Right Climate for Change

IT＇S being heralded as a historic game changer in the long saga of globalclimate change debate - a debate that has divided countries for decades. In December 2015, parties attending the COP21 meeting under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted the landmark Paris Agreement to address greenhouse gas emission for the post-2020 period, while increasing individual coun- tries＇ ability to adapt to the negative impacts of climate change during follow-up sessions.

On the Historical Change of Human Rights Culture in China

Culture serves as the spiritual essence and moral support for human rights, whereas the latter provides the value orientation and goal for culture. Human rights are universal as well as particular, since each nation fosters its own perceptions and value orientations related to human rights, which leads to the formation of a human rights culture.

The Logic of Change of the CPC’s Human Rights Discourse Since the Founding of the People’s Republic of China

Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China70 years ago,the human rights discourse of the Communist Party of China has been constantly updated.In the early years of the founding of the People’s Republic of China,the CPC spontaneously formed a collective discourse on human rights with the right to subsistence and self-determination as its core;in the 1980 s,in the process of reflection and refutation,the CPC paid more attention to individual rights,and gradually increased the sense of a human rights discourse with Chinese characteristics;since the 1990s,the CPC has combined the specific national conditions and the international environment to form a human rights discourse.The system of human rights discourse has been constructed in terms of the order of priority of human rights protection,path of human rights development,relationship between human rights and sovereignty,and development of the world human rights cause.Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC,the CPC has put forward the idea that"living a happy life is the primary human right"at home and the idea of building a Community with a Shared Future for Human Beings for the world,and the discourse system of human rights with Chinese characteristics has gradually been improved.The independent variable of the change of human rights discourse of the CPC is the specific national conditions at different stages and the recognition of national identity formed on this basis.The other variable is the international environment and external relations that China is facing.

A Witness's Account of Changes in Tibet's Human Rights Conditions

After riots that occurred on March 14, 2008 in Lhasa, Tibet, the China Central Television Station broadcast a documentary film titled Tibet＇s Past shot years ago by the Central Newsreel ＆ Documentary Film Studio about the miserable life of serfs under Tibet＇s feudal serf system before a democratic reform was carried out in the region. The documentary stunned many people. It helps people see through the reactionary and corrupt nature of the Dalai clique.

The Changing Ground of Human Rights

EDITOR＇S NOTE： Experts from across the world were invited to present papers at the Fifth Beijing Forum on Human Rights, which focused on Science and Technology, Environment and Human Rights, in Beijing from Dec 12 to 14. Excerpts from some of experts＇ papers follow：