Zhou Jue speaking at the symposium.

One. On the constitutional principle for human rights

In March 2004, the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China was revised at the Second Session of the Tenth National People’s Congress (NPC). “The state shall respect and protect human rights” was written into the Constitution for the first time, thus making the policy of the Chinese government and the ruling Communist Party for respecting and protecting human rights a constitutional principle and the will of the people and the state. The revision means stronger protection for human rights in China, and it is meant to promote the development of the country’s human rights cause in its entirety.

In certain sense, the history of human society is a history of the human race fighting for freedom and liberation to ensure proper rights and interests to each individual. Respect for and protection of human rights represents the trend of progress of human society and epitomizes human civilization.

The constitutional principle that obliges the state to respect and protect human rights conforms to the will of the Chinese people. As we see it, the principles will effectively get the entire Chinese people involved in accomplishing the strategic task of turning their country into a relatively prosperous society in all aspects in the first few decades of this century. It will ensure that China’s human rights cause develops constantly, in step with the progress of the country’s modernization drive. At the same time, the constitution principle for human rights will promote our participation in international human rights undertakings through exchanges, dialogues and cooperation in the realm of human rights.

Two. Development of human rights under the Constitution and legal system

What is summarized as “running the country in accordance of the law” constitutes the strategy of the Chinese Communist Party for governance of the country and the basic policy and guarantee for the maintenance of the country’s long-term stability. Implementation of this strategy means, above all, implementation of the Constitution, the fundamental law or the basis of all laws. The Constitution, which touches on all aspects of the people’s political, economic and cultural life, is overridingly authoritative and therefore is inviolable. All political parties, organizations and individuals must be equal before the Constitution, and on no account must they place themselves above the Constitution and do anything in violation of it.

The Constitution pledges to protect human rights. The basic rights and freedoms of citizens are prescribed, in explicit language and in a comprehensive way, in the Constitution of 1982 and the revisions to it. Then in March 2004, the principle that obliges the state to respect and protect human rights was written into the Constitution. This amounts to a pledge made in the name of the state to the world for respecting and protecting human rights.

China is still undergoing the initial stage of socialism, during which it is of paramount importance for the state to develop democracy and human rights. Ever since its birth in 1921, the Party has taken on the historic mission of leading the Chinese people in the struggle for human rights. The national democratic revolution led by the Party, which triumphantly ended with the founding of the PRC in 1949, was in fact a great human rights movement launched by the Chinese people to overturn the rule of imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism to become masters of their own country. Since 1949, the Party has made gigantic efforts to promote human rights in China, and its achievements in this regard, in both theory and practice, have roused global attention. What merits special mention is the fact that China’s human rights conditions have improved even more markedly over the past two decades, under the state policy of reform and opening-up.

The right to subsistence and development is of paramount importance for the Chinese people, given the fact that China is the largest developing country in the world. With only 7% of the arable land in the world, China has become able to produce enough to feed its population of 1.3 billion or 22% of the world total and is striving to leapfrog to a society of relative prosperity in an all aspects. This has won worldwide acclaim as a “great miracle.” China has reduced the number of poverty-stricken rural people to abut 26 million, from 250 million in 1978, and is recognized as the most successful among all countries in poverty alleviation. The country has also made eye-catching progress in eliminating adult illiteracy and making the nine-year compulsory education universally available. Life expectancy of the Chinese population has grown to an average of 71.8 years, as good as for countries with a medium-level development, from 35 years before 1949.

The Chinese people enjoy extensive political and personal rights. The Constitution guarantees freedom to believe in religions and freedoms of speech, publication, assembly and demonstration, along with the right to take part in voting and to be voted. The central authorities have taken steps to improve the people’s congress system, the system of multi-party cooperation and political consultation under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, as well as democracy at primary levels. China now boasts a political system effective enough to guarantee the people’s democratic rights. It has a legal system complete with a whole range of laws and government regulations with the Constitution as its core, which is effective enough to protect human rights in the interest of the Chinese people.

Success of China in developing its human rights cause and legal system should be attributed to leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. Development of the human rights cause and legal system is an integral part of the national endeavor to build socialism with Chinese characteristics. Practice has proved that human rights, democracy and rule of law are an integral whole. Progress made by China in developing its human rights cause results from implementation, in real earnest, of the Constitution and the legal provisions on protection of human rights.

