The Concept of Human Rights in the Constitution and Its Functional Significance

To practice the constitutional provision that “The state respects and protects human rights”, we should clarify its connotation. The understanding of human rights is a natural requirement and the key. In domestic academia, human rights are considered natural rights and interpreted as “moral rights that everyone should enjoy as a human being”, hoping to provide theoretical support for the development of the system centered on the basic rights of citizens in China.Although it reveals the universal moral connotation of human rights, it does not cover the normative connotation of human rights as common international standards. Therefore, it is impossible to fully clarify the functional significance of the provision. It is conducive to scientifically clarifying the relationship between human rights and basic civil rights,better improving the institutional protection of human rights in China,and promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind to interpret human rights as common international standards that everyone should enjoy for human dignity based on the development of the international legal order under the Charter of the United Nations since the end of the World War Ⅱ.