The book provides new research highlighting perspectives, perceptions, and practices regarding human rights and human rights education in China. It traces the emergence and evolution of the human rights conception and human rights education from comparative perspectives. China’s deeply embedded philosophical and cultural traditions shed light on its ideas of human rights and human rights education. The efforts to construct an independent and strong nation-state since the mid-to-late nineteenth century fashioned the Chinese thinking of rights and citizenship, and the reciprocal relation between the individual and community/state. With the help of collected data, the book unpacks that the goal-making and content-selection of human rights education in China rely heavily on the provisions given by central authorities; however, the practices have different facets depends on how the people perceive and respond those requirements in the school and classroom contexts. The book concludes by explaining the human rights education in China as a socialization project for citizenship-making, and suggests that China’s doctrine on human rights and human rights education is closely associated with cultural relativization and social construction. Though China is just beginning to develop human rights education in its education systems, this study suggests possible direction for future research. How to live with human rights should be included further in schooling, especially how to infuse human rights education into all aspects of school day-to-day life.

Since the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989 there has been increasing international pressure on China to improve its approach to human rights, whilst at the same time the Chinese government has itself realised that it needs to improve its approach, and has indeed done much to implement improvements. This book explores systematically the international engagement in human rights in China and assesses the impact of such foreign involvement. It looks at particular areas including criminal justice, labour, and religious freedom, considers the processes by which international pressure is brought to bear and the processes by which improvements are implemented in China, and concludes that, whilst China’s human rights record has improved more than many people realise, further improvements are still needed.

This book discusses human rights law, focusing on Chinese contributions to international human rights viewed from a perspective of global governance. The original research presented here integrates a variety of research methods: inter-disciplinary approaches, historical and comparative methods, documentary research and so on. The research findings can be described briefly as follows: In global governance, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) serves as a historic cross-cultural heritage, while Pengchun Chang, the Chinese representative, made great contributions to the establishment of the international human rights system. After examining the characteristics of the Chinese discourse on human rights in global governance, the book suggests fundamental principles for improving human rights standards in China. In addition, it explores Chinese concepts of human dignity concerning the Declaration on Human Dignity for everyone, everywhere. The target readers are global scholars and students of law, politics, philosophy, international relations, human rights law, religion and culture. The book will provide these readers a vivid picture of China’s contributions to international human rights, and a better understanding of the significance of traditional Chinese culture and wisdom.

This book is designed to introduce law students, legal actors and human rights activists, particularly participants in human rights dialogues with China, to the process and reality of a newly confident China’s participation in the international human rights system, albeit with inherent challenges. From an international and comparative perspective, one of the key findings of the author's research is that progress towards human rights depends more on judges than on legislators. Chinese legislators have enacted a series of reforms in order to better protect human rights. Unfortunately, these reforms have not led to greater adherence to China’s international human rights obligations in practice. The reforms failed because they have generally been misunderstood by Chinese judges, who often have a limited understanding of international human rights norms. Specifically, this book will examine how judicial misunderstandings have blocked reforms in one specific area, the use of severe punishments, based on international human rights theory and case studies and data analyses. This examination has several purposes. The first is to suggest that China ratify the ICCPR as the next step for its substantive progress in human rights and as a good preparation for its re-applying to be a member of the UN Human Right Council in the future. The second is to explain how judges could be better educated in international human rights norms so as to greatly reduce the use of severe punishments and better comply with China's human rights obligations. The third is to demonstrate how the international community could better engage with China in a manner that is more conducive to human rights improvements. The author's ultimate goal is to enhance dialogue on human rights in China between judges and the Chinese government, between Chinese judges and their foreign counterparts and between China's government and the international community. Another significant aim of this book is to clarify the controversial question of what obligations China should undertake before its ratification of the ICCPR and to re-examine trends in its developing human rights policy after standing down from the Council in late 2012. The tortuous progress of China’s criminal law and criminal justice reforms has confirmed that Chinese judges need further instruction on how to apply severe punishments in a manner consistent with international standards. Judges should be encouraged to exercise more discretion when sentencing so that penalties reflect the intent of relevant domestic laws as well as the international human rights standards enumerated in the ICCPR. In order to better educate and train judges, this book contains introductory chapters that examine the severe punishments currently available to Chinese judges from an international human rights perspective. To illustrate how Chinese justice currently falls short of international norms, this paper also examines several cases that are considered to be indicative of China’s progress towards greater respect for human rights and the rule of law. These cases demonstrate that China still has a long way to go to achieve its goals, at least before abolishing the death penalty, forced labor and torture.