Three. On the need to improve the legal systems and promote the development of the human rights cause

Comrade Hu Jintao has said: “The prerequisite for implementation of the strategy ‘running the country in accordance with the law’ is that there must be laws to abide by. The basis for it is effort to enhance the public awareness of the legal system, and the key to success of the endeavor lies in observance of the law in governing and handling of government matters and also in judicial justice.” These remarks apply to implementation of the constitutional principle for human rights.

1.Legislative work needs to be improved.

Since the state policy of reform and opening-up became official in the late 1970s, the NPC and its Standing Committee have promulgated 440 pieces of legislation, including laws, legal interpretations and decisions. The State Council, on its part, has published 480 sets of rules and regulations. Local people’s congresses and their standing committees have published 8,000 pieces of local legislation. Authorities of the areas under self-government by ethnic minorities have also published 480 sets of rules and regulations on the handling of their affairs. Many of these new pieces of legislation, whether national or local, are directly associated with protection of human rights. Despite that, we need to do much more to accomplish the building of a complete socialist legal system by 2020 as called for by the Party.

Laws on supervision and social security with human rights as the main contents are yet to be formulated. We need to solve a range of institutional and legal problems to improve, in accordance with the constitutional principle for human rights, the legal protection of the right to freedom of the person and the right to equality, which are among the most important human rights. Besides, the legislative system and procedures need to be improved in order to ensure that laws are made in a scientific, democratic manner by pooling the wisdom of the people.

In striving to improve our legislative work, we need to follow a correct political orientation. We must base ourselves on China’s realities and must not follow the political model set by Western countries. We must always stick to the “people first” principle. Respect for and protection of human rights to safeguard and develop the people’s interests should be the point of our departure and the end result we strive to achieve. Relations among the state, collectives and individuals must be correctly handled, in particular the relation between rights and obligations. We must adhere to the scientific outlook on development, and do a good job in ensuring harmony among society, Man and nature for sustainable development.

2.On government in accordance with the law

The State Council has been responsible for the formulation and publication of more than 80% of the administrative rules and regulations currently in force, which are all implemented by administrative organs. These have a direct bearing on implementation of the constitutional principle for human rights and realization of human rights, hence the need for the government to govern in strict accordance with the law.

Public servants are responsible for enforcing state laws and government rules and regulations. Therefore work should be done to help them, particularly those leading cadres among them, enhance their political awareness and awareness of law and human rights so that they will firmly bear in mind the “people first” principle.

There is the must to strengthen the control and oversight over the exercise of powers. Failure to do so will lead to abuse of power and corruption. The system of responsibility and accountability for law enforcement should be improved. Governments should make their work open and transparent to ensure the right of the general public to know.

The Administrative Proceedings Law, Law of Administrative Penalties, State Compensation Law, Law of Administrative Supervision and Administrative Re-deliberation Law must be implemented in real earnest. Special attention should be paid to implementation of the Administrative Proceedings Law, the first of its kind in China that allows citizens to sue the government and, therefore, is an important guarantee for democracy and human rights. Gigantic, persistent efforts are needed to ensure full implementation of the law due to the remaining influence of feudalism that held away for well over 2,000 years.

3.On judicial justice

To ensure judicial justice, independence of judicial organs in exercising their adjudicative and prosecutorial powers must be ensured, which should brook no interference by any institution, organization or individual. Equality of all people before the law must be upheld. In handling specific cases, judicial organs must adhere to the principle of taking the law as the criterion and the facts as the basis. Punishment of crimes should go hand-in-hand with protection of human rights. There must be a system of accountability for unjust cases.

4.On supervision and oversight

To promote the development of human rights in accordance with the constitutional principle, there is the need to give full scope to the role of supervision and oversight by organs of power, organs of the Party and state, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the mass media and the general public. We need to stress such a role played by the NPC and local people’s congresses, which are constitutionally responsible for legal supervising over courts and procuratorates on behalf of the state and the people.

We hope that a supervision law will be enacted as early as possible. We also hope that an organ in charge of human rights affairs will be set up under the NPC, the supreme organ of power of the PRC. The mass media play an important role of oversight. We need to protect the legitimate rights and interests of journalists while standardizing their performance of duty. We aim at institutionalize media oversight in accordance with the law and a complete set of procedures.

