Forum Held on Women's Labor Rights

An academic forum was held on March 22, 2005 on women’s labor rights and interests. Participating were some 30 experts from China Society for Human Rights Studies, All-China Women’s Federation, All-China Federation of Trade Unions, as well as Renmin University of China and other prestigious institutions of higher learning. Jointly sponsored by the Labor and Social Security Branch of Beijing Law Society (BLS) and Chinese Women’s College (CWC), the forum reviewed the

Improve Labor Contract System, Safeguard Lawful Rights and Interests of Laborers——An interview with Prof. Guan Huai of Law School of Renmin University of China

EDITOR＇S NOTE： The Draft Labor Contract Law of the People＇s Republic of China has been completed and was published for soliciting comments on March 20. In a short period of one month, 191,849 pieces of comments and opinions were received. Prior to the promulgation of the law, this reporter interviewed Mr. Guan Huai, a noted Chinese expert in labor law, professor of the Law School of the Renmin University of China and law advisor to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

How China Protects People's Right to Labor——An interview with Labor and Social Security Minister Tian Chengping

Following is an interview given to our staff reporter by Chinese Minister Tian Chengping of Labor and Social Security on protection of the people＇s right to labor, which is an important part of the national endeavor to protect human rights. The minister spoke on a range of questions, including employment and reemployment of workers in Chinese cities, wages of migrant workers from the countryside, efforts to narrow the gap of income between different population groups, and protection of the legitimate rights and interests of the working masses.

Experts on Protection of Workers' Right to Remuneration in Accordance With Labor Law

Adozen experts of law gathered on April 1, 2003 to share their views on protection of the workers’ right to remuneration for their work in accordance with the Labor Law of the People’s Republic of China. That took place at a seminar jointly sponsored by the Human Rights and the Beijing-based Democracy and Law magazines and the Branch of Labor and Social Security Laws of the Beijing Society of Law. Participants were from the All-China Federation of Trade Unions,

A Systemic Interpretation of Social Rights in the Chinese Constitution

Prescribed by the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, social rights provisions cannot be comprehended in isolation, nor can they be interpreted simply by referring to the concepts of positive rights or socio-economic rights in traditional constitutional theory. On the basis of the Constitution, social rights exhibit three interrelated dimensions from the perspective of systemic interpretation: promoting people's wellbeing, promoting democratic politics, and promoting citizens' participation in state-building. In the overall structure and normative intention of the Constitution of China, social rights are not only a kind of socioeconomic right, but also a fundamental right with a socialist nature. Specifically, social rights are individuals' right to claim their economic welfare from the state, as well as the basic civil right of realizing a comprehensive social identity. They have a social and economic nature, and to a certain degree a political nature. Correspondingly, the normative structure of social rights, and in particular their functions and orientation toward obligation, are constructed on the basis of this kind of nature. The functions of social rights are most frequently manifested as objective value order, and its specific duty to protect not only points to specific state institutions such as the constitutional review organs and judicial organs, but to the whole national governance system, thus forming a Chinese-style institutional guarantee model of social rights.