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The Sixth Beijing Forum on Human Rights was held on September 12 and 13 with the theme being “construction of an environment for sustainable human rights development.” The forum attracted more than 100 officials and human rights experts from the United Nations and 33 countries and regions.
The forum was jointly organized by the China Society for Human Rights Studies（CSHRS）， the largest human rights academic group in China， and the China Foundation for Human Rights Development， a major civil group. The annual event was first held in 2008 and has grown to be a key platform for human rights exchange internationally.
This year’s forum has three sub-themes： ties between human rights and the rule of law， social development， and regional security.
“It is extremely important to have meetings like this where people from different cultures meet and have discussions about these issues，”said Tom Zwart， a law professor at Utrecht University and Director of the Netherlands School of Human Rights Research， who was attending the event for the third time.
The China case
Dominating the forum’s discussions was China’s efforts to advance human rights by improving the rule of law and social welfare， as well as the necessity for cooperation between different approaches to human rights issues adopted by developing and developed countries.
In his speech at the forum’s opening ceremony， Cai Mingzhao， Minister of the Information Office of the State Council， said that the Chinese Government has laid great emphasis on improving people’s living conditions and that the proportion of population in poverty decreased from 84 percent in 1980 to 13 percent in 2012.
He revealed that， by the end of last year， 790 million people in China had participated in at least one basic endowment insurance scheme and that basic medical insurance achieved universal coverage.
Kate Westgarth， former Director of the Chinese Affairs Department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of Britain， said that China’s greatest achievement in advancing human rights has been the number of people that it has lifted out of poverty. She added that such a progress is often underestimated in the West due to the fact that China does not conform to Western norms.
“I don’t think that China’s results [in improving its human rights] can be replicated in other countries， but it is a very interesting example of how the Western world’s attitudes are not the only ones and it stands as an example for developing countries to pursue things in a different way，” Westgarth said. China has formulated two sessions of national human rights action plans. The first one was implemented on schedule between 2009 and 2010， with all goals in the plan achieved. Now， the second plan for 2012-15 is being put into practice.
An annual report on China’s human rights conditions by the CSHRS released in August showed that more and more Chinese people became aware of human rights protection and the social atmosphere is increasingly favorable.
According to a survey on 15，000 people aged between 14 and 70， responding to the question of the three most important rights， 81.1 percent of participants listed personal freedom and dignity， 65.2 percent chose rights to health care and 58.2 percent chose social security.
Rule of law
Luo Haocai， President of the CSHRS， said at the forum that the protection of human rights without the rule of law is impossible.
China has been vigorously upgrading its legal framework in response to social development. In 2013 alone， amended laws directly involving the protection of human rights， including the Criminal Procedure Law， the Civil Procedure Law， the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly and the Labor Contract Law， have come into effect.
In the first half of this year， the National People’s Congress （NPC）， China’s top legislature， also widely solicited public opinions for a draft amendment to the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests. Meanwhile， an amendment to the Administrative Procedural Law， which sets the basic criterion for “administrative litigations，” has been included in the NPC’s legislative agenda in 2013.
“I am always amazed that China developed a complete legal system in 40 years’ time，” said Zwart， who has studied China’s human rights situation for 10 years. “It took European nations centuries. China has a wonderfully working proper legal system. I think strongly of all the initiatives that have been taken to allow citizens to participate in governance.”
Luo also said in his speech that the re-education through labor system， an administrative detention system to punish minor offenders that has become increasingly controversial， would be ceased within the year. He added that there are planned reforms of the petition system， which is also criticized by some for perceived faults in its implementation. He added that relevant departments are in the process of exploring potential alternatives and adjustments， and petitioning cases involving laws and lawsuits are hopefully to be separated from ordinary ones. China has enforced strict controls over and prudently applied the death penalty while protecting the rights of detainees.
In February 2011， the NPC Standing Committee approved Amendment VIII to the Criminal Law， which removes the death penalty for 13 economic and nonviolent crimes， reducing death penalty charges by nearly one fifth. The amendment also adopted restrictive regulations relating to the application of the death penalty to offenders aged 75 or above at the time of trial.
Before that， the Supreme People’s Court and Supreme People’s Procuratorate jointly issued regulations in June 2010， requiring more stringent standards on the review and judgment of evidence involved in death penalty cases. The amended Criminal Procedure Law requires that all retrials for death penalty cases must be held publicly and that supervision over death sentence retrials be tightened.