5. On improvement in work to spread knowledge of human rights and promote public awareness of the legal system

Awareness of the legal system on the part of the entire people is the foundation for effort to put into practice the constitutional principle for human rights and promote the legal protection of human rights. For centuries, feudalism held sway in China. For a long time after 1949, little was done to spread knowledge of human rights among the people and public education in law was far from being adequate. It is now time for us to launch public education programs to let our people know the need to be law-abiding and how to use laws to protect their own legitimate rights and interests.

Party and government functionaries and judicial workers, in particular senior officials among them, are public servants. How they fare in performing their duties has a direct bearing on implementation of laws and on realization of human rights. Because of this, they should be the first to receive education in the Constitution, the legal system and human rights.

Four. The China Society for Human Rights Studies and China Law Society should play a better role in ensuring implementation of the Constitution and providing services and support for legal protection of human rights.

The two societies are non-government academic organizations engaging in studies of human rights and law of socialism with Chinese characteristics. They play an important role in China’s international exchange and cooperation in the realms of human rights and law to enhance understanding and friendship among all countries and promote the global human rights cause and improvement in legal systems worldwide.

Ever since their establishment, the societies have worked in real earnest in studies of human rights and law. They have actively involved themselves in study and formulation of laws and government documents and in public education in human rights and law. Through work, they have effectively helped improve China’s legal system, implement the principle of “exercising administration in accordance with the law,” and promote the economic, political and cultural progress under socialism.

The China Society for Human Rights Studies has many experts of law, and many members of the China Law Society are well versed in human rights affairs. A pursuit of human rights, democracy and rule of law binds the two societies, and we have reason and are duty-bound to work together to ensure implementation of the constitutional principle and promote legal protection of human rights and development of China’s legal system.

China is concentrating on building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects. It is going through a crucial period in striving for economic development and social progress. During this period, new problems are cropping up while old, deep-seated problems remain, many of which directly affect development of China’s human rights cause and legal system. These problems need to be addressed timely. To cite just a few:

How, under the guidance of the scientific outlook on development, to achieve an all-round, well-balanced and sustainable development and ensure harmony between Man, society and nature;

In striving to realize the right to subsistence and development, what should be done to gradually narrow the gap in development between the eastern and western regions and the income gap between the rich and the poor;

How to build a sound social security system, properly handle the problems faced by farmers, agriculture and rural areas and problems related to unemployed workers to ensure steady, sound progress of the reform and opening-up undertakings.

These questions, which are of immensely great practical significance to the destiny of the country and the wellbeing of the people, are crying for answers. As experts of human rights and law, we are obliged to find proper answers to them from the perspectives of human rights and law. To achieve the purpose, we must go deep into the realities and the people’s day-to-day life to pinpoint and study new problems and circumstances to eventually provide a theoretical guidance for their solution.

We should take a more active part in international exchanges and cooperation in the realms of human rights and law. The world will be celebrating the 60th founding anniversary of the United Nations and we will join in the celebrations to let our voice heard. This year is the 60th anniversary of the victory of the world’s anti-Fascist war, prompting us to do an even better job in studying and publicizing the right to peace and the right to development. China has acceded to 21 international human rights conventions and is making preparations to accede to the International Convention on Citizen Rights and Political Rights. We must study in depth the contents and significance of these international conventions and the question of how to bring Chinese laws in line with them. At the same time, we must study the experiences of other countries in implementing these conventions. We must also, from the perspective of international law, study the distinction between use of human rights as a pretext to interfere into other countries’ internal affairs and legitimate international protection of human rights. We must oppose neo-interventionism and continue to refute fallacies that justify hegemony and power politics, such as the fallacy that places human rights above state sovereignty and the fallacy summarized as “human rights know no national boundaries.”

We have the dual task of helping ensure full implementation of the constitutional principle and spreading legal knowledge among the people. We must spare no effort to help our cadres and people acquire a better understanding of human rights, democracy and laws by doing whatever we can – through lectures and reports we give, articles we write, as well as symposiums and other gathering with our participation. By doing so, we will provide a proper guidance to the people in their effort to seek solutions to those practical problems they are facing.