Viewing Chinese modernization and Its Requirements for Human Rights Protection from the Perspective of Human Development

Modernization,as a specific stage in the historical development of human society,possesses a multi-layered composite structure,with each layer playing both a promoting and inhibiting role in human development and dignity simultaneously.Chinese modernization is a strategic choice made based on lessons learned from various experiences of modernization processes in other countries,reflecting judgments on the benefits and choices on the values of human development and dignity in modernization.It values the promotion of the free and well-rounded development of all individuals as its standard,demanding the full realization of the positive effects of modernization on human development and the overcoming of its negative effects.Human rights,aiming to promote the free and well-rounded development of every person as the ultimate value goal,are not only an intrinsic structural element of the modernization stage but also a social normative tool that restrains the direction of modernization development,aligning closely with the values pursued by Chinese modernization.Chinese modernization poses dual requirements for human rights protection:on the one hand,it demands the affirmation and promotion of the positive effects of modernization on human development and dignity through human rights standards,and on the other hand,it requires the prevention and mitigation of the negative effects of modernization on human development and dignity through human rights standards.There exists a certain tension between these two dimensions,necessitating an appropriate balance and thereby presenting corresponding requirements for China’s approach to human rights protection.

Love,Marriage and the Equality of Human Dignity

This essay aims to discuss and analyse Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester's attitude towards love and marriage. Struggling for theequality of human dignity crosses through their love from beginning to end. Therefore, we can draw a conclusion--True love and happymarriage are based upon the equality of human dignity between a couple.

On Human Rights from the Perspective of Human Dignity

In his government work report to the 3rd Session of the 11th National People＇s Congress （NPC） on March 5, 2010, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said： ＂Everything we do is to make the people live happier and more dignified,make the society more just and more harmonious.＂ This is held up by the media as the

A Theory of Dignity Beyond Liberalism——Jeremy Waldron's Philosophy of Dignity

Jeremy Waldron’s philosophy of dignity is not a moral philosophy,but a legal philosophy,as he argued that dignity is a concept created by law and it is not of moral value.His concept of dignity as status is based on historicism and positivism.He believes that the development from an unequal society in ancient times to an equal modem society is a progressive history in which the dignity of ordinary people is being constantly improved.In modem society,the dignity of man means that all men are at the same rank and everyone has a lofty status.To a certain extent,Waldron’s theory of dignity as status transcends the Western ideology of liberalism and individualism and provides a relatively neutral theoretical basis for the universal acceptance and wide application of international human rights.Meanwhile,it provides new ideas for understanding the internal connections between rights and responsibilities,dignity and the state,as well as the dignity of individuals and the dignity of groups.In addition to the universal concept of dignity as status,Waldron put forward the compound concept of particular dignity to contain the values of human dignity in modem society.However,he denied the logical priority of the concept of dignity as a value and promoted the concept of dignity as a status at the ontological level,which could have the limitation of misplacing value from the perspective of moral philosophy.

On the Criminal Responsibility of Buying Abducted Women or Children: The Human Dignity Perspective

Buying and selling abducted women or children are symmetrical crimes, but the “the same punishment for the same crime” is not applied. The focus of the criminal punishment for buying abducted women or children is not about increasing the statutory sentence, but strengthening judicial and law enforcement, to increase the prosecution rate and impose combined punishment for several crimes including the buying of abducted women or children and other subsequent crimes, so as to demonstrate the inevitability of criminal punishment. Human dignity is the core legal interest violated by the crime of buying abducted women or children. The specific legal interest is that humans are not for sale, which should be valued and protected independently in criminal law. This crime is a type of behavioral offense rather than a crime of circumstances. Under normal circumstances,neither the consent of the victim nor the goodwill of the purchaser excludes conviction of the crime. Compared with the crime of abducting and trafficking women or children, buying abducted women or children is not necessarily a serious crime, and the basic statutory punishment of less than three years is reasonable. However, it is possible to appropriately raise the sentence to less than five years in legislation.Where subsequent behaviors do not constitute a crime, they can be used as aggravating circumstances for the crime, and an aggravated statutory sentence can be configured to connect with the statutory punishments for the crime of abducting and trafficking women or children.

Different Cultures Show Same Respect for Human Dignity

Luo Haocai, president of China Society for Human Rights Studies, delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of the 4th Beijing Forum on Human Rights on Sept. 21, 2011. The full text of his speech follows：

The Value and Realization of Human Dignity

I. Introduction Human dignity manifests itself as respect for the humanity of all in- dividuals. Currently, China is in the historical period of transforming from ＂national prosperity＂ to ＂putting people first.＂ Respecting and protecting hu- man dignity marks its beginning and serves as its objective. Analysis of the value of human dignity and investiga- tion into realistic approaches to protect human dignity will be of practical and theoretical significance to the further advancement of the human rights cause in China.