“A fundamental principle of the rule of law is the separation of powers so as to avoid their concentration， which， as experience shows， often leads to abuses of power，” said Christophe Peschoux， an official from the office of the UN Commissioner for Human Rights， while making a speech at the forum.
At the beginning of the year， China launched a new round of reform to transform governmental functions. This reform puts an emphasis on the regulation of governmental power， the decentralization of power and how it is granted to the market and society. Scrapping excess administrative examination and approval procedures is the central point of the reform.
In the past 11 years， the Chinese Government has abolished or adjusted administrative examination and approval procedures for 2，497 items， accounting for 69.3 percent of the total. The current government aims to reduce more than one third of the remaining 1，700 items requiring administrative examination and approval within its five-year term in office， which ends in 2018. These items involve all departments of the State Council， China’s cabinet.
Keeping cyberspace clean
Combating false rumors online while not violating people’s freedom of speech was a hot topic at the forum.
“People have the right to gather information and express their opinions and they also have the right to protect their reputation and privacy. So a balance has to be found，”said Zwart. He admitted that striking such a balance is no easy task for government decision-makers and he agreed that there is no uniform way to accomplish this balance as national conditions vary. “These boundary discussions on what you can allow people to say and what should be prohibited [on the Internet] will continue forever，” he said.
As part of China’s campaign to crack down on organized online misinformation spreading， people who post defamatory comments online will face up to three years in prison if their statements are widely reposted and shared， according to a legal interpretation jointly released by the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on September 9.
The document stipulates that people will face defamation charges if false rumors they post online are viewed by more than 5，000 Internet users or reposted more than 500 times.
“A responsible society cannot allow people on the Internet to spread lies about other people，” Westgarth said. “The Internet is one of the places where individual rights have to be balanced with the rights of society in order to exist peacefully and harmoniously.”
“We must educate people about the rights they have and that knowledge should be evenly spread. It is not enough to have human rights knowledge just among officials and academics，” said Yvonne Mokgoro， former Chairwoman of the South Africa Law Reform Commission. “It is important that ordinary people also know， understand and appreciate the rights they have.”
Due to differences in history， culture， social systems and the levels of economic development， each country will certainly have its development mode of human rights， and all countries should learn from each other to improve themselves， Cai said.
The forum was jointly organized by the China Society for Human Rights Studies（CSHRS）， the largest human rights academic group in China， and the China Foundation for Human Rights Development， a major civil group. The annual event was first held in 2008 and has grown to be a key platform for human rights exchange internationally.
This year’s forum has three sub-themes： ties between human rights and the rule of law， social development， and regional security.
“It is extremely important to have meetings like this where people from different cultures meet and have discussions about these issues，”said Tom Zwart， a law professor at Utrecht University and Director of the Netherlands School of Human Rights Research， who was attending the event for the third time.
The China case
Dominating the forum’s discussions was China’s efforts to advance human rights by improving the rule of law and social welfare， as well as the necessity for cooperation between different approaches to human rights issues adopted by developing and developed countries.
In his speech at the forum’s opening ceremony， Cai Mingzhao， Minister of the Information Office of the State Council， said that the Chinese Government has laid great emphasis on improving people’s living conditions and that the proportion of population in poverty decreased from 84 percent in 1980 to 13 percent in 2012.
He revealed that， by the end of last year， 790 million people in China had participated in at least one basic endowment insurance scheme and that basic medical insurance achieved universal coverage.
Kate Westgarth， former Director of the Chinese Affairs Department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of Britain， said that China’s greatest achievement in advancing human rights has been the number of people that it has lifted out of poverty. She added that such a progress is often underestimated in the West due to the fact that China does not conform to Western norms.
“I don’t think that China’s results [in improving its human rights] can be replicated in other countries， but it is a very interesting example of how the Western world’s attitudes are not the only ones and it stands as an example for developing countries to pursue things in a different way，” Westgarth said. China has formulated two sessions of national human rights action plans. The first one was implemented on schedule between 2009 and 2010， with all goals in the plan achieved. Now， the second plan for 2012-15 is being put into practice.
An annual report on China’s human rights conditions by the CSHRS released in August showed that more and more Chinese people became aware of human rights protection and the social atmosphere is increasingly favorable.
According to a survey on 15，000 people aged between 14 and 70， responding to the question of the three most important rights， 81.1 percent of participants listed personal freedom and dignity， 65.2 percent chose rights to health care and 58.2 percent chose social security.
