Empirical Human Rights Studies Contribute to Building a Society Under the Rule of Law——Summary of the Fifth National Meeting for the Exchange of Work Experience Among Human Rights Research Institutions

From Nov. 5 to 6, 2013, the China Society for Human Rights Studies （CSHRS）held the Fifth National Meeting for the Exchange of Work Experience Among Human Rights Research Institutions at Wuhan University. More than 100 experts and scholars, focusing on empirical human rights studies and their contribution to building a society based on the rule of law, shared their work experience and discussed effective strategies. CSHRS President Luo Haocai, who served as vice chairman of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People＇s Political Consultative Conference,

Revisiting the Spirit of the UDHR and Discussing Human Rights Development——Summary of Views from the Seminar Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

On December 4,2023,the China Society for Human Rights Studies hosted a seminar in Beijing commemorating the 75^(th) Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.Participants discussed topics such as the significance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,China’s theories and practices in respecting and safeguarding human rights,the three global initiatives and global human rights governance,human rights protection in the digital age,and telling Chinese stories of human rights in the new era.The discussions led to a broad consensus and achieved positive results.

Quantifying and Simplifying the 1997 UNWC’s Guidelines to Mitigate Hegemony in Transboundary Watercourse Negotiations

The 1997 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Non-navigational Uses of International Watercourses (UNWC) contains a negotiation framework for transboundary water rights. However, it is a subjective document open to a wide range of possibilities and interpretations. Water Rights Allocations (WRAs) as described by Dinar and Nigatu (2013) and Dinar and Tsur (2017) provide a limited number of quantifiable allocation possibilities based on the UNWC. It is suggested that this methodology streamlines the negotiation process and reduces the effects of hydro hegemony. These methodologies are explored and applied through a case study on the Orontes River Basin.

The Transformation of Environmental Governance from the Point of the Interaction between Government and National People's Congress

Taking cadmium pollution in X River as an example, the interaction between National People＇s Congress and local government was de- scribed. How the local government transforms its role in environment protection with the help of several deputies to National People＇s Congress was expounded from the angle of social construction, which also enlightened the way to build an environment protection road with Chinese characteristics.

The Three Pillars of Sustainability Framework: Approaches for Laws and Governance

The three pillars of sustainability framework is a multidisciplinary implementation and solutions oriented approach that recognizes most successful and scalable sustainability solutions require the presence of, and are driven by, all three pillars simultaneously: 1) technology and innovation;2) laws and governance;and 3) economics and financial incentives. The three pillars framework is strategic because it often reveals or describes specific and feasible changes that advance sustainability solutions within markets and institutional settings. The section on technology discusses the crucial role that technology plays in creating new ways for doing more in our rapidly urbanizing communities by using less resources and energy inputs. The section on economics discusses problems with current conceptions of economic welfare that measure growth (flow) rather than the asset base (wealth), and explores possibilities for integrated and multidisciplinary analysis for coupled economic and social systems. The section on laws and governance considers the role of legal frameworks related to incentives, regulatory baselines, and in public policy formation, including influences and feedback effects from social norms, changing culture, and sustainability education. Technological development and engaging economic markets are at the center of our best and most rapidly deployable sustainability solutions. In that context, a specific focus is given throughout the discussion sections to the key role of laws and governance in supporting relevant, effective, and sustainable technological and economic development, as well as to highlight the crucial (often final) steps the law plays in successfully implementing new sustainability projects. As the discussions and examples (taken from Asia, the US, and Europe) demonstrate, the three pillars framework is flexible and useful in a number of contexts, as a solutions template, as an integrated planning approach, as a decision making guide, and for determining project priorities.

Integrating Sustainable Development into Global Institutions:Reforming the United Nations

This article will briefly outline the origins,structure and functions of United Nations Environment Program and the Commission on Sustainable Development in the context of the goals of ecologically sustainable development(ESD).Economic development,social development and environmental protection form the three interconnected parts of ESD.The achievements of the key UN environmental institutions and programs in opening up the global system to civil society,the private sector and a diversity of actors and interests,promoting the role of poverty alleviation as part of ESD through the Millennium Development Goals,and facilitating important Multilateral Environmental Agreements should be recognized.However,with these notable exceptions,organizations such as United Nations Environment Program and the Commission on Sustainable Development have become weak in scientific and technical leadership,global policy,co-ordination(inside and outside the UN) and has few achievements in the international and national implementation of obligations and standards in Global Environmental Governance-including enforcement,compliance and effectiveness.This article will outline the key reasons for this inadequacy.Attention will also be focused on the way forward through of a new United Nations Environment Organization.This will require a clarification of purpose and function(within the UN system and as part of global governance structures) as well as consideration of whether it depends on system-wide UN reform.It is recommended that medium and long term strategies for reform are necessary.

