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China on the road to more rights
By Xu Lingui |
October 25, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE world is watching China as its leadership works towards improving the human rights situation in the country and allows individual political and civil freedoms to flourish just as much as economic freedom, said a UN human rights official.
The UN human rights agency hopes that China will set an example by achieving significant progress on both political and civil and economic and social rights, said Anders Kompass, director of the Field Operations and Technical Cooperation Division, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. He spoke on the sidelines of the annual two-day Beijing Forum on Human Rights, which opened last Tuesday.
Kompass said China has achieved "incredibly important" progress by lifting millions and millions of people out of poverty and creating conditions for them to participate in the social and economic development of the country.
"China has tremendous potential and can achieve much more," Kompass said, adding that he was encouraged by the Chinese leadership's calls for further reforms to allow broader political and civil freedoms. The government is striving to achieve the "free and all-round development of people," which is "an important hallmark for a democratic country under the rule of law," Kompass said, citing Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's remarks at the UN General Assembly in September.
A key policy-setting meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which concluded last Monday, also stressed the need for political reforms.
"Great impetus will be given to economic restructuring, while vigorous yet steady efforts should be made to promote political restructuring," said the communique issued by the fifth plenary session of the 17th Central Committee of the CPC. Although the communique did not elaborate on political reforms, Chinese scholars familiar with the issue said it had been raised in the plenum and concrete plans had been considered.
Down to earth
Political reforms will be carried out in steps on par with the demands of economic reform and the needs of the public, said Li Junru, a prominent theorist and former vice president of the elite Party School of the CPC Central Committee. "In China, political reforms are designed to clear the obstacles in economic restructuring. It is pragmatic and down-to-earth rather than a concept or slogan," said Li. "Don't make democracy a luxury good, which looks beautiful but in the end cannot be realized and may even cause disasters to people's lives."
"Democracy is our goal and our pursuit, but it needs to be carried out in accordance with reality and pushed forward step by step," Li told Xinhua, adding that political reform has been high on the agenda for generations of Communist Party leadership since Deng Xiaoping launched sweeping market economy reforms in 1978.
He said while details of the reforms have not been disclosed, there are guidelines to strengthen the protection of an individual's right to know, to participate, to express and to supervise. Li, who has studied party theories extensively and is an adviser to policy makers, now serves as a deputy director of the China Society of Human Rights Studies, which has been sponsoring the Beijing Forum.
Kompass said that when it comes to economic and social progress, the Chinese leadership's political will has played a key role. The same political determination will be needed to make further progress in political and civil rights.
Foreign human rights scholars and officials have said that for a civil society to flourish, it is important to ensure that there are constant checks and balances on the use of power, which can be accomplished by public scrutiny and by strengthening human rights protection.
Civil society
Civil society in China, as it functions now, faces many obstacles, said Nicola Macbean, founding director of the Rights Practice, an international NGO advancing global human rights standards.
She said the protection of human rights in China needs active engagement from all sectors of the society. "Whether it is lawyers or NGOs or just ordinary citizens, I really hope that there will be a much greater role for civil society to play in protecting human rights in China in the future," she said.
For a fairly long time after the Communists came to power in 1949, the concept of human rights was considered taboo in ideological and theoretical researches and was largely shunned by the public.
Only in 1991, about 12 years after the market economy reform, China's Information Office of the State Council published the country's first white paper on human rights in China. It was also the first time the concept of human rights had been positively confirmed in the form of an official document.
China's legislature ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2001 and in a landmark move added "the State respects and safeguards human rights" in the constitution.
Kompass said it is now timely for China to make a more profound commitment to the rule of law by ratifying the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The latest white paper on human rights Beijing published in September said officials are "actively" working towards that direction.
"We acknowledge that as a result of a lack of development or unbalanced development, there are still unsatisfactory aspects to the condition of human rights in China," Wang Chen, director of the State Council's Information Office, said at the opening of the Beijing forum Tuesday.
(The author is a Xinhua writer.)
The UN human rights agency hopes that China will set an example by achieving significant progress on both political and civil and economic and social rights, said Anders Kompass, director of the Field Operations and Technical Cooperation Division, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. He spoke on the sidelines of the annual two-day Beijing Forum on Human Rights, which opened last Tuesday.
Kompass said China has achieved "incredibly important" progress by lifting millions and millions of people out of poverty and creating conditions for them to participate in the social and economic development of the country.
"China has tremendous potential and can achieve much more," Kompass said, adding that he was encouraged by the Chinese leadership's calls for further reforms to allow broader political and civil freedoms. The government is striving to achieve the "free and all-round development of people," which is "an important hallmark for a democratic country under the rule of law," Kompass said, citing Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's remarks at the UN General Assembly in September.
A key policy-setting meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC), which concluded last Monday, also stressed the need for political reforms.
"Great impetus will be given to economic restructuring, while vigorous yet steady efforts should be made to promote political restructuring," said the communique issued by the fifth plenary session of the 17th Central Committee of the CPC. Although the communique did not elaborate on political reforms, Chinese scholars familiar with the issue said it had been raised in the plenum and concrete plans had been considered.
Down to earth
Political reforms will be carried out in steps on par with the demands of economic reform and the needs of the public, said Li Junru, a prominent theorist and former vice president of the elite Party School of the CPC Central Committee. "In China, political reforms are designed to clear the obstacles in economic restructuring. It is pragmatic and down-to-earth rather than a concept or slogan," said Li. "Don't make democracy a luxury good, which looks beautiful but in the end cannot be realized and may even cause disasters to people's lives."
"Democracy is our goal and our pursuit, but it needs to be carried out in accordance with reality and pushed forward step by step," Li told Xinhua, adding that political reform has been high on the agenda for generations of Communist Party leadership since Deng Xiaoping launched sweeping market economy reforms in 1978.
He said while details of the reforms have not been disclosed, there are guidelines to strengthen the protection of an individual's right to know, to participate, to express and to supervise. Li, who has studied party theories extensively and is an adviser to policy makers, now serves as a deputy director of the China Society of Human Rights Studies, which has been sponsoring the Beijing Forum.
Kompass said that when it comes to economic and social progress, the Chinese leadership's political will has played a key role. The same political determination will be needed to make further progress in political and civil rights.
Foreign human rights scholars and officials have said that for a civil society to flourish, it is important to ensure that there are constant checks and balances on the use of power, which can be accomplished by public scrutiny and by strengthening human rights protection.
Civil society
Civil society in China, as it functions now, faces many obstacles, said Nicola Macbean, founding director of the Rights Practice, an international NGO advancing global human rights standards.
She said the protection of human rights in China needs active engagement from all sectors of the society. "Whether it is lawyers or NGOs or just ordinary citizens, I really hope that there will be a much greater role for civil society to play in protecting human rights in China in the future," she said.
For a fairly long time after the Communists came to power in 1949, the concept of human rights was considered taboo in ideological and theoretical researches and was largely shunned by the public.
Only in 1991, about 12 years after the market economy reform, China's Information Office of the State Council published the country's first white paper on human rights in China. It was also the first time the concept of human rights had been positively confirmed in the form of an official document.
China's legislature ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 2001 and in a landmark move added "the State respects and safeguards human rights" in the constitution.
Kompass said it is now timely for China to make a more profound commitment to the rule of law by ratifying the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The latest white paper on human rights Beijing published in September said officials are "actively" working towards that direction.
"We acknowledge that as a result of a lack of development or unbalanced development, there are still unsatisfactory aspects to the condition of human rights in China," Wang Chen, director of the State Council's Information Office, said at the opening of the Beijing forum Tuesday.
(The author is a Xinhua writer.)
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