Op-Ed Contributors

The importance of human rights

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-10-22 07:52

Message for Westerners

China and the Western countries differ in their modernization paths in terms of backgrounds and development stages. The Western developed countries are pioneers and front-runners, leading the world's modernization and human rights cause, controlling the "game rules" of the international political and economic systems, dominating the discourse power in terms of the mode of economic development and human rights.

China is a latecomer to the field, grown out of a poor semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. In terms of modernization and human rights, it is a late starter, and has long been at a disadvantageous position. China is facing an adverse international environment and external pressure, and confronting an arduous task of modernization of fulfilling in dozens of years what developed countries needed several hundred years to do.

Besides, China is the most populous country, with weak economic foundation, limited per capita resource and a relatively bad natural environment. All these have made the rights of subsistence and development the priority of Chinese people in terms of human rights. They have determined that in China, civil and political rights should develop and go along with the rights of subsistence and development, and the Chinese government shoulders greater responsibilities and plays a larger role than some governments in Western countries in promoting modernization and human rights .

Dong Yunhu, vice-president and secretary-general of China Society for Human Rights Studies.

For a sound social construction

China has a "three-step" development strategy for modernization The first step is solving the problem of providing adequate food and clothing and the second step is solving the problem of building a well-off society ... In the new stage of regarding economic construction as the central work and coordinating economic and social development, people's livelihood covers not only people's existence, but also the issues of people's social welfare, social security and their sustainable development .

Meanwhile, we have noticed that social construction puts forward new requirements for respecting and protecting citizens' orderly political participation.

We should further be aware that since the issue of people's livelihood is related to people's existence and development, we cannot solve problems related to people's livelihood without the development of democratic politics ...

We should not simply focus on people's livelihood but should solve the problems related to people's livelihood by closely linking them with the development of democratic politics.

Li Junru, vice-president of China Society for Human Rights Studies.

Environmental rights

Differing from traditional human rights such as the rights to subsistence, freedom of religious belief, right to vote and human dignity, environmental rights have a strong public attribute and wide objective coverage, and environmental pollution and deterioration seldom influence only individuals.

So, in the environmental rights infringement realm, group litigation is a popular protection form. Since pragmatic protection of environmental rights needs to improve the whole objective situation of the environment, environmental rights protection is far from being a mission that can be undertaken by negative right-infringement litigation and compensation (they are used more to compensate the special damage of environmental rights to specific groups in environmental affairs), and should rely on the active efforts of various countries and regions ...

When environmental rights ascend to the level of human rights, their protection should also be lifted to the level of human rights protection. This requires us to establish corresponding values and development outlook. Especially for the protection of general environmental rights, the basis of outlook and value are necessary ...

Every country is restrained by a series of international treaties and obligations; its activities and capacities are also influenced by international political and economic orders, common technologies and customs and institutional arrangements. Thus, we cannot look at a country's environmental rights protection (record) in isolation.

For instance, one of the reasons of the status quo of environmental pollution in some developing countries is that developed countries transfer their high-pollution industries to developing countries. Another example is that developing countries are facing intellectual property barriers from developed countries in obtaining environmental protection technologies. Intellectual property rights negotiations and cooperation are closely related to the global political and economic orders. Thus, we need to observe the operation of environmental rights protection mechanisms from various layers.

Zhan Zhongle, professor of the Law School of Peking University.

Seeking unity in diversity

In today's world, there is no longer any wisdom in holding on to the misguided notions and policies, which merely seek material progress of societies without regard to or any consideration for their cultures - the very soul of their existence. Multiculturalism is the bedrock of a vibrant and dynamic society, which allows for creativity and innovation, contributing to the richness of the tapestry of values, traditions, beliefs and ways of life of our peoples.

We all owe it a duty to future generations of mankind to develop a framework of action that will advance the course of inter-cultural dialogue and promote multiculturalism. With such a machinery in place, we would be better able to continually analyze ways and strategize policies to promote respect and understanding between peoples and nations across all divides - social, economic and cultural.

Culture is something valuable. It gives people an identity, a feeling of belonging, of tradition and history. Therefore, respect for cultural diversity should indeed be the rule. Anything other than that will be a betrayal of the philosophy of human rights. The only exceptions to this rule are those practices that violate human rights. Culture can only benefit from tolerance, non-discrimination, freedom of religion and other values inherent in human rights. Cultural relativists and others who want to protect culture should therefore embrace rather than dismiss human rights.

Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi, permanent secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria, and former president of the United Nations Human Rights Council.