Discussion on Human Dignity and Human Rights Protection from the Perspective of Peacekeeping

From an academic point of view, human dignity is the source of human rights, and has a profound academic his-tory. Since the end of World War II, the issue of human rights has received great attention from the international community. So, human right theories, for which human dignity is the basic consideration, have developed continuously. In this era of advocating rights, human dignity and human rights protection are universal values and concepts, which were emphasized once again after World War II.

Constitutional Nature of Personality Rights and Its Manifestation in Civil Law

The formation of personality comes from people’s choices and pursuit of self-realization,which is influenced by objective factors but not determined by them,so personality does not belong to the domain of objectivity.The concept of general personality rights in the German Constitution was initially premised on the objective determinability in the field of personality,but in constitutional jurisprudence,it gradually shifted to something with individual autonomy as the core and personal self-realization as the goal,and the scope of relevant rights expanded accordingly,so that they could not be clearly distinguished from general freedom of action and thus became the general principle of constitutional rights.The protection of constitutional personality rights in the United States and Japan can also confirm this process,providing evidence for the constitutional nature of personality rights.Deeper research shows that constitutional personality rights actually manifest the highest value of modern constitutions—human dignity.In contrast,the theoretical justification of personality rights in civil law just lies in the objectivity and defensive nature of personality elements.

On the Construction and Application Scenarios of——Analysis of Environmental Personality Interests Based on Human Rights

Environmental personality interests based on human rights reflect the multiple values of ecological order,ecological justice,and ecological freedom,and are closely linked to the protection of the right to life and the right to health.They are also related to human dignity and the personal freedom of civil subjects and conform to formal and essential standards of personality rights,which should be included in the scope of personality rights for protection.The construction and application of environmental personality rights faces bottlenecks such as the partiality of subjects,limitation of objects,and hysteresis of responsibilities in the protection of environmental personality rights.Environmental personality rights are supposed to reflect the needs of the development of modern human rights.We should expand the scope of its connotative power and function based on the Green Principle of the Civil Code,and follow a networked,typified,and systematic path of protection,so as to manifest the people-centered philosophy of the Civil Code and the Environmental Protection Law.

Hawthorne’s Humanism in The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter is a novel written by the American romantic writer Nathaniel Hawthorne in the 19th century.It is not only the American romantic fiction masterpiece,but also known as the American psychological analysis novel set article.And this paper aims at deploring Hawthorne’s humanism by analyzing the paradox of good and evil among the three main characters,Hester,Dimmesdale,and Chillingworth,which reveals in his praise for human dignity,his sympathy for the pressed,and his yearning for a more understanding society.

Ethics of Difference:Towards a Phenomenology of Inclusion

In this essay we propose notions of difference and equality as elements of a phenomenologically informed ethics.The proposed notions are tested on a diagnosis of inclusion,and,in particular,inclusive education,both of which are leading values in contemporary public moral discourse and in the formulation of related policies.The value of inclusive practices is commonly seen in the circumstance that they safeguard difference while granting equality and realize equality without curtailing difference,thus creating conditions in which human dignity is respected.We ask in what sense,that is,according to what understanding of equality and difference,this is true.Our conclusion is that“the value of inclusion”is at least compatible with a merely formal sense of equality,which,at the same time,effectively negates human difference.On the other hand,the proposed phenomenological notions of difference and equality seem to provide an avenue towards a renewed understanding of the humanity of man,as well as of(inclusive)education as a manner of fostering that humanity.The interpretive framework for our analysis is given by Heidegger’s diagnosis of nihilism.The latter implies a notion of“values”as conditions of a dynamic of empowerment which has the“drive to more”as its intrinsic,constitutive motive.

On the Right to Learn as a Fundamental Human Right

With the advent of the learning age,the connotation of the“right to education”can no longer meet the requirements of personal and social development,so it is necessary to introduce the concept of the right to learn with a richer connotation.As a basic human right,the proposal and guarantee of the right to learn directly respond to the practical problems in the information age and the learning age.The right to learn is fundamental freedom enjoyed by everyone to acquire useful knowledge,skill,value,spirit,and attitude through reading,watching,listening,thinking,researching,practicing,being educated,and other learning methods to develop and perfect a personality.The philosophical basis,connotation,attribute,extraterritorial legislative guarantee of the right to learn and the development of the times de termine it should be regarded as a basic human right.Treating the right to learn as a basic human right and systematically guaranteeing it through the amendment of China’s Education Law and other supporting legislation will contribute to the realization of this right,the improvement of national knowledge,and the progress of China’s social civilization.

