Liu Huawen: China's human rights development and international human rights Law

Liu Huawen: China's human rights development and international human rights Law

On the morning of March 24, 2022, under the auspices of Professor Zhang, co-director of the Institute for Human Rights of China University of Political Science and Law, the Global Human Rights Forum lecture series was held at 0511 Complex Building. The institute was honored to invite Professor Liu Huawen, deputy director of the Institute of International Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and executive director of the Human Rights Research Center of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, to give a special lecture on the theme of "China's Human Rights Development and International Human Rights Law".

Professor Liu first introduced the current human rights situation at the United Nations. On the November 18, 2013 session of the UN General Assembly, China reelected the UN Human Rights Council on November 12, 2013 and was elected by 176 votes. On October 13, 2020, China received 139 votes ,41 fewer than when it was elected four years ago.The reduced number of votes shows the obvious political confrontation in the field of human rights. On October 11, 2021, the Congress of the 18^th States Parties to the Committee against Torture reelected five of the 10 members. The competition is very fierce, and all countries attach great importance to the election. Professor Liu Huawen was elected as a member of the UN Committee on Torture.

In terms of the current human rights situation in China and the West, China and United States are in international opposition. The international order based on the "rules" proposed by the United States specifically refers to the rules dominated by the United States, and China recognizes the international order based on international law. From July 2020 to early February 2021, seven US pollsters with different political positions published public opinion polls on China. When Americans were asked about Chinese concerns, human rights topped the list, followed by economic issues and political systems.

The US and western governments have abused the UN platform to spread the lies of forced labor and genocide in China. This is not only an abuse of the UN high-level conference platform, but also a lack of a concept of international law. Genocide is one of the most serious international crimes of the international community. In 1949, the United Nations General Assembly formulated and adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, and the International Court of Justice held in the ruling of the conviction of genocide must have special psychological requirements, the court called "specific intent" — deliberately total or local destruction of a nation, race, racial or religious group. In determining the specific intent, the court rejected the method of Bosnia and Herzegovina according to the "mode of behavior" to prove, but adopted the method of item by item, and asked Bosnia and Herzegovina "enough clearly prove" such intention exists, so that the court can "completely determine" the existence of "extinction intention" and the establishment of "extinction". This "complete certainty" standard even exceeds the degree of "beyond a reasonable doubt" of the situation litigation, and holds the objective caution of "limited evidence". The International Criminal Court Rome Statute, adopted in 2002, also provides for specific elements of genocide, all of which contain "facts and evidence beyond a reasonable doubt". For example, accurate evidence is needed to prove concerns about some extreme living conditions. The accusation from the US and the West is undoubtedly an abuse of the concept of national law.

In view of the above problems, Professor Liu put forward the nature and promotion methods of the human rights struggle, which are as follows: 1. Normalization of struggle and cooperation is a long-term complex and arduous task; 2. There is always a theme, prominent offensive and defensive topics; 3. Do not fantasize that there will be no contradiction and there will be a move to control the enemy; 4. concentration, confidence, patience, and wisdom; 5. Human rights struggle is essentially political struggle, manifested as public opinion struggle, democracy, human rights and freedom, a professional way is "legal war".

In the middle of the lecture, Professor Zhang Wei asked Professor Liu how to deal with the problems of NGOs, can China theoretically invite committee members to visit China to eliminate misunderstanding and discrimination? Professor Liu said that China welcomes members of the committee to visit China, but there are some operational obstacles due to the epidemic and other reasons, and China is open to this. At the same time, some NGOs have political publicity behavior, and their impact is very limited, but China should pay attention to the role of NGOs.

Secondly, Professor Liu said that we should carefully study General Secretary Xi Jinping's discourse on human rights. General Secretary Xi Jinping has made a series of important speeches and congratulatory letters on human rights, such as Congratulatory letter to 2015 Beijing Forum on Human Rights on September 16, 2015; Congratulatory Letter to the International Symposium on the 30th Anniversary of the Adoption of the United Nations’“Declaration on the Right to Development”On 4 December 2016;Congratulatory Message from President Xi Jinping to the "South-South Human Rights Forum"on December 2017; And Congratulatory letter from President Xi Jinping to commemorate the 70^th anniversary of the publication of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10,2018. At the 37^th collective study session of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that China should unswervingly follow the path of human rights development and better promote the development of human rights in China. Since the reform and opening up, China has adhered to the human rights development path of integrating the rule of law, development and human rights.

