diversity of development path and oppose absolute unitary pattern and not take the human rights protection mode of a certain country or region as the only standard to measure the circumstances of all other countries. Fourth, the idea requires that the global human rights governance system should restrict power hegemonism with balanced democracy so that developing countries and developed countries have fair participation and say in the global human rights governance system. All countries, big or small, strong or weak, should have equal rights and opportunities to participate in policy-making, their sovereignty and dignity should be equally respected, the fate of the world should be mastered by all countries, international rules should be jointly written by all countries and global affairs should be governed by all countries. Fifth, the idea requires that the global human rights governance system should discard the Cold War mentality and power politics, adhere to the objective, fair, transparent, constructive and non-selective working principles and boost the credibility and acceptability of global human rights governance.

 

 

The participants discussed many key topics related to the building of a Community with a Shared Future for Human Beings and stimulating global human rights governance. Professor Rahman of the University of Dhaka of Bangladesh pointed out that climate change had become the severest problem in the modern world. The research of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and other global and regional research fully record the close relationship between climate change and increasingly inadequate global human rights, justice and global governance worldwide, and that developing countries bore the brunt of climate change. The severe consequences caused by climate change are not inferior to those of genocide; climate change can result in poverty, wide transmission of diseases and homelessness and seriously impact the realization of the right to development of the countries of Global South. To effectively solve this problem, the principle of climate justice should be included in global human rights governance, for instance, reducing the consumption in the Northern Hemisphere, transferring sufficient capital from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere according to their historic responsibilities and ecological debts and sustainable family farming and food sovereignty. Associate Professor Lu Zhi’an, executive deputy director of Human Rights Research Center of Fudan University analyzed how to promote global human rights governance and joint human rights development of the world from the perspective of effectively enhancing a country’s competence in fulfilling human rights. He pointed out that state is the most important entity to implement human rights and the implementation of human rights protection requires the state not just to formulate laws and regulations conforming to the realities but also to allocate corresponding human and material resources and adopt necessary measures,involving the capability of a state to protect human rights. Developing countries face a great number of joint challenges in human rights protection, on the one hand, the domestic objective environment, economic underdevelopment and resource inadequacy that restrict the realization of human rights and on the other hand, the unfair international economic and trade orders, as well as the abuse of human rights sanctions by the Western countries. It is stressed that sovereignty and independence of a country and prohibition of arbitrary interference of other countries into its internal affairs are basic premises to boost its ability to fulfill human rights. Meanwhile, it is required to strengthen international cooperation, stimulate economic growth and promote overall development of human rights in a good order on the basis of incessant improvement of economic capability. Associate Professor Liu Hongchun of Yunnan University pointed out that with the advancement of globalization, non-governmental organizations have played a pivotal role in building the community of shared human rights with building the community of shared values at the core. China’s non-governmental organizations have made numerous explorations into international human rights governance in recent years, chiefly involving humanitarian aid, medical aid, educational aid and environmental protection. They went out to participate in the practice of human rights governance and could extract two major experiences: respectively, timely support of related policies and laws and exploring the specific modes suitable for non-governmental organizations to go out and participate in human rights governance.

 

 

The Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China six years ago has won the high attention of the international community and the positive response of relevant countries. Up to now, 126 countries and 29 international organizations have signed documents of cooperation with China in the Initiative. At this forum, the relations of the Belt and Road Initiative with the right to development and the “2030 Sustainable Development Agenda” became hot topics of discussion. The participants unanimously thought that the Belt and Road Initiative solved the multi-dimensional development problems faced by all the developing countries and enabled countries of the Global South to better enjoy the right to development; the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative was remarkable move for the countries of the Global South to realize social development, progress in human rights and the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

 

 

The participants agreed that the Belt and Road Initiative upholds the principles of joint discussion, joint building and sharing, tallies with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, effectively promotes the realization of South-South cooperation and the right of the countries of global south to development and provides China’s schemes for that end. The participants reached the following consensuses: First, the Belt and Road Initiative would help realize the 2030 Agenda. The participants pointed out that the “2030 Agenda sought to guarantee all people a better life, especially by eliminating poverty and realizing global sustainable development. All countries should take concerted actions to realize these goals. The Belt and Road Initiative has delivered signature contributions for global sustainable economic development, not merely bringing lots of jobs to the developing countries and helping the people of the countries along the routes to shake off poverty but also providing them with the economic, social and environmental pillars of sustainable development. It is in high conformity with the 2030 Agenda, devoted to realizing the 17 sustainable development goals and 169 specific means to realize sustainable development and playing an indispensable role in developing the human rights of the countries of global south. Second, the Belt and Road Initiative would help realize the right to development of countries along the routes.

