(East-West Question) Zhu Liyu: "The right to subsistence and the right to development are the primary basic human rights", why has it become a social consensus in China?
China News Agency, Beijing, April 1, title: "The right to subsistence and the right to development are the primary basic human rights" Why has it become a social consensus in China?
Author Zhu Liyu, Professor of the Law School of Renmin University of China, Secretary General of the Academic Committee of the Human Rights Research Center
The right to subsistence and the right to development are rights that human beings should enjoy on the basis of dignity and are of fundamental significance to their survival and development. The two basic human rights that benefit society and the ecological environment from progress are also related to everyone's right to equal opportunities for survival and development and to share benefits.
It is an indisputable fact that "the right to subsistence and the right to development are the primary basic human rights" is generally recognized in China.
Proposition of the right to development
On December 4, 1986, Article 1 of the Declaration on the Right to Development (hereinafter referred to as the "Declaration") adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 41/128 stated: "The right to development is an inalienable human right, because this right , that everyone and all peoples have the right to participate in, contribute to and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms are fully realized.” Also, Article 6 of the Declaration It also specifically states: "All human rights and fundamental freedoms are indivisible and interdependent; equal attention and priority should be given to the implementation, promotion and protection of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights." On a one-sided understanding, Article 9 of the Declaration specifically emphasizes: "All aspects of the right to development set forth in this Declaration are indivisible and interdependent, and all aspects should be construed as a whole."
The right to development enshrined in the Declaration is comprehensive, but focuses on the implementation, promotion and protection of economic, social and cultural rights.
At that time, China not only made efforts to promote the adoption of the resolution, but also always focused on economic construction. In the process of building a moderately prosperous society, China pursued and realized the right to development as the primary basic human right of the Chinese people.
The juxtaposition of the right to subsistence and the right to development
On November 1, 1991, the State Council Information Office of China issued a white paper titled "Human Rights in China".
This is the first white paper issued by the Chinese government, and the first official document that systematically expounds the human rights issue in China and formally proposes the right to subsistence.
It expounds China's basic position and basic policy on human rights issues, and introduces the fundamental changes in China's human rights situation after the founding of the People's Republic of China. It not only illustrates the development and progress of China's human rights cause, but also helps the international community understand China's human rights situation.
The first part of the white paper, "The right to subsistence is the primary human right that the Chinese people have been fighting for for a long time," points out: "For a country and a nation, human rights are the people's right to subsistence. Without the right to subsistence, no other human rights can be discussed." The Declaration affirms that everyone has the right to life, liberty and personal security. In old China, due to imperialist aggression, feudalism and the oppression of bureaucratic capitalism, the lives of the people were not guaranteed, and countless people died due to war and hunger. The struggle for the right to exist has historically become a human rights issue that the Chinese people must first address."
The proposal and explanation of the right to subsistence in the white paper not only highlights China's concept of human rights, but also conforms to the expression on the right to development in the Declaration on the Right to Development.
Since then, the Chinese government's white papers on China's human rights cause have all put forward the right to subsistence and the right to development side by side.
This is an important viewpoint, position and expression on human rights issues formed by the Communist Party of China, the Chinese government and the Chinese people based on historical and national conditions and long-term practical experience.
Especially after the reform and opening up, China has always regarded social progress and stability, economic development and safeguarding the people's right to subsistence and development as the fundamental way to realize democracy, freedom and human rights.
In the 1980s and 1990s, although scholars from many developing countries, including China, proposed the right to subsistence and development in the field of human rights, Western countries did not fully agree with this.
They take Western human rights concepts, theories, systems, standards and models as the absolute and only yardstick to measure and judge the human rights situation in developing countries.
Therefore, many Western scholars believe that human rights are political rights and civil rights.
Although it is sometimes recognized that human rights include economic rights and social and cultural rights, when actually observing and judging the human rights situation of a country, it is not regarded as a balance.
As for the rights to subsistence and development, they generally do not recognize them.
Moreover, the human rights discussed by Western scholars generally only refer to individual human rights, and do not include collective human rights.
On the contrary, many scholars in developing countries, especially in China, believe that economic, social and cultural rights, political rights and citizenship rights are equally essential; and for developing countries, the rights to subsistence and development are the primary basic human rights; Chinese scholars also believe that not only individual human rights, but also collective human rights should be discussed.
