Abstract: In response to new challenges to human rights development and problems in global governance of human rights, China has put forward the concept and specific proposals of "building a community with a shared future for mankind". A new pattern of solidarity and cooperation that can overcome the limitations of existing governance form can be developed in application of this concept to global governance of human rights. It requires the common values of mankind as the value basis, the rights of individuals, the collective rights of all peoples and the rights of all mankind as the norms of rights, the application of diverse and inclusive standards, and a balanced and democratic governance system, a non-politicized governance mechanism and an approach to governance based on exchange and mutual learning. 

 

Key words: a community with a shared future for mankind, global governance of human rights, a pattern of global human rights governance in solidarity and cooperation

 

In response to the challenges in global human rights governance, China has put forward the concept of "building a community with a shared future for mankind", based on which, a new pattern of global human rights governance will be developed, which is more adaptable to the new situations and new requirements of global human rights governance than the existing one, and is more conducive to resolving various challenges faced in global human rights governance and promoting the healthy development of the global cause of human rights. 

 

 

Currently there are some new and urgent problems in global human rights development. First, in terms of the right to development, apart from the equal realization of the right to development in developing countries, there is also the issue of sustainable development and inter-generational equity in entitlement. Secondly, in terms of the right to peace, in addition to terrorism and the violent extremism fueling terrorism that violate human rights, the threat of war arising from various regional conflicts also poses a serious threat to world peace and the human rights available to the peoples of all countries. Thirdly, in terms of environmental rights, in addition to environmental pollution, climate change is also having a profound impact on human's living environment. Fourthly, new technological revolutions such as the Internet, big data and AI technologies, while providing favorable conditions for the realization of human rights, have also resulted in a series of new problems. 

 

In the face of new problems and challenges in the development of human rights around the world, the existing pattern of global human rights governance has shown in many aspects that it is powerless or even is aggravating contradictions, for example, proxy wars launched by some certain countries by using mercenaries, unilateral coercive measures taken to disable the effective protection of human rights for the people in the target country, the unbalanced representation of developing countries in the international human rights mechanism, the politicization, selectivity and double standards of human rights in the international human rights mechanism, and the failure of some countries to respect the diversity of optional human rights paths, imposing one's own pattern of human rights as the exclusive standard on other countries. These situations seriously threaten the fair and just implementation of global human rights governance and affect the effective settlement of global problems with human rights. 

 

In this context, China puts forward the concept of "building a community with a shared future for mankind", which calls on people of all countries to work together to "make efforts in partnership, security pattern, economic development, inter-civilization exchanges and ecological improvement", and to "build an open, inclusive, clean and beautiful world with lasting peace, universal security and common prosperity". [ Xi Jinping: "Jointly Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind - Speech at the UN Headquarters in Geneva",  January 18, 2017, People's Daily, January 20, 2017, Edition 02.] [ The 19th CPC National Congress Opens: A Report by Xi Jinping on behalf of the 18th CPC Central Committee, October 18, 2017, available at: http://www.china.com.cn/cppcc/2017-10/18/content_41752399.htm.]As pointed out by Xi Jinping, "at present, with the rapid development of the Internet, big data, cloud computing, quantum satellites and AI technologies, human life is more interconnected than ever before, and human also faces so many widespread and in-depth global problems which have never been seen before. The future and destiny of the people of all countries are increasingly linked together. Faced with this situation, mankind has two options - one is to initiate vicious competition or even war for power, which is likely to cause catastrophic crises; the other is to follow the trend of development, work together to deal with the challenges and conduct global collaboration, which will be conducive to building of a community with a shared future for mankind. Consequently, we should take the historical opportunity and make the right choice to jointly open a bright future for mankind.” [ Keynote Speech by President Xi Jinping at the Dialogue between the Communist Party of China and World Political Parties Leaders, December 1, 2017, available at: http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2017-12/01/c_1122045658.htm. ] 

 

 

China has put forward the concept of "building a community with a shared future for mankind" and made it the basis for global governance of human rights. The most significance of the concept lies that it propose a new competitive pattern against the limitations of the existing model of global human rights governance.  

 

The pattern of global human rights governance involves the values, rights norms, measurement criteria, systems, mechanisms and methods of governance. Based on the concept of "community with a shared future for mankind", a more competitive global human rights governance pattern can be constructed in these aspects. 