China's reform and opening up has made China's economy take off. China has been the top trading country for many years. Its overall strength has improved and its human rights situation have been developing. There are some important time points in human rights development, such as in 1999, when the rule of law was written into the Constitution; On 14 March 2004, "National Respect and Protection of Human Rights" was written into the Constitution; The protection of human rights has been written in the 11^th to 14^th Five-Year Plan, as well as in the Party Constitution of the Communist Party of China and the reports of the 15^th to 19^th National Congresses；In April 2009, the first National Human Rights Action Plan (2009-2010) was released. Article 56 of the Proposal of the CPC Central Committee on the formulation of the Fourteenth Five-Year Plan and the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development at the Fifth Plenary Session of the 19th CPC Central Committee stipulates to promote the all-round development of the cause of human rights. China's people-centered human rights development concept mainly includes the following contents: the right to survival and development are the primary human rights; individual and collective human rights; the trinity of the rule of law, development and human rights; Promote development through cooperation. Promoting human rights through development. Under the concept of building a community with a shared future for human beings, all human rights governance should be implemented. In the work on human rights, people should pay attention to gender equality, racial equality, labour rights, code of conduct and social responsibilities.

Thirdly, China attaches great importance to the development of international law. After the establishment of new China in 1999, Zhou Tiansheng, Wang Tiedong and other international jurists have served as legal advisers to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Che Haopei once said: "Important diplomatic documents, if not consulted by Zhou Tiansheng. Premier Zhou did not approve it. “In 2001, China's accession to the WTO organization once again set off a climax of international law research. Decision made at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19^th CPC Central Committee on October 31, 2019: "We will strengthen the foreign-related rule of law, establish a legal system for foreign-related work, strengthen the research and application of international law, and improve the rule of law in foreign-related work.”

Professor Liu proposed that the differences between international law and domestic law are mainly manifested in the following aspects: 1. Different subjects of adjustment: the subjects of domestic law are individuals, and legal persons composed of individuals or state institutions acting as legal persons, and the adjustment subjects of international law are countries, inter-governmental international organizations and ethnic groups striving for independence.2. Different enactment: the subject of domestic law is the domestic legislature, and the enactment of international law is the subject of international law, namely the state itself. 3. Different forms of expression: domestic law is usually enacted law and case law, international law is international treaties, international habits, general legal principles recognized by civilized countries, judicial jurisprudence and the most authoritative jurist doctrine of various countries. There is a phenomenon of confusion between domestic law and international law, namely, ignoring domestic law or advocating international law, or confusing it with domestic law. NGOs play important roles in two different international and domestic environments and need to be taken seriously. Professor Liu Huawen believes that when dealing with international law issues, we should attach importance to the origin and effectiveness of international law. Professor Liu took the Syracuse principle as an example and pointed out that the principle is not an international law document and has reference value.

Professor Liu also gave a brief overview of China's participation in the country deliberations at the United Nations. On October 22, 2013, the UPR affirmed more than 110 countries on China's human rights situation. On March 20, 2014, when the Human Rights Council approved the 25^th meeting of its report at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, China accepted article 204 proposals, accounting for 81% of the total proposals, covering more than 20 areas, including poverty reduction, education and justice. The government does not accept the 48 recommendations on the grounds that "they do not meet China's basic national conditions, or are contrary to the principles of the Chinese Constitution and the spirit of domestic laws.” Professor Liu took the case of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights against Peru (Sun Ang, Zhao Bingzhi and Liu Huawen as expert witnesses) as an example to show China's initiative to participate in international judicial activities.

Finally, Professor Liu pointed out that adhering to the international rule of law is the new China's consistent diplomatic practice. China actively contributes Chinese wisdom and sets an example to the international rule of law. Over the past 60 years, China has been actively practicing the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. The five principles have been written into China's Constitution, the communique on diplomatic relations with more than 160 countries and bilateral treaties, becoming the cornerstone of China's independent foreign policy for peace. As General Secretary Xi Jinping has pointed out, "No matter how far China develops, it will not threaten anyone or subvert the current international system.”

Wang Huaiyu, a graduate student of 2021, asked questions. Professor Liu mentioned that in the research related to international law, we should pay special attention to the origin of international law and their effectiveness. A resolution by the United Nations Human Rights Council, for example, could just be an initiative. In daily study in the field of human rights, many times will involve such similar, no mandatory binding resolutions and so on, "soft norms". Researchers should understand and use them from what perspective, and what do we need to pay attention to in our study and research. Professor Liu gave an answer: First of all, starting from the postgraduate study and research, we should pay more attention to the professional degree as a legal person. Researcher should be vigilant in research and writing to blindly pursue "beautiful", and focus on solid and professional. And also have the thinking and consciousness of professional lawyers, to widely find all the relevant norms and documents, in line with the professional nature of legal people to organize and use them, to do a valuable research.

The lecture was successfully concluded with the warm applause of the students.