Human rights in China

Purpose

To increase the realisation of civil and social rights in China, the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) collaborates with local partners in three areas:

• Increased access to criminal justice and compliance with fair trial guarantees,
• Enhanced public participation in the area of migrant workers’ rights and environmental protection, and
• Improved Human Rights Education (HRE) for school children, university students and civil servants.

In 2013, a revised Criminal Procedure Law (CPL) came into effect, incorporating most of the fair trial guarantees of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights for the first time in Chinese law.

The first component of the project focuses both on the effective implementation of the CPL, but also on a number of other strategic issues linked to China’s new legal and justice-sector reform agenda.

The second aim, expanding the space for public participation of migrant workers and environmental organisations, is to promote community-driven advocacy to address issues of environmental protection and discrimination of migrants.

Finally, the HRE component seeks to address gaps in the dissemination of HRE in China, with the understanding that awareness of human rights is crucial to promoting social and cultural norms that promote and protect them. Since primarily law students and law enforcement personnel currently receive HRE, the programme targets civil servants and primary/secondary students, to establish an awareness of human rights in communities at large.

The difference we make

The first component of the project involves three local partner organisations, Beijing Shangquan Law Firm (BSLF), Hunan University School of Law (HUSL), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Institute of International Law (CASS), who, with the support of DIHR, have been working on strategic issues linked to China’s new legal and justice sector reform agenda. Their work comprises CPL trainings, and monitoring and review activities on fair trial guarantees, as well as advocating law reform in areas such as administrative detention regulations. With reference to research-based insights into local challenges in the justice sector, the project focuses on tailoring solutions to address these issues.

DIHR supports partners,Migrant Workers Home (MWH) and Xiamen Green Cross Association (XMGCA), in an effort to empower migrant workers and environmental advocacy groups. To address challenges faced by migrant workers MWH provide training for migrant workers to become community workers and establish community centres to address their needs. XMGCA’s initiatives to support environmental advocacy focus on developing a network to promote knowledge transfers and collaboration between environmental organisations.

For the third component, DIHR is supportingNankai University Research Centre for Human Rights (NUC) in developing HRE materials, producing textbooks specifically targeting primary and secondary school students and human rights teachers, and materials for civil servants as well as teaching guides for HRE instructors. These textbooks lay the foundation for a series of trainings of HR teachers and instructors to strengthen their HR knowledge and ability to incorporate HR aspects into their teaching.

Partners

• Beijing Shangquan Law Firm (BSLF)
• Hunan University School of Law (HUSL)
• Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Institute of International Law (CASS)
• Migrant Workers Home (MWH)
• Nankai University Research Centre for Human Rights (NUC)
• Xiamen Green Cross Association (XMGCA)