 

 

In the existing concept of global human rights governance, the values advocated by western countries are deemed as "universal values", forming the "paradox of value" in human rights. Statement on Human Rights published by Melville Herskovits in the journal American Anthropologist when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was being drafted, represented the views of the American Anthropological Association at that time. It argues that, any attempt to formulate general rules based on the beliefs and rules of morality in one culture will inevitably impair the applicability of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to mankind as a whole. [ American Anthropological Association, Statement on Human Rights, American Anthropologist, Vol.49, No.4, October-December 1947, pp.539-543.]According to the Statement, if the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as drafted is designed as an ideal template document for the international community in an attempt to make the whole world strive for the implementation of this particular set of moral values, it will certainly end up with the deprivation of freedom of the peoples whose idea of "good life" considerably differ from the priorities as described in the Universal Declaration. For example, some cultures may put more stress on collective value systems, emphasizing collective ownership of land rather than rights in individual private property. [ Ditto. ]

 

In order to remove the "paradox of value" in human rights, China has presented the concept of "common value for mankind" which is different from "universal value", and made it the value basis for global human rights governance. In his Congratulation to the Symposium Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,      Xi Jinping pointed out that, "Chinese people are ready to work with all other countries to uphold the common values in peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom for mankind, safeguard human dignity and rights, promote the formation of a more impartial, reasonable and inclusive global human rights governance, build a community with a shared future for mankind, and create a better future for the world. ”[ Institute of Party History and Literature of the CPC Central Committee: Excerpts from Xi Jinping's Comments on Respecting and Protecting Human Rights, China Central Academic Publishing House, 2021, pp. 180-181. ]

 

The common value of mankind is the "cross-consensus" of values agreed on by countries and people with different cultures and beliefs in the global communication for globalization, rather than any local values in some countries or districts which are imposed as "universal value" of mankind. It is not intended to exclude or eliminate the diversity of cultural values across countries and districts, but to seek commonality in diversity, and to further achieve universality in relativity. Taking "common values of mankind" as the value basis for global human rights governance will further promote the integration of human rights concepts with different cultures and thereby enhance the cultural adaptability of these concepts. 

 

 

Western countries presented the concept and norms of human rights in modern times based on political liberalism, which regards personal freedom and rights as the core of human rights. The participation of non-western countries in the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, led to the inclusion of some elements of economic, social and cultural rights in the Declaration. With the development of the socialist movements and the decolonization movements, the collective human right of self-determination by nations and peoples was included in the first article of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. With the growing power of developing countries, the Declaration on the Right to Development, the Declaration on the Right to Peace and the Declaration on the Right to the Human Environment have been successively adopted by the UN, but these collective human rights have not been recognized as an integral part of human rights by the US and a few other western countries, and the US even votes against the UN resolutions on the right to development every year. 

 

The concept of "community with a shared future for mankind" has brought new enlightenment to the right constitution in global human rights governance norms. Building a human rights community with a shared future for mankind needs to take human rights as its basic norm. Furthermore, human rights norms in the vision of the community with a shared future for mankind should include not only personal freedom and political rights, but also personal economic, social and cultural rights, or not only the rights of the peoples in all countries to self-determination, survival, development, peace and the environment, but also the rights of all mankind to survival, development, peace and the environment. The collective human rights of all mankind are not only an important part of human rights, but also a certain restriction on personal rights and the rights of all countries. The collective human rights of the mankind should be shared by the human community containing all human members, including not only the current members of mankind, but also the descendants of mankind. To build a community with a shared future for mankind, we must strengthen the awareness and norms of collective human rights, clarify the obligations of individuals and collective members of the human society for collective human rights, and implement necessary restrictions and effective constraints on the collective human rights of all peoples in the event of conflicts between the collective human rights of countries and that of all mankind. [ Chang Jian: "Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind and a New Pattern of Global Governance", Academic Frontiers, No.12, 2017. ]China put forward the initiatives for global development, global security and global civilization based on the collective rights of mankind, and in the efforts to promote the realization of the collective rights of mankind. 

 

 

Although the United Nations has made a list of human rights and basic norms commonly recognized by all countries, the strategies and approaches taken by the countries to realize these human rights are very different. A few western countries take their own human rights model as the exclusive standard, and force other countries to frame themselves in it regardless of the differences in culture, system and development level, which is against the basic principle for people of the countries to independently choose their own development path, and thus results in a strange "hegemony in human rights".      