Blockchain:A Technical Support for the Modernization of the National Governance System and Capacity

The modernization of national governance needs to be supported with modern technical tools to conform relations of production to productive forces and enable positive and orderly interaction between the two.Blockchain,as an emerging technology in the age of information,features distributed architecture,greater transparency,improved traceability and enhanced security.Blockchain’s consensus mechanism can be introduced into community governance mechanisms,which,by virtue of its marketoriented operation nature,helps define the respective functions of the government and market in the modernization of national governance.The application of blockchain technology to the national governance system enables stakeholders to seek consensus and the largest possible common interests to improve the national governance system and better achieve the governance goal,reduce governance costs,improve governance performance and meet the development needs of the times.Through a proper top-down design,China can effectively integrate blockchain technology into its national governance system and thereby efficiently advance the modernization of its national governance system and capacity.Still,due attention should be paid to blockchain’s possible technical risks and impact during the reform and modernization of national governance.

Conflict： Efficient State or State Under the Rule of Law？-- The Hungarian Case of the Victory of the Efficient State over the State Under the Rule of Law

This study is seeking an answer as to whether the efficient state and the state under the rule of law are indeed irreconcilable, as well as to whether these two categories are by nature to be seen as contrary concepts. The basic issue is whether efficiency is to be handled as an ＂extralegal＂ category, or whether legal regulation, in accordance with public administration traditions in Europe, can in itself meet the requirement of efficiency. Also the study presents the formation of the issue of conflict between the effective state and the state under the rule of law in Hungary after the election held in 2010 in the practice of economic policy and legislation of the Orban government. We are trying to answer the question of the tendency of power concentration to really menace the principles of a traditionally-formed state under the rule of law, as well as whether the economic policy of the government can be implemented effectively in a strongly centralized political and state administrative system.

The general laws of the evolution of the county governance in our country before the founding of the new China

Since the Qin Dynasty started the county system to the foundation of China, ＂county＂ has been the basic unit of the centralized state in our country. Although the county-level governance mode is stable, its evolution has laws to follow. Generally speaking, the rules are that the scale of the county government is small for a long time and the governmental functions in the long term are fixed. The roles of the clan organizations in the social governance are increasingly strengthened and the slow development and roles of other social organizations outside the clan organizations are increasing.

Protection of Women’s Rights in the National Governance of Contemporary China

The development of women’s rights is a specific field in modern national governance.The essence of women-related issues in modern times lies in the political and legal systems based on gender inequality and the unequal male-female relationship established by male chauvinism,which has further created domination over and prejudice against women.Since the founding of the New China,especially after the launch of reform and opening-up,the Communist party of China and the state have attached great importance to the protection of gender equality,bringing about the continued improvement of the protection of women’s rights.However,due to various economic and social barriers,there is still a long way to go to achieve full gender equality.To understand the issue of women’s rights from the perspective of national governance and apply the concept of modern national governance to the protection of women’s rights,it is imperative to pay great attention to the substantive equality concept in the protection of women’s right during the national governance process,take empowering women as an important approach,raise women’s gender equality awareness,and recognize,grant,enhance and guarantee women’s individual rights.

Global Human Rights Governance in the United Nations Arena:China's Participation and Contribution

This paper expounds how China participates in and contributes to global human rights governance from the perspective of its participation in United Nations’ human rights affairs. For more than 70 years since the United Nations was founded, it has done a good deal of work in establishing the principles and standards for human rights, developing the connotation of human rights, setting up the international human rights treaty system, and reforming the specialized United Nations’ body on human rights, and so on. Since the United Nations was founded, China has been an active participant in and made important contributions to global human rights governance under the framework of the United Nations’ human rights conventions. It has contributed to the establishment of the principles and standards for human rights and the connotations of human rights. It has also actively joined international human rights treaties and conscientiously fulfilled its obligations.

