BEIJING, March 14 (Xinhuanet) -- A proposed amendment
to the Constitution was adopted Sunday by the Second Session
of the Tenth National People's Congress (NPC), which stipulates
clearly that "the state respects and safeguards human rights."
According to experts on human rights, this is the first
time that the concept of "human rights" has been included
in the Constitution -- a major event in the development
of China's democratic constitutionalism and political civilization,
and an important milestone in human rights progress in China.
The inclusion of human rights in the Constitution meant
a major breakthrough in socialist human rights development,
said Dong Yunhu, vice-president and secretary-general of
the China Human Rights Research Society.
For a fairly long period after the founding of the People's
Republic of China, China never included the human rights
concept in the Constitution and law, human rights being
considered taboo in ideological and theoretical research.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Central Committee
of the Communist Party of China(CPC), with Jiang Zemin at
the core, began to reconsider the humanrights issue by summarizing
the practice of the human rights development in contemporary
China and the rest of the world. From the international
struggle perspective, the CPC Central Committee made it
clear, for the first time ever, that socialist China should
grasp the banner of human rights in her hands.
On November 1, 1991, a White Paper titled "Human Rights
in China" was issued by the Information Office of the State
Council. This was the first time that the status of the
human rights concept in China's socialist political development
had been positively confirmed in the form of an official
document.
When the 15th National Congress of the CPC was convened
in September 1997, the human rights concept was for the
first time included in the major report to the Congress,
promoting human rights from a major theme in international
publicity work to a major subject in domestic construction
under the leadership of theParty.
By adding "the state respects and safeguards human rights"
to the Constitution, the present amendment has promoted
"human rights" from a political concept to a legal one for
the first time, and the main body in respecting and safeguarding
human rights has beenupgraded from the Party and government
to the state, said Dong.
Therefore, respecting and safeguarding human rights have
been raised from the will of the Party and government to
that of the people and state, from the political concept
and value of the Party and government in assuming power
and running administration to the political concept and
value of the state in construction and development efforts,
and from a provision of the Party and government's policy
to a principle of the state's fundamental law,Dong said.
Adding to the contents of the Constitution the principle
that "the state respects and safeguards human rights" in
the amendment to the Constitution is the first such step
China has taken since it began the pursuit of constitutionalism,
and is the latest development in contemporary China's endeavor
for democratic constitutionalism, according to the expert.
Dong said, first, setting up the principle of human rights
has further improved the country's democratic constitutionalism;
second, stressing the value and concept of human rights
has given new definition to the Constitution's stipulations
concerning citizens' rights; third, the improved prescriptions
of the principle of citizens' rights guarantee have reinforced
the human rights essence of the Constitution.
