Human Rights Implications of the Global Development Initiative

The Global Development Initiative is a global initiative put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping when he attended the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly via video from Beijing on September 21, 2021. The 17th G20 Summit was held in Bali, Indonesia on November 15, 2022. President Xi Jinping attended the Summit and once again put forward the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative. The Initiatives emphasized the basic contents of the following five aspects: (1) Staying committed to development as a priority; (2) Staying committed to a people-centered approach; (3) Staying committed to benefits for all; (4) Staying committed to innovation-driven development; (5) Staying committed to harmony between man and nature; (6) Adhering to results-oriented actions. The Global Development Initiative covers a series of major issues facing global development, including economic, political, social, ecological and environmental protection, scientific and technological development and people's well-being, environmental governance and resource inputs. It focuses on universal human rights issues around the world, such as the rights to survival, development, security, peace and environmental, and a series of civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights, as well as a wide range of human rights including sustainable development. These initiatives have fully reflected China's Human Rights Proposition and Perspectives in Global Development, its position and attitude on human rights, and demonstrated China's human rights characteristics and wisdom, which has offered the Chinese Approach for the development of the global human rights cause, enriched and expanded the theory and practice of human rights, and will certainly open up new prospects for the human rights cause.

1. “Staying committed to development as a priority” has laid a solid material foundation for the promotion and protection of human rights. The world today is under the combined impacts of the pandemic and world-wide changes, both unseen in a century. Global economic recovery has suffered setbacks. The development gap between the North and the South has widened; and the driving force for development cooperation has weakened; and the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is facing unprecedented challenges. Therefore, we still have a long and arduous way to go to achieve the lofty goal of “human rights for all”. All countries should stay committed to development as a priority, proceed from the national conditions and people's demands of the countries, and provide a more solid and reliable foundation for human rights development. The Global Development Initiative puts development in a prominent position in the global macro-policy framework, and lays emphasis on strengthening policy coordination among major economies, maintaining consistency, stability and sustainability, building a more equal and balanced global development partnership, promoting the synergistic effect in the process of multilateral development cooperation, and accelerating the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations. All these can provide a solid material foundation and economic guarantee for the development of the human rights cause. Without economic development, the material foundation of human rights will be weak. Economic and property rights of people are supported by solid economic and material foundations. The Global Development Initiative puts development as a priority, and emphasizes the crucial, fundamental and decisive role of development in human rights, which aims to protect economic and property rights of people and provide basic support for human rights development.

2. “Staying committed to the people-centered approach” reflects the human rights objectives of putting the people as the main body and provides clear value guidance for promoting and protecting human rights. Development emphasizes that all is for the people, by the people, and takes the realization of the people's rights as the ultimate purpose. Protection and improvement of people's livelihood and protection and promotion of human rights through development fully reflects the close correlation between global development initiatives and human rights and global development initiatives and the improvement of people's well-being, close correlation between development and the people, and the authenticity of China's human rights initiatives and proposition. The people-centered initiative reflects protection of human rights should put the people first. In particular, we shall guarantee the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people and put the people first. We should ensure that development is for the people, by the people, and the benefits of development are shared by the people, so as to enhance their sense of happiness, fulfillment and security and realize all-round development of the people. The people-centered initiative aims to make the people the main participants, promoters and beneficiaries of the development of human rights. It also aims to maximize the protection of people's life and health, and constantly realize, maintain and develop the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people. In essence, the Initiative aims to call upon all countries to follow the people's wishes, respect their opinions, pay attention to public feelings and strive for their well-being in their development; it also appeal to various countries to effectively protect the people's right to subsistence and development, the economic, cultural, social, environmental and other rights of the people, ensure that the people can enjoy extensive rights and freedoms in accordance with the law, and effectively promote all-round human development. Meanwhile, the Initiative also clearly demonstrates that “A happy life for all is the biggest human right”. The Initiative calls on all countries to take people's aspirations for a better life as the goal, and constantly address the contradiction between unbalanced and inadequate development and people's ever-growing needs for a better life, so that the fruits of development will benefit all people in the world in a more equitable way. Whether the vision of “A happy life for all is the biggest human right” can be realized depends on whether the interests of the people are safeguarded and whether their sense of gain, happiness and security is enhanced. This is the most important criterion to test the human rights situation of all countries.