Characteristics and trends of integrated ocean management under the framework of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

As the international community place high value on the ocean,protecting the marine environment and promoting the sustainable development of the ocean have become the consensus of all countries around the world.Integrated ocean management,as an important part of the ocean governance mechanism within the framework of the United Nations,have approached to the scene view of human gradually.Taking the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as the framework,the current international integrated ocean management is summarized and the future development trend of ocean management is analyzed,providing reference for China to build a maritime power and a maritime community with shared future.

Implications of Declining Ground Water and Water Quality in the US Southeastern Coastal Plain Ecoregion and Areawide Environmental Impact Statement Required for Mining in the Greater Okefenokee Swamp Basin—Part 1

Karst aquifers occur worldwide and exhibit groundwater flow responses that differ considerably from aquifers lacking fractures, bedding planes, and other karst conduits where significant and rapid groundwater flow can occur. The regional, karst Floridan aquifer system underlies the United States (US) Southeastern Coastal Plain Physiographic Region and exhibits hydrologic interconnections with overlying surficial aquifers and throughout other zones of the aquifer system, as is characteristic of other karst aquifer systems. Anthropogenic groundwater declines in this regional karst aquifer system have been documented in published literature for decades, but the impacts of those declines in this coastal plain region and the embedded ecosystems that provide essential and critical habitat for native, endemic, and federally endangered and threatened species have not been considered previously. Those anthropogenic groundwater declines reduce surfacewater levels and flows due to the capture of both groundwater and overland flow of surfacewater, resulting in induced recharge through semi-confining zones and interbasin flow through fractures and other karst conduits. This case study identifies examples from the Greater Okefenokee Swamp Basin study area and comparison areas of how those declines result in loss of historic base flow to surface waters and other capture of surface waters, ultimately increasing saltwater intrusion. Those results alter and degrade the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters, in violation of the US Clean Water Act (CWA) of 1972. Historic groundwater declines from mining and other anthropogenic groundwater withdrawals from this regional karst aquifer system already threaten the survival and recovery of federally endangered and threatened species, as well as existing and proposed critical habitat for those species within this regional extent, in violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973. This case study and its companion publication (Part 2) appear to be the first to provide scientific support for this regional karst aquifer system as the unifying factor in habitat responses to irreversible groundwater impacts on aquatic and marine ecosystems. These adverse impacts strongly suggest that the extent of the regional Floridan aquifer system should be designated as the Southeastern Coastal Plain Ecoregion for the purpose of managing natural resources. Mining activities continue to expand in our study area, which is the Greater Okefenokee Swamp Basin. Despite that fact, no comprehensive Areawide Environmental Impact Statement (AEIS), similar to the AEIS required for phosphate mining within the Central Florida Phosphate District (CFPD) approximately a decade ago has been conducted for any of the numerous mining projects that are occurring and are proposed within the Greater Okefenokee Swamp Basin. This case study also provides examples of why a comprehensive AEIS is essential to consider all of the adverse direct, indirect, and cumulative impacts of those mining activities to the CWA, the ESA, and the irreversible losses to local economies, because federal agencies responsible for considering those adverse impacts rely on public comments to identify those adverse impacts. The mining activities authorized throughout the regional Floridan aquifer system under Category 44 Nationwide Permits (NWP) result in the same type of adverse impacts as the mining activities evaluated under Individual Permits in that region. Therefore, those Category 44 NWP mining activities also should be required to obtain Individual Permits and be evaluated under an AEIS in the Greater Okefenokee Swamp Basin. This case study also describes how Florida’s assumption of the CWA Section 404 regulatory authority in 2020 severs four sub-basins within the Greater Okefenokee Swamp Basin study area at the state line between Florida and Georgia.