 

The participants thought that, the Belt and Road Initiative upheld the concepts of openness, inclusiveness and fairness, and comprehensively encouraged the countries of the Global South to share the right to development, specifically, the right to economic development, the right to political development, the right to social development, the right to cultural development and the right to ecological development.The Belt and Road facilitated the right of participating countries to realize economic development by means of development aid, debt relief, investment and trade. And the Initiative encouraged all countries to jointly enjoy the right to political development by means of respecting the political modes, cultural traditions, values, customs and conventions of the host countries and getting fully integrated into the local communities; stimulated all countries to jointly enjoy the right to social development by creating a huge number of jobs and improving the working environment, medical and sanitary conditions and social welfare of the host countries; promoted all countries to share the right of cultural development by attracting young students of all countries to study in China, carrying out international exchanges and cooperation and fully energizing the local people; and facilitated sharing the right to ecological development by fulfilling the social responsibility of enterprises to respect people’s right to a healthy environment.

 

 

The Belt and Road Initiative embraces Asia, Europe and Africa and by extension Latin America, it thus includes many developing countries. The Initiative can help participating countries shake off poverty and safeguard their human right to development, which was highly praised by the participants. Mushahid Hussain Sayed, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Senate of Pakistan, pointed out that the Initiative was one of China’s most important measures of foreign affairs and development in the 21st century and a vital means to realize the 2030 Agenda, narrow or eliminate wealth gaps, and promote peace and development. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has become one of the most successful project of the initiative so far, and has huge significance for Pakistan. Involving energy, infrastructure, industrial development and social and economic improvement, the CPEC is stimulating the right to development of the Pakistan people. Rasheed, chief editor of Sudan Vision, pointed out that the Initiative has not only benefited Asia but also Africa and helped Africa improve the human rights conditions. Africa has benefited from the Initiative in various aspects, for instance, it has improved the transport infrastructure in African countries, enabling countries to become connected and boosting the national governance levels of many countries. The new Silk Road has also further strengthened the Sudan-China friendship. Caledon, chief reporter of the National Human Rights Commission of Djibouti, highly praised the great significance of the Initiative for the world’s economic,political and security development, and affirmed the positive role of the Initiative in stimulating constructions of infrastructure such as roads, railways, airports, pipelines and telecommunications in developing countries especially African countries. He stressed that the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative manifested the vision of a Community with a Shared Future for Human Beings, not just highly tallying with the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations but also tremendously expediting the growth of

the world’s human rights cause.

 

 

The Belt and Road Initiative has played a crucial role in stimulating and protecting human rights and improving the living conditions of the people in the countries of the Global South. Nonetheless, the Initiative is still new and needs to be constantly improved, many participants aired their views as to how to further improve the Belt and Road Initiative. Muriquita, head of the Department of Social Sciences of Mulungushi University of Zambia, pointed out that efforts should be made to further enhance the concerted promotion of the Belt and Road Initiative and the 2063 Agenda of African Union. The African Union started in 2013 to formulate the 2063 Agenda for the continent’s development over the next 50 years. The Agenda, which aims to achieve regional integration and a peaceful, prosperous new Africa in the next 50 years, was approved in 2015. He pointed out that, the 2063 Agenda approved by the African Union and the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China were both full of compassion and inclusiveness. Under the premises of the global vision of not allowing any party to fall behind, they both showed the direction for joint efforts, that is to say, to encourage the developing countries all over the world to enjoy the right to development in conquering the predicaments and restrictions resulting from underdevelopment and poverty. Africa’s 2063 Agenda and China’s Belt and Road Initiative have much in common.The Belt and Road Initiative could help better implement the 2063 Agenda and the two proposals should be promoted in a concerted way. Warin Lhasa of the Departmentnof Treaty and Law of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Laos proposed to further strengthen the construction of the Green Belt and Road and all parties should recognize its positive role in long-term, sustainable development. To realize the Green Belt and Road, countries should: First, enhance the strategic coordination of their national plans to implement sustainable development and the Green Belt and Road Initiative under the premises of not violating the main principles of inclusiveness, coordination,uniformity and competence of the Belt and Road Initiative; second, integrate the idea of green development into the five objectives of policy coordination, connectivity of infrastructure, unimpeded trade, financial integration and closer people-to-people ties after recognizing the essence of the Green Belt and Road Initiative, focusing on greening the Initiative through “green policy coordination”. Besides, Rasheed, chief editor of Sudan Vision specially proposed the idea of a Digital Silk Road, stressing the special significance of China’s new technologies such as artificial intelligence and 5G networks as a means for North African and Middle East countries to accelerate their “connectivity”.

 

 

With the theme “Diversity of Civilization and Development of the World Human Rights Cause” the South-South Human Rights Forum has not only simply enhanced the solidarity and cooperation of developing countries in human rights development,but only showed to the world the firm determination of the developing countries to jointly promote the sound development of the world’s human rights cause in a world where unilateralism and hegemonism qar eon the rise. The developing countries will further unite as one and continue to promote the development of the world’s human rights cause. 

 

SHANG Haiming ( 尚海明 ), Lecturer and Postdoctoral Research Fellow, National Human Rights Institute,Southwest University of Political Science and Law. The paper is an initial achievement of the Doctoral and Cultivation Project of Social Science Planning of Chongqing in 2016 (Project No.: 2016BS041).
 

(Translated by JIANG Lin)