Rule of law
Luo Haocai， President of the CSHRS， said at the forum that the protection of human rights without the rule of law is impossible.
China has been vigorously upgrading its legal framework in response to social development. In 2013 alone， amended laws directly involving the protection of human rights， including the Criminal Procedure Law， the Civil Procedure Law， the Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of the Elderly and the Labor Contract Law， have come into effect.
In the first half of this year， the National People’s Congress （NPC）， China’s top legislature， also widely solicited public opinions for a draft amendment to the Law on the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests. Meanwhile， an amendment to the Administrative Procedural Law， which sets the basic criterion for “administrative litigations，” has been included in the NPC’s legislative agenda in 2013.
“I am always amazed that China developed a complete legal system in 40 years’ time，” said Zwart， who has studied China’s human rights situation for 10 years. “It took European nations centuries. China has a wonderfully working proper legal system. I think strongly of all the initiatives that have been taken to allow citizens to participate in governance.”
Luo also said in his speech that the re-education through labor system， an administrative detention system to punish minor offenders that has become increasingly controversial， would be ceased within the year. He added that there are planned reforms of the petition system， which is also criticized by some for perceived faults in its implementation. He added that relevant departments are in the process of exploring potential alternatives and adjustments， and petitioning cases involving laws and lawsuits are hopefully to be separated from ordinary ones. China has enforced strict controls over and prudently applied the death penalty while protecting the rights of detainees.
In February 2011， the NPC Standing Committee approved Amendment VIII to the Criminal Law， which removes the death penalty for 13 economic and nonviolent crimes， reducing death penalty charges by nearly one fifth. The amendment also adopted restrictive regulations relating to the application of the death penalty to offenders aged 75 or above at the time of trial.
Before that， the Supreme People’s Court and Supreme People’s Procuratorate jointly issued regulations in June 2010， requiring more stringent standards on the review and judgment of evidence involved in death penalty cases. The amended Criminal Procedure Law requires that all retrials for death penalty cases must be held publicly and that supervision over death sentence retrials be tightened.
“A fundamental principle of the rule of law is the separation of powers so as to avoid their concentration， which， as experience shows， often leads to abuses of power，” said Christophe Peschoux， an official from the office of the UN Commissioner for Human Rights， while making a speech at the forum.
At the beginning of the year， China launched a new round of reform to transform governmental functions. This reform puts an emphasis on the regulation of governmental power， the decentralization of power and how it is granted to the market and society. Scrapping excess administrative examination and approval procedures is the central point of the reform.
In the past 11 years， the Chinese Government has abolished or adjusted administrative examination and approval procedures for 2，497 items， accounting for 69.3 percent of the total. The current government aims to reduce more than one third of the remaining 1，700 items requiring administrative examination and approval within its five-year term in office， which ends in 2018. These items involve all departments of the State Council， China’s cabinet.
Keeping cyberspace clean
Combating false rumors online while not violating people’s freedom of speech was a hot topic at the forum.
“People have the right to gather information and express their opinions and they also have the right to protect their reputation and privacy. So a balance has to be found，”said Zwart. He admitted that striking such a balance is no easy task for government decision-makers and he agreed that there is no uniform way to accomplish this balance as national conditions vary. “These boundary discussions on what you can allow people to say and what should be prohibited [on the Internet] will continue forever，” he said.
As part of China’s campaign to crack down on organized online misinformation spreading， people who post defamatory comments online will face up to three years in prison if their statements are widely reposted and shared， according to a legal interpretation jointly released by the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on September 9.
The document stipulates that people will face defamation charges if false rumors they post online are viewed by more than 5，000 Internet users or reposted more than 500 times.
“A responsible society cannot allow people on the Internet to spread lies about other people，” Westgarth said. “The Internet is one of the places where individual rights have to be balanced with the rights of society in order to exist peacefully and harmoniously.”
“We must educate people about the rights they have and that knowledge should be evenly spread. It is not enough to have human rights knowledge just among officials and academics，” said Yvonne Mokgoro， former Chairwoman of the South Africa Law Reform Commission. “It is important that ordinary people also know， understand and appreciate the rights they have.”
Due to differences in history， culture， social systems and the levels of economic development， each country will certainly have its development mode of human rights， and all countries should learn from each other to improve themselves， Cai said.