Beijing, 23 Dec (Xinhua) -- How to study Chinese's human rights from the perspective of civilization?
Written by Cui Bailu.
Edited by Lu Guangjin, vice president of the Chinese Human Rights Research Association and professor of the Law School of Jilin University, and jointly completed by a multidisciplinary team of Jilin University, the new book "Introduction to Chinese-style Human Rights Civilization" was recently published by Fu Zi of the Commercial Press. The book is a phased achievement of the national social science key project "Research on the New Form of Chinese-style Human Rights Civilization".
The term "Chinese-style human rights civilization" is the core concept of this book, and it is also a new academic discourse proposed by the editors. As a theoretical research work on Chinese rights, the book systematically studies Chinese rights from the perspective of civilization, which is the first time in the domestic academic circles, and makes a positive attempt to construct China's independent human rights knowledge system.
Cover of "Introduction to Chinese-style Human Rights Civilization".
The viewpoint in the book is that the Chinese-style human rights civilization is a new form of human rights civilization that has been generated by the continuous respect and protection of human rights in the great cause of building socialism with Chinese characteristics in a large eastern country with a history of more than 5,000 years and a population of more than 1.4 billion. The Chinese-style human rights civilization follows the basic viewpoint of Marxist human rights theory, grows up in the deep fertile soil of Chinese civilization, actively draws on the excellent achievements of human rights civilization, and is formed in the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics and the building of a community with a shared future for mankind in the new era.
Looking back at the history of the development of human rights civilization, we have gone through a long historical process from the emergence of human rights thinking, to the formulation of the concept of human rights, and then to the fact that human rights have become a universal international principle. In the modern world, human rights have integrated elements of various cultures and civilizations to form different types of human rights, such as the European and American liberal capitalist model, the Marxist liberal and comprehensive development model, the Soviet socialist model, the United Nations global universality, the indivisible model of developing countries, and the socialist model with Chinese characteristics.
However, since the concept of "human rights" was put forward by Western Enlightenment thinkers in modern times, its Western color has been particularly prominent, and the right to interpret it has also been monopolized by Western countries. To this day, although the values of freedom, democracy, and human rights in the Western world have been repeatedly proven to be limited, narrow-minded, and even used as tools for interfering in other countries, there are still many people who regard them as the norm. This mindset is not only due to the continuous expansion and value export of the United States and Western countries around the world, but also related to its long-term in-depth cultivation in human rights theoretical research and academic system construction, as well as its dominant position in human rights discourse.
Professor Lu Guangjin, the editor-in-chief of this book, has long been committed to the theoretical research and international practice of human rights, and has presided over the writing of China's first series of human rights organizations, drafted the National Human Rights Action Plan, planned and participated in large-scale human rights conferences at home and abroad, and promoted human rights exchanges and exchanges in multilateral, bilateral and other fields. In his article "Constructing Chinese Human Rights Studies: Causes, Cognitions, and Paradigms," he wrote: "Due to deviations in understanding and various historical reasons, especially the concept of 'human rights' as a product of Western ideology and culture, and as a foreign product, we have not really sorted, summarized and refined the successful practical experience of Chinese human rights as a knowledge system and value theory, and we are still very bad at constructing China's own human rights theory." ”
Lu Guangjin believes that just as China has its own philosophy, literature, law, history, political science, and sociology, China should also have its own human rights studies. Therefore, using theory to interpret the practical experience of Chinese human rights and constructing the discipline system, academic system and discourse system of Chinese human rights has become an important and urgent task for Chinese social science workers. The publication of "Introduction to Chinese-Style Human Rights Civilization" is an innovative theoretical achievement of Chinese human rights studies.
The book is divided into a general introduction and eight chapters. The general article puts forward the "Chinese-style human rights civilization", and answers the question of why it is necessary to study the Chinese-style human rights civilization by explaining its roots, background, connotation, characteristics and global significance, and outlines a main line for readers to understand the core concepts of the book.
The first four chapters are time-based, starting from "China's excellent traditional culture and human rights", to "the introduction and influence of Western human rights thought", "Marxist human rights theory and the Chinese revolution", and then to "opening up a new realm of human rights civilization".
In particular, the book mentions that the rich human rights ideas contained in the excellent traditional Chinese culture, such as the humanistic thought, the people-oriented thought, the idea of the world for the common good, and the idea of peace, have given birth to and generated a unique human rights civilization spirit, and has an important position in the history of human rights thought.
In modern times, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has integrated the Marxist outlook on human rights with China's specific realities, with China's fine traditional culture, and with China's realities, and has embarked on a path of human rights development that conforms to the trend of the times and suits its own national conditions.
In the last four chapters, the editors discuss from four aspects: "pursuing the people-centered concept of human rights", "protecting and promoting human rights in development", "effectively protecting civil rights, political rights and democratic rights of party members", and "building a community with a shared future for mankind and global human rights governance", through a multi-dimensional interpretation of Chinese's human rights path, theory, system, policy and practice, showing the outstanding characteristics of Chinese-style human rights civilization that are different from other human rights civilizations, and empirically proving the rationality and scientificity of the development of Chinese's human rights cause.
The book not only focuses on China but also looks at the world, and answers the important question of why China has embarked on a path of human rights development that is different from that of the United States or some Western countries and has formed a unique paradigm of human rights civilization practice from the perspective of civilization. At a time when the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is being comprehensively promoted and the modern civilization of the Chinese nation is being built with Chinese-style modernization, the publication of "Introduction to Chinese-Style Human Rights Civilization" not only provides a knowledge reference for readers to understand the development of Chinese's human rights cause, but also provides academic reference for Chinese human rights research at home and abroad, and also provides academic support for enhancing China's international human rights discourse.