Kindergarten children play outdoors in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liu Wenhua
Recognizing the importance of the rights to subsistence and development has become an international consensus
In 2015, the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (A/RES/70/1).
The Agenda was officially launched on January 1, 2016, calling on countries to work towards the achievement of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals over the next 15 years.
These 17 goals are directly or indirectly related to the human right to subsistence and development.
For example, goals addressing the right to subsistence include eradicating poverty in all its forms, eradicating hunger, achieving food security, improved nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture throughout the world; goals addressing the right to development include ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education, Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, take urgent action to address climate change and its impacts, and more.
A scene of rice harvesting in farmland on the outskirts of Nanjing, Jiangsu.
(UAV photo) Photo by China News Agency reporter Yang Bo
Survival is the premise and foundation of development, and development is for a higher level, more dignified and more dignified existence.
The right to subsistence and the right to development are like two sides of the same coin, which cannot be separated.
In developing countries, if the issues of the right to subsistence and the right to development are not basically resolved, other human rights such as democracy and freedom cannot be well realized.
This view has become the mainstream consensus in the international community.
China has not only contributed to the promotion of the resolution on this agenda, but also accomplished many development goals ahead of schedule with practical actions, making remarkable historic achievements.
For example, it has become the world's second economy, achieved a comprehensive victory in the battle against poverty, and demonstrated the pursuit of life first and people-centered value in the fight against the new crown pneumonia epidemic.
China continues to advance the protection of the Chinese people's right to subsistence, development and other basic rights, enhance the people's sense of gain, happiness and security, and earnestly realize the people's pursuit and yearning for a better life.
This is the internal reason that "the right to subsistence and the right to development are the primary basic human rights" in China.
In Huishui County, Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, the new people tied the knot.
Photo by China News Agency He Junyi
Adhere to the guidance of the Sinicized Marxist view of human rights
While the human rights situation of the Chinese people is developing and progressing, China's human rights theory has also made a major breakthrough, that is, combining the Marxist concept of human rights with China's specific reality to form a sinicized Marxist concept of human rights, which is used to guide China's human rights construction cause.
This concept of human rights emphasizes that the history of human society development is a history of the replacement of production methods, and human rights restricted by production methods are a historical category.
Without production, without liberation and development of productive forces, human society cannot survive and develop.
Therefore, the right to subsistence and the right to development must be placed first in the cause of human rights construction.
In China, it is necessary to proceed from reality, according to history and national conditions, to improve the protection of people's right to subsistence and development, and to take a human rights development path that suits China's national conditions.
Human rights include individual human rights and collective human rights. The subject of individual human rights is the individual, and the subject of collective human rights is social groups, classes, nations, and states.
In China, it not only emphasizes the unity of individual human rights and collective human rights, but also pays more attention to the latter, that is, the collective human rights of the broad masses of the people.
This is conducive to making "the right to subsistence and the right to development are the primary basic human rights" to become a highly consistent social consensus in China.
Human rights protection is not the best, only better.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out at the 37th collective study of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on February 25 this year: "Adhere to the basic human rights with the right to subsistence and the right to development. Survival is the basis for the enjoyment of all human rights, and the people's happy life is the greatest It is believed that in the new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, China will continue to regard respect and protection of human rights as an important task in the governance of the country, and promote the cause of human rights to achieve new achievements.
(over)
About the Author:
Zhu Liyu, Consultant of the China National Commission for UNESCO under the Ministry of Education, Consultant of the China Society for Human Rights Studies, Executive Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Human Rights magazine (hosted by the China Society for Human Rights Studies, undertaken by the Law School of Renmin University of China and the Human Rights Research Center).
The works related to human rights issues in recent years mainly include: Human Rights Law, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a Model for Multicultural Integration, and Some New Thoughts on Rereading The Spectre of Marx—Written in Building a Community of Human Destiny as an International Consensus Afterwards, "Seeking Happiness for the People: The Communist Party of China's Scientific Analysis and Definition of the Main Contradictions in Chinese Society", "Several Expositions on Human Rights by Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin and the First White Paper "Human Rights Situation in China", etc.