China is emphasizing "harmony" as an important concept for the
development of human rights as it marks International Human
Rights Day.
In the past two years China's top leaders have called for the
building of a "harmonious society" at home, a "harmonious Asia" and
a "harmonious world."
Chinese human rights experts believe that peace and security are
invariably interlinked with human rights and the close relationship
between a harmonious world and human rights can be a virtuous
circle or a vicious spiral.
As Dong Yunhu, vice-president and secretary-general of the China
Society for Human Rights Studies puts it in an era of
globalization, "Harmony requires peace, security and a happy
co-existence between different people, communities and
nations."
Social harmony relies on justice and the right to development
because both poverty and injustice were the roots of disharmony in
the world, Dong says.
All disparities between nations, urban and rural areas and the
rich and the poor could be attributed to neglect or ignorance of
human rights, Dong said. The value of human rights was universal
but the dynamics of its implementation varied in different
countries.
"A country's human rights cause must be built upon the harmony
of its internal social environment whereas the universal
realization of human rights is impossible without the harmonious
co-existence of all nations with different cultural, political and
religious beliefs," Dong says.
Although the United Nations adopted the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 40 years ago, Dong points out
that uneven global development during those years has resulted in
more uncertainties affecting world peace, development and
harmony.
Not all people, however, agree with Dong and other Chinese human
rights experts.
James Oliver Williams, a US professor of political science at
the North Carolina State University, believes that the concept of
harmony reflects "different ideas of rights."
For most western countries, he argues, the principles embodied
in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights were
considered the minimum rights that all individuals desire and
deserve, regardless of their different political, cultural and
religious backgrounds.
However, citing Asian values as contradictory to the western
notion of universality, Williams says in Asian countries at large,
"governments are keen to advocate cultural factors as playing a
role in universal rights, acting on the principle that an
individual's rights can conflict with the wider social harmony and
stability."
In his view, unless an agreement is reached on these principles
there would be little harmony on human rights among the major
countries of the world. And the political systems that Williams
sees as "non-democratic" are what he calls "a bigger impediment to
human rights" than the cultural and social values system of a
country.
But Dong disagrees and says, "If human rights were a vehicle
then political liberties and socio-economic development are like
the two wheels. The vehicle will overturn if they're
unbalanced.
"A nation should not be engaged in the development of political
power or liberties without considering its socio-economic
development. If you go ahead there'll be social chaos and more
human rights will be damaged as harmony is destroyed," Dong
says.
"Human rights are abstract like the concept of fruit, which is a
collective notion of an apple, pear or banana," Dong said. "But the
United States just wants to push its ideal of human rights to the
whole world as the standard of human rights fulfillment. It's like
saying only a banana is a fruit but the apple and pear are
not."
Education helps make human rights tangible and a way of life,
according to Dong.
Education was for both government officials and ordinary people.
For civilians they should be told their rights and duties whereas
officeholders must be told from where their power is derived, he
says.
Government officials must clearly understand that the power in
their hands came from the people, who are the main body of power.
Therefore their duty was to safeguard the people's rights rather
than take it as privilege and abuse that power.
Whatever differences Dong and Williams hold dialogue is
essential to mutual understanding about what human rights really
means to different people.
(China Daily December 11, 2006)