Nobody can become an expert on UN human rights treaties in a week. But a seven-day workshop held in Geneva, Switzerland, last month could prompt civil society to play a more active part in China to honor the treaties' principles. That the Chinese government is serious to get civil society more involved is evident from the memorandum of understanding (MoU) the Foreign Ministry signed with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) in 2005. The workshop was, in fact, a part of the MoU.

During the past decade, scholars and NGOs have become more involved in drafting laws, says Liu Hainian, a council member of China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS) And much has been done to apply the core principles of major international human rights treaties to China's legislation.

"But there is still much room for civil society to promote human rights and socialist democracy more actively," says Liu, who is also a senior research fellow with the law institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The new Human Rights Council will hold universal reviews of the state parties every four years and, as a council member, the progress in China will be among the first to be reviewed. That's why, Liu says, the UN workshop was "timely".

The Geneva workshop was the first project under the MoU, says Dong Yunhu, vice-president and secretary-general of CSHRS, the country's leading NGO that specializes in research and disseminates knowledge about human rights. Sponsored by the Office of the UNHCHR, 23 social workers, lawyers and advocates from eight NGOs in China, including Dong's, attended the workshop.

China has ratified five of the seven major international human rights treaties. And although some civil society members contributed to China's report on the implementation of these treaties as required, the UN human rights mechanism expects greater and more extensive public involvement.

The committee, of independent experts, on the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2005 has reviewed China's initial report on the treaty's implementation. It has requested China to provide "detailed information on the public consultation process in the preparation of the report", complete with the list "of all civic organizations and NGOs consulted".

The committee's recommendation to the Chinese government says: "Public consultation is a requirement in the reporting process." The objective of the consultation "is to inform the general public and to generate interest and debate on the steps the state party has undertaken in fulfilling its treaty obligations under the covenant".

Hence the necessity of civil society's capacity building in China, says Dong, who is glad that the workshop was finally held.

The participants attended lectures on core principles of the seven major international human rights treaties, UN mechanisms to oversee their implementation, procedures of reporting to the treaty bodies, and civil society's role in the preparation of country reports. They observed the proceedings of the Human Rights Council in session and attended a meeting of the Committee on the Convention of the Rights of the Child reviewing Venezuela's second report on implementation of the treaty.

The Chinese participants embraced the notion that reporting to the UN human rights treaty bodies is not only an obligation of the state party, but it also means maintaining the ongoing monitoring of the implementation so every citizen is benefited by the treaties.

As Wan-Hea Lee, facilitator of the training workshop and an official with the Office of the UNHCHR, emphasized, reporting "is not the end but a means" to carry out the principles of the treaties to the letter. The message is strong and clear that the process to prepare the report overrides the report per se.

"What we should highlight in our reports to the UN are the obstacles we face, the problems we confront, and the measures we have taken and are going to take to improve them," says CSHRS council member and Nankai University professor Chang Jian, who attended the workshop.

The workshop helped participants learn where the UN human rights treaty bodies needed improvement. "I hope the treaty bodies streamline their mechanisms to be more just and more efficient," Liu says. "The focus should be on the implementation of the seven major treaties, centering around the two covenants: the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which China is yet to ratify."

Liu says there's no need for too many treaties and bureaucratic bodies. UN human rights guarantees are more of a promotion, and less of arbitration or about challenging violations in a court.

But after attending the workshop, he and his fellow participants have begun to think more about their own work and contribution.

Peking University Women's Law Studies and Legal Aid Center Director Guo Jianmei says: "We as an NGO have offered consultation to prepare several state party reports on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. In future reports, we'll continue our efforts to reflect vulnerable groups' interests and have their voices heard."

"We are considering preparing independent reports in future, too." Actually, civil society is encouraged to prepare alternative reports to state parties.

Guo's center has been providing legal assistance to women in need to safeguard their legitimate rights. China, she says, has made remarkable progress in this field in the past decade, yet its communication with the international community has been weak. "We NGOs have an advantage in this regard and we feel the need to hold talks between NGOs and government departments."

Several participants were struck by some to-the-point comments made in the treaty bodies' review of the state party reports and by special rapporteurs during their inspection tours in China, which are open to the public.

"We all have our plans of action," says Guo. "We'll share whatever we've learned in Geneva with our peers and initiate more training programs among law enforcers, educators, government officials, social workers and other members of society to disseminate the principles of the international human rights treaties."

"Quite a few of their (treaty bodies') suggestions are objective and have led to improvement in legislation and law enforcement to protect human rights," says Yuan Hong, of All-China Women's Federation. She saw its reflection in China's revised Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests in 2005.

"More than 20 government departments are part of the coordinating mechanism led by our federation," she says. Which means "officials are getting more conscious of women's rights and interests."

Qi Yanping, council member of Chinese CSHRS, was particularly interested in several treaty bodies' suggestion that China consider setting up a national commission for human rights. "More than 100 countries have set up such an institution based on the Paris Principles, which is independent of the government and legislation to coordinate human rights issues within the country," says Qi, who is also a professor in Chinese University of Political Science and Law.

Qi has been working on a research project on introducing the mechanism to China. "We have some functional institutions taking care of human rights. For instance, every government department, from the central level down to the township, has special staff handling letters from the people, which are in fact very similar to the teams dealing with complaints under the treaty bodies." The workshop made Qi realize the need to have such a mechanism in China all the more.

Some of the comments at the workshop, however, were not very factual, the participants say. Song Wenyan, of All-China Women's Federation, finds the report of the special rapporteur on education to be "wrong" in its assertion that China's laws still regard the girl child and physically challenged children as worthless.

(China Daily 11/23/2007 page12)