Editor note: To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, China Society for Human Rights Studies held a seminar on December 4 in Beijing. Over 70 experts and scholars discussed the spirit and significance of the declaration, China's concept of human rights and safeguarding them, as well as the new human rights protection issues in the digital age.Here's a speech at the seminar.
The Global Significance of Contemporary Chinese Outlook on Human Rights
- Commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Li Lin
Since the 18th CPC National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping has regarded the development of human rights as an important task in governing the country and made a series of important speeches, instructions, and expositions on respecting and protecting human rights. These ideas have formed the contemporary Chinese outlook on human rights, the formation and practice of which are not only the best way to commemorate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but also the inheritance, innovation and major development of the basic spirit, purpose, values, and principles established by the Declaration.
The contemporary Chinese outlook on human rights, as a philosophy of human rights, is rich in connotation, profound in thought, and contains deep philosophical, principled, and legal meanings. It is a major achievement in integrating the Marxist outlook on human rights with China’s specific realities and the best of traditional Chinese culture. It is a summary of our Party’s long-term experience in developing human rights; and it is of theoretical, practical, and global significance for us to respect and protect human rights at a higher level, promote global human rights governance, and build a new form of human rights civilization.
(1) Adhering to the unity of the universality and particularity of human rights and providing a Chinese model for the world’s human rights cause. China has established the realization of the all-round development of human freedom as the highest value pursuit of human rights protection. China believes that the full enjoyment of human rights is the common ideal of human society, and that respecting and protecting human rights are the common value and common cause of all humanity. We persist in proceeding from China’s actual conditions, take root in the best of traditional Chinese culture, and carry forward the humanism of Chinese civilization. In the great practice of promoting the comprehensive development of China’s human rights cause, we’re developing a human rights theory, a human rights development path, and a human rights protection system that altogether embody the common values of all humanity, conform to the trend of the times and suit China’s national conditions. This not only demonstrates the common values and universal characteristics of human rights for all humanity advocated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights documents, but also embodies the Chinese characteristics, the characteristics of the times, the practical nature, and the background of Chinese civilization in the development of human rights. China’s work provides a Chinese model for and makes China’s contributions to the development and progress of human rights for the world.
(2) Taking the people-based and people-centric approach to human rights and innovatively developing the theory of the people as the beneficiary of human rights. As the core concepts of contemporary Chinese outlook on human rights, the people have the dominant position in the human rights system; and the cause of human rights is for the people, in the people, and with the people. Human rights are not the privileges enjoyed by some people or a small number of people, but universal human rights enjoyed by the broad masses. We uphold the unity of safeguarding state sovereignty and protecting human rights, of the people being the masters of the country and governing the country according to law, of protecting individual human rights and collective human rights, and of protecting the human rights of all citizens and the promotion of the human rights of specific groups such as ethnic minorities, women, children, the elderly, and people with disabilities. We do this to ensure that China’s more than 1.4 billion people fully enjoy human rights and basic freedoms. This has also fully demonstrated the people’s nature of human rights in China, deepened and expanded the basic principles of extensiveness, equality, and non-discrimination for people entitled to human rights established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights documents, and promoted the innovative development of the theory of the people as the beneficiary of human rights.
(3) Combining the “priorities” and “all-round development” of human rights, and enriching and improving the theory of the rights as the object of human rights. China upholds that the right to subsistence and the right to development are the primary basic human rights. While establishing and safeguarding their status as the primary basic human rights, China has also vigorously promoted the all-round development of other human rights. China emphasizes the protection of citizens’ personal rights, property rights, personality rights, and democratic and political rights; and the protection of citizens’ economic, cultural, social, and environmental rights. China prioritizes not only the protection of “legal human rights” stipulated in the Constitution and laws, but also the protection of rights, interests and benefits stipulated in the policy documents of the Party and the Government. China stresses the promotion of the traditional first, second, and third generations of human rights, as well as the development of the emerging fourth generation of human rights. China thinks highly of the protection of domestic human rights and the protection of international and inter-regional human rights. This further highlights the rights as the object of human rights, expands the scope of rights, enriches rights, and balances the development of rights. This fully embodies the universality, authenticity and developability of rights as the object of human rights, and contributes Chinese wisdom to the enrichment and improvement of the United Nations list of human rights and the theory of rights as the object of human rights.
(4) Insisting that Living a happy life is the primary human right, and promoting innovation in the value theory of international human rights. China puts forward the original philosophical thesis of human rights that “Living a happy life is the primary human right”. China believes that human rights are for the people and we should rely on them to achieve human rights. China understands what human rights it should develop and what the most important thing is when developing human rights. All this clarifies whom the human rights benefit and what human rights are. This also makes clear the value and goal of human rights. It points to the essence of human rights in the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and clarifies the essential characteristics, value pursuit, and goals of the development of human rights in the new era. We use Chinese ideas, Chinese discourse, and Chinese wisdom to integrate and develop international human rights theories centered on freedom, dignity, and fraternity. This represents the new meaning of China’s human rights values.
(5) Guiding and promoting the practice of human rights with a scientific outlook on human rights, and providing Chinese experience for the development of the world’s human rights cause. The contemporary Chinese outlook on human rights is a scientific theory derived from practice and a principle that guides practice. It is the guide to action and the foundation for the all-round development of China’s human rights cause. This concept features the unity of theory and practice. China fundamentally guarantees human rights with the Party’s overall leadership, promotes human rights with high-quality and all-round development, boosts human rights by maintaining security and stability, and protects human rights by promoting comprehensive law-based governance. While making progress in economic, political, cultural, social, and eco-environmental fields, China provides comprehensive, whole-process and whole-chain support for the full realization of human rights. China carries forward and practices its outlook on human rights. It ensures that the Chinese people enjoy extensive, full, true, concrete, and effective human rights in accordance with the law, so that the idealistic human rights put forward in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights documents can be steadily realized in China as realistic human rights. With their achievements and experiences in respecting and protecting human rights, the Chinese people inspire the development and progress of human rights in the entire world.
(6) Building a community with a shared future for mankind to promote the development of the global human rights cause and jointly create a new form of human rights civilization. China has a global vision of human rights. It carries forward the common values of all humanity; and advocates mutual respect, mutual tolerance, mutual exchanges, and mutual learning among different civilizations and countries. It adheres to the principles of safeguarding human rights with security, promoting human rights with development, developing human rights with cooperation, and enhancing human rights with civilization. China is advancing global human rights governance in a fairer, more just, reasonable, and inclusive direction. China is promoting the common development of the human rights cause of all humanity as it works with the world to build a community with a shared future for mankind. Human rights are an important symbol of the progress of human civilization and a long-standing cultural heritage of Chinese civilization. We hold high the banner of human rights civilization, uphold the core concept of “universal human rights” in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, carry forward the spirit of human rights embodied in the modern civilization of the Chinese nation, replace estrangement between civilizations with exchanges, clashes with mutual learning, and superiority with co-existence. China works together with the peoples of the world to create a new form of human rights civilization in the 21st century.
Finally, I wish the seminar a complete success!