 

During the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Zhang Pengchun, the representative of China, pointed out that it would do grave harm to impose such a single model as exclusive standard on other countries. In his address to the 182nd Plenary Meeting of the UN General Assembly on December 6, 1948, Zhang Pengchun stated that, the first condition for preserving human rights is inclusiveness of different views and beliefs from all over the world. Stubborn dogmatism aggravates disputes, provides ideological basis for them, and thereby causes great harm. In the present days, especially in the years following the First World War, there has been a tendency to impose a standardized way of thinking and a single lifestyle on others. As a result, a balance could only be achieved by this approach at the cost of a deviation from the truth or the use of force. However, the balance achieved by means of any violence, whatever it is, will never last long. To keep human society harmonious and save mankind itself, everyone must accept any different views and beliefs of his peers with good faith and tolerance. 1

 

The concept of building a community with a shared future for mankind further requires that, in global human rights governance, the diversity of human rights development paths of the countries should be faced up, their self-reliant choice and exploration of human rights development paths should be respected, and any exclusive standard of a single pattern must be opposed. Due to the differences in political system, level of development, and historic culture, it is normal for countries to choose differential human rights development paths. The cause of human rights is a critical part of the economic and social development of countries, and must be promoted in light of national conditions and the people's needs. Any twists and turns occurring in the course of exploring the human rights development path must be treated sensibly and regarded as the natural process of human social development. If one country's human rights pattern were imposed on the rest of the world, it would drive the cause of human rights backward instead of forward, which has been proved by the practice of many countries. 

 

 

The current global human rights governance is still dominated by a few western countries, and the voice of developing countries has not been proportionally expressed. As a result, global human rights governance fails to fully embody the requirements of human rights and democracy for freedom and equality, but instead becomes a tool to suppress the minorities. 

 

In response to this situation, China has advocated the idea of "democratization of international relations", where, all countries, regardless of their size, strength, or wealth, have equal rights and opportunities to participate in decision-making of international affairs, and their sovereignty and dignity are equally respected, and developing and developed countries are equally represented and given equal voice in the global human rights governance mechanism. To this end, China actively advocates increasing the representation and voice of developing countries in the global human rights governance system, and promotes international cooperation in human rights to fully respect and reflect the will of developing countries, so as to ensure common control on the future of the world by all countries, joint decision on international rules by all countries, and co-governance of global affairs by all countries, and to balance democracy and limit the hegemony of great powers. 

 

 

The existing global human rights governance mechanism tends to be politicized seriously. As early as before the setup of the UN Human Rights Council, member countries had strongly questioned the selectivity, politicization and double standards in the mechanism of the original Commission on Human Rights, and the decision to replace it with the Human Rights Council to a large extent reflects the voices of the countries, especially developing countries, against politicization of human rights. However, the development of the Human Rights Council has once again shown the sign of politicization of human rights in recent years. Some countries use human rights as a tool to pursue their national geopolitical strategies, slandering countries with different systems or in conflict of interests, stigmatizing them as "human rights violator", or even infringing on other countries' sovereignty. 

 

Instead, the building of a community with a shared future for mankind requires that the global human rights governance mechanism should be objective, impartial and constructive instead of being politicized, selective and based on double standards, that the Cold War mentality and power politics should be abandoned, and that human rights should not be used as a tool for some countries to achieve their own political interests and geopolitical strategies. We should adhere to the working principles of objectivity, impartiality, transparency, constructiveness, non-selectivity, non-antagonism, de-politicization, non-humiliation and non-double standards, so as to make the global human rights governance mechanism more trustworthy and acceptable. 

 

 

During the course of drafting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, there was a debate on how global human rights governance should be conducted. Some countries emphasized punishment and sanction against state in violation of human rights, while Zhang Pengchun, the Chinese representative, pointed out that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was implemented not to punish but to educate human and promote human development. At the 11th meeting of the Drafting Committee of the Commission on Human Rights on June 19, 1947, Zhang Pengchun quoted a Chinese proverb - "mere virtue is not enough to govern, and mere law cannot act on its own". He argued that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be intended to develop better human beings, not just to punish those who violate human rights. Rights must be protected by laws, while laws must in turn be able to promote the virtue in human. They should emphasize promoting the extension and elaboration of human rights by educational and moral means. Laws cannot be implemented just to punish, but should be a means of overall development of human". [ Minutes of the eleventh meeting of the Drafting Committee of the Commission on Human Rights, June 19, 1947, E/CN.4/AC.1/SR.11. ]In his address at the 51st meeting of the Commission on Human Rights, on June 9, 1948, Zhang Pengchun stated: "the stress should not be put on disciplining people, but on educating them. Any social and political education aims at voluntary recognition of others' rights. The Commission's ideal should not be to impose restrictions, but to make anyone voluntarily recognize others' rights. This is what the Declaration should express". [ Minutes of the 51st meeting of the Human Rights Council, June 9, 1948, E/CN.4/SR.51. ]In his address at the 91st Meeting of the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly, he stated that, "One must be constantly aware that, others in the society in which he lives, must undergo a long education process before they are able to realize the full value of the rights and corresponding duties conferred upon them by the Declaration. Only after that stage is realized can those rights be realized in practice. Therefore, the Declaration should be recognized as a foundation and project for human civilization as soon as possible. ”[ Minutes of the 91st meeting of the Third Committee, October 2, 1948, A/C.3/SR.916. ]

