Ministry of Education National Base for Human Rights Education and Training
Guangzhou University Institute for Human Rights (Hereafter referred to as “The Base”) was founded in the July of 2004, which was selected as one the first three National Bases for Human Rights Education and Training, as well as the first institute for human rights qualified as provincial key research base on humanitarian and social science in China. In 2022, the Base was listed in the Chinese Think Tank Index issued by Nanjing University. The Base now has 12 full-time employees. Mandates of The Base includes:
- To carry out human rights education and training,
- To carry out research on human rights theories
-To undertake tasks on human rights research and training authorized by related governmental departments,
-To provide consultant reports to related governmental departments on request,
-To carry out international exchange and cooperation on human rights.
In recent years, The Base spared no efforts to take part in activities arranged by the State Council Information Office and China Society for Human Rights Studies. Chinese delegations including members from The Base attended UN Human Rights Council 47th, 48th, and 55th Sessions. Speeches made by members from The Base have been reported many times by the main stream media.
In the May of 2022, the High Commissioner for Human Rights first visited to China. The delegation specially paid a visit to Guangzhou University Institute for Human Rights, which left them a positive impression as the following report disclosed.
Since its foundation, The Base made great achievements in the research of human rights, including dozens of research programs funded from national to municipal level, publication of nearly 1000 paper as well as over 100 books, together with 1 academic award of national level and numbers of other awards of different levels.
In 2005, The Base was the first in China to give elective course of “Human Rights Law” to undergraduates. In 2007, The Base helped School of Law in Guangzhou University to give lessons to postgraduates majored in human rights. Till now, there are three online courses on human rights available on MOOC Platform, among which “What are human rights?” was qualified as Excellent On-line Course by the Ministry of Education in 2015. Besides efforts on the human rights education in the university, The Base also took proactive measures to provide human rights training to different target groups, including police, prosecutors, judges, government officials and the general public, covering more than 100,000 people, which had a profound social influence.
As a think tank, The Base works closely with related departments of different administrative levels, and exerts influence in related fields. The Base cooperated with Guangzhou Federation of Disabled to carry out research on the protection of rights of persons with disabilities, and to edit and publish journals and books for public awareness. The Base had submitted consultant reports to legislative bodies, which were adopted at the national level as well as the provincial level, regarding the protection of individual privacy, data safety and copy rights. Recently, The Base is helping the public security organ to deal with related issues.
The Base attaches great importance to academic exchanges. It encourages members to take part in different academic meetings by providing information and funding. It also invited dozens of scholars, domestic and abroad, to give on-spot or on-line lectures on human rights. In the past few years, The Base held several meetings on different topics of human rights, which effectively broadened the vision of researchers, as well as expanded its academic influence.
