(East-West Question) Liu Huawen: How does the 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization shape China's view of human rights?
China News Agency, Beijing, May 5th: How does the 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization shape China's view of human rights?
Author Liu Huawen, Deputy Director of the Institute of International Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Executive Director of the Human Rights Research Center
Human rights are one of the hot words widely discussed in the international community. More and more countries are incorporating the human rights perspective in the process of formulating and implementing policies and laws, and considering the specific impact on the protection of human rights. This trend is called "" Mainstreaming Human Rights".
At the same time, the cultural and historical context in which human rights are embedded has also received increasing attention.
The basic ideals and values of the pursuit of human rights between China and the West have extensive commonalities, but due to factors such as history, culture, and social systems, there are differences in the understanding and realization of human rights.
In any society, it is biased to view human rights issues separately from history, culture and civilization.
To understand China's concept of human rights, it must also be placed in the context of the 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization.
Not only differences, there are similarities between Chinese and Western human rights concepts
As a common achievement of the development of human society and civilization, what is the basis or origin of human rights?
This is a philosophical and cultural question.
But contemporary human rights are a new concept and have not always existed.
In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, followed by a number of core human rights treaties.
These documents all mention that human rights are based on the personality, on the inherent dignity of the human being.
On this basis, different countries and cultures have formed diverse understandings of "what is human rights" and "what human rights contain". Based on different understandings of how to use specific systems, policies and laws to realize human rights, people have formed their own human rights view.
Although there are differences between Eastern and Western cultures, it must be pointed out that there is a core element of respect for human rights in all cultures.
From ancient times to the present, different cultures have advocated respect for human beings to varying degrees, and the ideas of the rule of law and human rights have sprung up in them.
There is a gradual deepening process in all countries in understanding and attaching importance to human beings and respecting human values, which is an objective law of social development.
In the development of human beings today, cooperation is a "common divisor" that benefits most people. We cannot just focus on the differences between human rights in China and the West.
For example, "Do not do to others what you do not want to do to yourself" is a classic Confucian concept, and there are similar expressions in Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam, and people call it the "golden rule".
The so-called respect and protection of human rights does not mean artificially created rules, but protects the common crystallization of human civilization.
The Chinese and Western human rights concepts have jointly constructed the respect and protection of human rights worldwide, and established the universal principle of human rights.
In practice, China has consistently and earnestly implemented more than 20 international human rights treaties to which it has acceded, supported the constructive work of the United Nations Human Rights Council based on the principles of impartiality, non-politicization, non-selectivity and non-confrontation, and contributed to the cause of human rights. Development has made important contributions, and it has also provided experience and reference for other countries, including developing countries, to improve the level of human rights protection.
Just as different cultures need mutual respect, understanding and tolerance, on the issue of human rights, the dialogue between countries also needs to be respectful, understanding and inclusive, so as to promote the formation of a more fair, just, inclusive and reasonable global human rights governance.
Children dressed in Hanfu recite "The Analects of Confucius" together with their parents.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Yang Bo
The history of Chinese civilization contains precious human rights and cultural resources
The so-called 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization has shaped China's view of human rights, first of all, it has shaped the way Chinese people think about human rights issues.
The distinctive feature of Chinese civilization and Chinese philosophy is that it emphasizes holistic thinking and macroscopic grasp, and analyzes all relevant factors as an organically linked whole from the perspective of systems theory, which is different from the Western society's emphasis on microscopic analysis.
Some Western countries often talk about human rights in terms of human rights, but China never advocates looking at and talking about human rights simply and in isolation.
In the eyes of the Chinese, the cause of human rights is an integral part of a country's development process and is integrated into the overall development path. Democracy, the rule of law, and development are the three basic factors for observing the development path of human rights.
The three cannot advance alone, but must complement each other and be in close contact.
If the three are out of balance, it is difficult to realize the sustainable development of human rights. Only by working together can they form a complete picture of the development of the national human rights cause.
This holistic thinking is deeply rooted in Chinese cultural traditions.
In the process of combining the basic principles of Marxism with China's specific reality, China has formed its own concept of human rights, especially inheriting and combining the excellent traditional Chinese culture.
The 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization contains precious human rights cultural resources. In traditional culture, there are people-based ideas, civil rights ideas, and human rights ideas of caring for women, children, and the elderly.
Thousands of years ago, the Chinese put forward that "the people are the foundation of the state, and the state is the foundation of the state" and "between heaven and earth, nothing is more valuable than people", placing people in an important position in society and the value system.
Beginning with Confucius, the Chinese have emphasized that "people are humane," and placed individual care and obligations for others at the top of social construction. Today, Chinese people still emphasize the interconnection between individual rights and collective rights, as well as rights and obligations.