Human Rights Protection in Genome Editing

Introducing the human rights perspective into the multi-dimensional governance of human genome editing activities would help define boundaries for the behaviors of stakeholders such as the state, researchers, ethics committee members, and the public, and clarify specific practices of these subjects or entities to meet the requirements of human rights obligations. Based on the human dignity principle, humans must never be used as a means to an end in scientific research. The right to physical and mental health requires the implementation of the principles of informed consent, the primacy of life, and risk control in genome editing, as well as the proper treatment of embryos. The right to privacy corresponds to the confidentiality obligations and non-intervention obligations of relevant parties, and the protection of sensitive personal information points to the special compliance requirements regarding information processing. Differential treatment of genome-edited humans requires objective and reasonable justification, and should also meet the requirements of the proportionality principle.

TOWARDS A HUMAN DIGNITY BASED APPROACH TO FOOD SECURITY： LESSONS FROM CHINA AND INDIA

Despite almost halving the proportion of the world＇s undernourished over the past two and half decades, the number of undernourished people in the world remains staggeringly high. Efforts to address the global state of food insecurity must target China and India, which are home to the world＇s highest and second highest number of undernourished people. This article analyzes the comparative experiences of tackling food security in China and India and adopts an inter-disciplinary approach, which melds legal, economic, and human perspectives to food security. Both China and India have made concerted efforts to improve food security of vulnerable populations in the past three decades. These efforts have historically focused on actively promoting grain production, which has been largely successful in achieving grain self-sufficiency and securing adequate availability of food for their populations. However, the contemporary challenges to food security are now increasingly driven by unsustainable dietary patterns and are exacerbated by growing populations, increasing wealth, and the globalization of food supply chains. As a result, the cause of food insecurity is no longer fundamentally about food supply, but rather about the extent to which marginalized populations are empowered with the rights, freedoms, and capabilities that enable them to attain healthy and productive lives. China and India apply markedly different approaches to address the issue of people＇s access to food. In India, the right to food movement has gained momentum through the work of civil society actors and there is now a legal right to food. In contrast, in China the right to food is neither stipulated in Chinese law nor referenced to in the official policy rhetoric as the country seeks to ensure access to food by focusing on poverty alleviation more generally through an income transfer program and a non-food based, social safety net to help the poor. At the same time, the Chinese population＇s high educational level provides enormous potential for effective interventions and education on nutrition and health. A comparison of the approaches to tbod security in China and India ultimately reminds us that eflbrts to tackle lbod insecurity must center on human dignity, which requires more wide-ranging investment in enhancing people＇s capabilities, combined with effective entbrcement of the right to food.

An Analysis of the Legal Attributes of Human Dignity

Human dignity arises from the dignity and respect people enjoy as members of the human community. The law decrees that human dignity does not involve approbation of someone＇s external qualities; rather, it is the acknowledgement of equal status. Human dignity is not determined by positive law, but is above positive law, belonging to the category of preexistent norms that exist independent of positive law. Such norms form the basis for integrating legal systems. These permanent norms cannot be amended at will; they represent the general ethical principles of modern law. Human dignity is not a matter of rights or basic rights; rather, it represents one＇s position in society and equal legal status before the law. Many normative laws in China directly define humanity dignity, and affirm the guaranteeing of human dignity as the primary task of the state. Human dignity is related to people＇s survival and livelihood; thus a material foundation for the realization of dignity can be provided by providing material assistance and improving public services.

A Contemporary Re-Examination of Confucian Li 禮 and Human Dignity

In modern Western liberal discourse, human dignity has been cast as an important component of basic human rights, while so-called human rights have been generally understood as certain inborn, inherent and inalienable properties of every human being. In this understanding, human dignity is just a natural endowment rather than a historically constructed social-cultural phenomenon. Based on this premise, liberalism is justified for the reason that under a social condition of complete freedom, individuals will spontaneously exercise their rights thus to secure their dignity. However, from a Confucian point of view, human dignity is socially defined and exists in concrete forms in social-cultural contexts. Dignity is not an abstract, universal, minimal standard that can be applied to all people at every time; it refers to individuals＇ decency and grace under various given social contexts, and it corresponds to particular roles, statuses and even ages and genders of individuals in their respective societies. The full realization of human dignity relies on certain social-cultural or institutional arrangements. Confucian li is precisely this kind of arrangement, which designs a whole set of regulations and norms in order to maintain human dignity in general, as well as to maintain different people＇s dignity in varying situations. Therefore, according to Confucianism, behaving appropriately according to the norms and regulations of li is just a way to preserve dignity.