Support for obesity policy: The effect of perceptions of causes for obesity and national identity in Canada

Interventions in Canada to address obesity have largely been limited to individual-level change through education rather than a population-level public policy approach. Little is known about obesity policy support in Canada, and substantial national variation in obesity policy support prevents direct transferability of these policies among nations. Our study recruited 521 young adults for an online survey through leaflets and flyers. We investigated how respondents’ demographics, health characteristics, political attitudes, beliefs regarding causes of obesity, and national identity affected their support for obesity policy. Results showed that there is high support for many obesity policies among Canadian young adults. Including Canadian national identity in regression models was significant in explaining obesity policy support beyond the combined effect of other predictors. Further exploration of national identity, in Canada and elsewhere, has implications for understanding obesity policy support that might assist policy makers in making more informed decisions in addressing obesity.

Research on Ethnic Minority Representatives in State Council Agencies During the Period of Nanjing National Government

China is a multi-ethnic country.From the wuzu gonghe ( Five nationalities under one u n io n ) in the early R epublic of China to the current union of 56 ethnic groups, the participation of ethnic m inorities in p o litica l affairs has always been a vita l and important factor for the development of China?s democratic politics. On one hand, the Nanjing National Government was dedicated to the model of a “ civil iden tificatio n ” and weakening ethnic characteristics.

Law, the Nigerian Economy and Corruption

Corruption has had severe negative consequences on the economic growth and development of nations all over the world especially on developing countries. It has various implications for both the developed and developing economies. Corruption hampers development and thus raises the level of poverty in any economy that finds itself entrenched in corrupt practices. Corruption creates uncertainty and risk in the growth and development potential of any country. This paper presents a review of corruption as it relates to the economic development of Nigeria. By using a theoretical method of analysis, the study reveals that corruption is Nigeria＇s biggest challenge. It is clear to every citizen that the level of corruption in the country is high because it is found in every sector of the society. In public or private sector, corrupt practices are easily observable. Corruption has been a deterrent to economic development in Nigeria. The findings show that corruption has a significant negative effect on economic growth and development. The paper examines historical connection between the law and the economy and discusses the theoretical and conceptual issues in corruption and economic development and the role of lawyers in the economy. The paper also seeks to provoke debate on the role of law in the anti-corruption crusade, strengthening the rule of law and promoting economic development. It also identifies and discusses the impact and effects of corruption on economic development in Nigeria, while proffering policy recommendations that should underpin the road to Nigeria becoming the ＂next surprise＂, on indices such as transparency, accountability, and the application of the rule of law, in dealing with corruption leading to improved consumer price index （CPI） ranking, induce investment, and foster economic growth and development.

A Year for China,a Decade for Any Other Nation!

AS I reviewed Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s Report on the Work of the Government to the third session of the 13th National People’s Congress in Beijing,it was hard to believe that this report was only the highlights of the government’s work for just one year!Such a diversity of goals and priorities could not be achieved by other nations even in a decade!The most obvious example is how China has handled the COVID-19 pandemic.

Merit and Evaluation Models for Managers in the National Health System： An Empirical Study

The national health system （NHS） complexity increase requires a review of the managerial human resources evaluation and recruiting methods, considering that nowadays doctors need to improve not just their clinical capabilities, but also managerial competences. At this end it is important to develop performances control models and to identify appropriate results indicators, with the aim of introducing an effective doctors selection system for managerial roles. The paper considers the Italian situation and tests the current evaluation and selection methods, by analysing the literature and the existing legislation and by interviewing experts. Moreover, in order to reach an innovative model, complex organizations have been taken into account as benchmarks. Three different categories of experts have been interviewed and texted： national health care organizations managers, companies managers, and business consultants. The 137 interviewed experts have been asked about four main questions concerning the evaluation for hiring managers as chief medical director, department director, and head of complex units. The conducted research suggests four different options in order to evaluate and to select heads of complex unit for the most strategic roles. By consequence, the analysis shows that required characteristics must be managerial attitudes as well as clinical capabilities.

Free Trade and Employment in the ASEAN： From Theory to Empirical

The issue of flee trade and employment has been aconcemed for many countries for a long time. It seems that there exists a tradeoffbetween them. This paper looks back at the theories from the classical economics and discusses the role of free trade in economics. It also discusses the relationship between free trade and a nation＇s wealth, and the problems of free trade we face today. The theory is not challenged in the paper; however, the multi-functional state engaged within the market for full employment is included. The statistics and data of ASEAN are utilized to explain and examine the theory. A few ways of government intervention are introduced and regulations that are detrimental to employment are also discussed.