China's anti-epidemic adherence to the principle of "people first, life first" and treatment from newborn babies to centenarians is not only a manifestation of the people-oriented thinking, but also a concentrated reflection of China's view of human rights.
The excellent traditions of helping the poor and the weak, respecting the old and loving the young, and taking the world as their own responsibility have been carried over from history and culture, such as "the old and the old, and the old of the people; the young and the young, and the young of the people", "there is no class" Such concepts have also had a positive impact on the development of human rights in China.
Two elderly people are playing Tibetan chess at the Xingfu Nursing Home in Zhiduo County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Ma Mingyan
As far as the current development of human rights is concerned, on the one hand, the satisfaction of rights must respect cultural traditions and take into account the acceptability of society.
On the other hand, there is also the problem of cultural sublation.
The so-called culture of respecting and protecting human rights is a new social culture, based on the existing cultural traditions, but with higher internal requirements.
For example, in the practice of children's rights, special emphasis is now placed on listening to the voice of children and respecting the subject status of children, including respecting the right of judgment in line with their physical and mental maturity, rather than only treating children as objects of protection.
The sublation of culture exists in both Eastern and Western cultures.
In ancient Rome, man refers to a man who has citizenship. Women have no citizenship, and slaves and children have no independent personality.
In general, both Eastern and Western societies need to move forward on the basis of absorbing traditional cultural nutrients.
Attacks and sanctions are not the right way to address human rights
Since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the concept of "the world is for the public" and the thought of the world system have been continuously evolving and developing, and have rich connotations such as equality, fairness, and justice, which are useful for promoting human rights protection, state and social governance, etc. Must be inspiring.
Since modern times, the Chinese have made outstanding contributions to the formulation and drafting of international human rights instruments.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights says: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are full of reason and conscience, and should be treated in a spirit of brotherhood." The word "conscience" is based on the The proposal of Zhang Pengchun, a representative of China and one of the founders of Nankai University, was added based on the values of Confucian culture.
A symposium to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was held in Beijing.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Song Jihe
UN Secretary-General Guterres has repeatedly stated that the core of the development agenda is the realization of the right to development, and the development agenda and the human rights agenda are an organic whole.
The United Nations has always advocated the integrity of human rights, emphasizing the inseparability, interdependence and complementarity of various human rights, and that one human right cannot deny another, or prioritize among them.
The Chinese culture's view of human rights is consistent with the concept of human rights advocated by the United Nations.
The Chinese culture of respect, tolerance and harmony, and the Chinese concept of human rights that advocate a holistic thinking are of great significance to the dialogue on human rights development in the world today.
Ideological disputes in the field of human rights have a long history, and unfortunately, this situation still occurs from time to time in international arenas.
In recent years, the vast number of developing countries have actively promoted economic, social and cultural rights into the international agenda, and some Western countries such as Western Europe and Northern Europe have also paid more attention to economic, social and cultural rights. and the International Covenant on Cultural Rights, it also adheres to a single, rigid view of human rights in practice, unilaterally emphasizing civil and political rights as human rights.
When the UN General Assembly passed a resolution on the "right to development", the United States was repeatedly the country that voted against it.
In fact, both Eastern and Western cultures have the concept of respecting people, cooperative development, and peaceful settlement of disputes, but why is the American "sutra" misrepresented?
In essence, the United States unilaterally emphasizes some rights. It only looks at the shortcomings of other countries and not the advantages. It only looks at individual cases and not the whole. Instead of engaging in constructive dialogue and cooperation, it engages in attacks and labels.
These practices show that they do not treat human rights issues in strict accordance with the purpose and spirit of human rights conventions, or even treat human rights in accordance with the spirit of human rights and the rule of law advertised in their domestic laws.
This approach does not conform to the mainstream of Western culture, and only one-sidedly selects parts of Western culture that are beneficial to them.
The politicized performance of the United States in human rights has magnified the biased and wrong side of the West's understanding of human rights, so its concept of human rights cannot represent the overall understanding of human rights in the West.
How should the international community pay attention to human rights?
First of all, starting from domestic law, each country should not only respect the rights subject status of its own people, but also respect other countries' desire for survival and development.
Second, to deal with difficulties, threats and challenges, especially global risks, countries need to carry out constructive cooperation. Attacks and sanctions are never the right way to solve human rights issues.
Dialogues between countries must not only respect and tolerate differences, but also continue to make efforts to depoliticize.
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About the Author:
Liu Huawen, Deputy Director, Researcher and Doctoral Supervisor of the Institute of International Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Member of the United Nations Committee against Torture; Vice President of the Asian Society of International Law; Executive Director of the Human Rights Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; ; Executive Editor-in-Chief of International Law Research, Institute of International Law, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.