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Should human rights be reimagined, especially in the context of China? From one angle, the answer is obvious. Plenty of norms are already agreed upon globally without the need for reimagination, and China is part of that universality. Yet given the situation on the ground level and the evolving nature of human rights, there might be room for some innovative reimagination, and this deserves balanced reflection.
Formally, the country is part and parcel of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. High-powered statements from the top of the administration cite this UN declaration as a guiding light for the country. The term "human rights" appears in the country's constitution, and various national human rights action plans exist.
The country is a party to six key human rights treaties, namely the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (Cedaw); and the conventions on racial discrimination, child rights, rights of persons with disabilities and action against torture. It has signed but not ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It has not yet become a party to the conventions on the rights of migrant workers and on action against enforced disappearances.
The country participates in the peer-review process, the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), under the UN Human Rights Council, and it has had its fourth review this past year. It also engages with the UN Special Procedures, such as UN Special Rapporteurs (varying between mandates). On the constructive side, the country's achievements in the economic and social fields are well appreciated.
It has overturned the serfdom of the past and the World Bank notes this achievement: "Over the past 40 years, the number of people in China with incomes below US$1.90 (62 baht) per day has fallen by close to 800 million, accounting for close to three-quarters of global poverty reduction since 1980". In vetting the country's record on women's rights, in 2023, a Cedaw committee commended some developments, including the amendment to the Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women, a new law against sexual harassment, and an anti-domestic violence law.
Yet, the main quandary is in relation to the fulfilment of civil and political rights, and the treatment of minorities. This is especially evident from the various recommendations which other states, as peers, conveyed to the country during the UPR as areas needing improvement. The country rejected or noted without commitment a notable number of those recommendations during the fourth review mentioned in 2024.
Out of about 400 such recommendations, it rejected nearly 100. The latter were mostly in regard to suggestions to improve the situation in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong. A number of UN reports raise key protection gaps needing attention, especially concerning torture, arbitrary detention, excessive securitisation, and the mistreatment of various groups seen as adverse to the authorities.
A statement in August 2024 from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) remarks on the continuing dialogue between that office and the country's administration on "a range of critical issues, such as counter-terrorism laws and policies, criminal justice, other policies of concern that impact on the human rights of ethnic and religious minorities, including in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and the Tibet Autonomous Region, equality and non-discrimination, as well as national security and human rights concerns in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region." A team from the OHCHR recently visited the country to discuss the issue of counter-terrorism policies and the criminal justice system. A subsequent OHCHR statement called for a full review of the legal framework governing national security and counter-terrorism and to strengthen the protection of minorities against discrimination.
This is thus an invitation for progressive action, reimagining more effective human rights implementation in their totality. Interestingly, the country has now become a party to the International Labour Organization's conventions (numbers 29 and 105), which target eliminating forced labour, and an ILO team has also visited the country to stock-take. These conventions are monitored by an ILO committee of experts, who adopt a low-profile approach since the proceedings are behind closed doors.
This is complementary to the more public positions of the other UN mechanisms on human rights noted above. These synergies help to advocate the preferred path progressively. On other fronts, there are varying degrees of convergence with other countries.
For instance, the country advocates the right to development, especially to help raise the profile of developing countries in the economic field. For substantive democratisation, this needs to be contoured by respect for civil and political rights, in tandem with economic, social and cultural rights. The country is also agreeable to the right to peace.
Visibly, it is one of the top contributors to UN peacekeeping, both in terms of funding and the provision of peacekeepers in a myriad of peace operations worldwide. On the newly formulated universal right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, while it is true that the country abstained on the vote in favour of this right in the UN, this was possibly due to the omission in the text of the flexible principle of common and differentiated responsibilities under international environmental law which the country advocates. This right is displayed in practice in the country by the many litigation cases against state enterprises, questioning lapses concerning environmental protection and climate change, such as the need to shift to renewable energy.
The call for green transition, with access to justice as part of accountability, is thus a bridge between this country and other countries. The advent of digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI) has propelled reimagination on the more futuristic front regarding national and international responses. Despite superpower rivalry, there is emerging global convergence on the call for laws on personal data protection, paralleled by the need to ensure human supervision and control over AI.
Why not then – recognise universally, as a novelty, the right of humanity to AI transparency and safety for all?! Vitit Muntarbhorn is a Professor Emeritus at Chulalongkorn University. This is the third part of his series on 'Deciphering China in a Multiplex World'. The second part was published by the 'Bangkok Post' on Sept 12 under the title 'China and Fulcrum of Peace, Security'.
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