This unique collection of essays has been compiled in honour of Professor Göran Melander, one of the founders of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI), in Lund, Sweden. Göran Melander served as the Institute’s first director and subsequently as the Chairman of the Board of Directors. The volume illustrates the complex relationship between dissemination of human rights standards and their application in human rights law, and thus serves as a tribute to Melander’s belief in and commitment to the dynamics of education in human rights law. The contributors are human rights scholars and activists, all colleagues and friends associated with various stages of Melander’s professional career.

In recent years, more and more scholars in the world feel interested in the topic of human right protection status in China. This book hopes to serve as a window through which its readers will have a better understanding of theory and practice of human rights protection in the Chinese context. The book systematically introduces the dynamic development and progress of human rights protection in China, attaching great importance to the first white paper on Human Rights in China, “The state respects and guarantees human rights” included in the Constitution, National Human Rights Action Plan of China, and then putting forth fundamental principles to achieve international human rights standards and specific measures to improve human rights protection standards in China. Then the book further discusses “Foundations of Human Rights Guarantee in Contemporary China”, “Human Rights, Culture and Their Reconstruction in the Chinese Context” and “Socialist Legal System with Chinese Characteristics”. Then, a final chapter is dedicated to the topic of “Judicial Protection System of Human Rights in China”. In appendices, four important documents on human rights in China, as well as a list of the author’s major articles and works in the past 10 years are provided.​

The Chinese Perspectives on Human Rights and Good Governance series reviews various aspects of human rights and good governance in China, including international human rights standards, specific substantive rights protection and rule of law, as well as constitutionalism, especially in the context of contemporary China. Its aim is to stimulate discussion on these and related topics, with a focus on international standards whenever these are applicable and relevant to China. In this first volume in the series, the contributors adopt different disciplinary approaches to look at China both in the context of its internal constraints and as a global player in the overall development of human rights. Where is China headed in the near future? Does Chinese culture stand in contradiction to human rights? Is the rule of law alien to Chinese society? Can China move ahead without political reforms? In this thought-provoking volume, leading Chinese and Western scholars offer analysis of these issues, also with reference to Chinese history and contemporary culture.

This volume of the China Legal Development Yearbook is the second in a series of annual reports written by leading Chinese law and legal policy scholars and judges. It is edited by the Institute of Law at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The Yearbook contains reports on law reform priorities, major legal policy debates and an account of legislation proposed and passed in 2006. This Yearbook features reports on those legal reforms seeking to strengthen the rule of law and to make the administration of justice more “people-oriented”. It contains articles and reports on reforms made to improve the standard of judicial justice, reforms to the criminal justice system, as well as evaluations of the functioning of systems of administrative litigation, review and state compensation. Chapters also address human rights issues and analyse current problems relating to dispute resolution. This Yearbook provides a valuable insight into contemporary debates in China about the substance, direction and priorities of legal reform.

This book focuses on China’s evolution in the field of human rights protection, highlighting its achievements in various systems of human rights protection, as well as its role in international human rights governance and the healthy development of human rights. From the perspective of China’s human rights protection, starting with various types of citizens, e.g. women, children and the disabled, the book analyzes and discusses the changes and major events in the country’s human rights development path one by one, while also explaining the Chinese stance on human rights development. China is becoming more active in the international human rights cooperation field, playing its unique and constructive role and serving as the participant, builder and contributor of the international human rights governance.

In response to the growing international interest in inclusive education, this book examines its practices and issues in the Chinese context through case studies of two regular primary schools in mainland China where children with special needs are admitted. The main concerns of this book not only involve the inclusion of children with disabilities, but also those with special educational needs but without physical and sensory difficulties, such as children from socially and economically disadvantaged groups, children from diverse cultural and linguistic groups, and children alienated in classrooms. This book discusses these issues and challenges against the background of the existing educational system and policy, and identifies the barriers to their inclusion in current school education, such as lack of in-service training for teachers, limited involvement of local communities, big class size, and corporal punishment, etc. Academics and postgraduate students in the field of inclusive education, social education, and Chinese studies will find this book useful, as well as policy makers, school teachers, and administrators.