 

However, for political purposes, some countries take advantage of their dominant position in the UN human rights bodies and their hegemonistic advantages to commit "shaming by name", unilateral sanctions, and even use force to violate the sovereignty of other countries, thus turning the stage of global human rights governance into a battlefield for political wrestling among countries. 

 

China advocates that the UN human rights mechanism should serve as a platform for countries to learn from each other in human rights protection, and that there should be more listening, dialogue and cooperation, rather than exclusion, confrontation and coercion. Disputes should be settled through dialogue and differences resolved through consultation. Xi Jinping proposed that we should "transcend estrangement by exchange, clash of civilizations by mutual learning, and superiority of civilizations by coexistence". [ The 19th CPC National Congress Opens: A Report by Xi Jinping on behalf of the 18th CPC Central Committee, October 18, 2017, available at: http://www.china.com.cn/cppcc/2017-10/18/content_41752399.htm.]The approach to global human rights governance should involve listening, dialogue and cooperation rather than exclusion, confrontation and coercion. Disputes should be settled through dialogue and differences resolved through consultation. "Shaming by name" and public pressure will only damage cooperation in human rights. Unilateral coercive measures, especially economic sanctions and trade embargoes, will have a serious negative impact on the human rights available to the majority of the people in the target countries, and these impacts will be magnified geometrically on the vulnerable groups, severely affecting their access to basic rights such as food, clothing, housing and health care. The use of unilateral coercive measures to exert political or economic pressure on some countries, particularly developing countries, was adverse to the promotion and protection of human rights in accordance with the needs of their people. Global human rights governance should firmly oppose the use of unilateral coercive measures as a political tool, imposing or threatening sanctions on other countries, and strive to eliminate the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures on human rights. 

 

 

From the aforesaid six aspects, we can see that the current global human rights governance is producing two different patterns. One is a governance pattern that excludes confrontation, which is characterized by emphasizing absolute universal value, advocating isolated personal rights, insisting on a single mode of realizing human rights, maintaining hegemony of great power in governance, highly politicizing governance mechanism, and governance method featured by humiliation and sanctions. This governance pattern not only fails to respond effectively to various challenges to global human rights, but also leads to new human rights violations, new obstacles to the realization of human rights, and aggravation of the global human rights situation. 

 

The other is a new pattern of global human rights governance featuring solidarity and cooperation based on the concept of "building a community with a shared future for mankind, which is intended to promote the formation of common human values as the value basis for human rights, to maintain a balanced guarantee of personal, collective and all mankind rights, to include diverse models of realizing human rights, to safeguard the equal rights of all countries to participate in global governance, to oppose politicization of human rights governance mechanisms, and to promote human rights sharing among countries by exchanges and mutual learning. This cooperation-based governance pattern will more effectively deal with the challenges to global human rights, overcome the limitations of the exclusive and antagonistic pattern, and really promote the development of the cause of human rights around the globe. 

 

Of course, transformation of the pattern is fundamental and cannot be achieved in an action. These two patterns will be in competition with each other for a long period, fully displaying their respective advantages and limitations, exploring their own potential and constantly improving themselves. Only when the limitations of the old pattern has been fully demonstrated and can no longer improve itself by exploiting its own potential, while the new one has continuously showed its own advantages and continuously transcended its own limitations by exploiting its own potential, can the transformation of the pattern of global human rights governance be really accomplished. 

 

We should carry forward the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, and actively promote the application and spread of the global human rights governance pattern based on solidarity and cooperation, so that human rights will be practically available to everyone in the world. 

 

(The author is the director of the Center for Human Rights Studies, Nankai University, and professor of Zhou Enlai School of Government Administration, Nankai University)