3. “Staying committed to benefits for all” reflects an open and inclusive human rights perspective. The Global Development Initiatives have stressed the need to pay attention to the special needs of developing countries, provide supports to these countries, especially the most vulnerable countries, through debt relief and development assistance, and address unbalanced and inadequate development issues among and within such countries. This not only reflects the principle of human rights tolerance that the international community should establish and uphold, but also reflects the human rights assistance methods, i.e., to promote and facilitate the development of developing countries through specific mutually-beneficial and inclusive methods such as “debt relief and development assistance”. It provides the possibility for building a global human rights community with a shared future for mankind with open, inclusive and practical human rights assistance methods. In fact, the diversity of civilizations is the objective reality of human society and an important driving force for human progress. At present, there are still unbalanced and inadequate development gap between the North and the South and between the East and the West in various countries in the world, as well as serious unbalanced and insufficient development issues between developed and developing countries. In accordance with the order and requirements for dealing with the relations between countries specified in the Charter of the United Nations, all countries, regardless of size, strength and wealth, are equal members of the international community and have the right to participate in international affairs on an equal footing. Developed countries should also pay full attention to the special needs of developing countries, proceed from promoting an equal, inclusive and open national order pattern, take concrete measures to promote human rights cooperation among countries, so as to realize the inclusive and mutually-beneficial development of the global human rights cause, narrow national gaps, address the unbalanced and inadequate development issues of various countries, and promote equality and progress of human rights.

4. “Staying committed to innovation-driven development” reveals the inherent driving force for promoting the progress of the human rights cause Innovation is the primary engine of development and the inherent mechanism for promoting historical progress. On the one hand, the Global Development Initiative emphasizes “innovation-driven development” and puts focus of promoting human rights is on the proposition of innovation-driven development. It stresses that various countries should seize the historic opportunity of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, accelerate the transfer of scientific and technological achievements to real productive forces, foster an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory environment for the development of science and technology, explore new growth drivers for economic growth in the post-COVID era, and join hands to achieve leapfrog development. In this way, it is possible to transcend the Western Paradigm of overemphasizing political, ideological, ethnic and racial issues on human rights in the world. Innovation-driven development is also a powerful rebuttal to the elimination of Western countries' practice of achieving political goals through human rights intervention, war or economic blockade. By focusing on innovation to achieve human rights development, a new model of human rights development has been established. On the other hand, to emphasize the innovation-driven development of human rights, the proposition of unity and innovation and working together in innovation has also been put forward, which provides a new platform for strengthening global human rights cooperation, so that cooperation in the field of innovation will be conducive to jointly promoting the human rights cause.

5. “Staying committed to the harmonious coexistence between man and nature” has updated the concept of human rights in dealing with the relationship between man and nature. To emphasize the harmonious coexistence between man and nature, it is necessary to carry out global ecological and environmental governance, cope with climate change, realize green and low-carbon transformation in social and economic development, and realize green recovery and development, so as to build a community of life for man and nature. This has led to a profound change in the content and nature of human rights, from human-centered to harmonious coexistence between man and nature, which has provided the possibility for eliminating anthropocentrism in human rights issues and is conducive to the progress of human rights. “Staying committed to the harmonious coexistence between man and nature” also has internal consistency and philosophy in line with the explicit provisions of a series of United Nations documents on “environmental rights”. It is in line with the common vision and interests of governments and people around the world; and the vision of “everyone has the basic right to enjoy freedom, equality and adequate living conditions in a favorable environment” can be realized. Therefore, governments and people in various countries should work together to maintain and enhance the harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and protect and improve the human environment and the well-being of the sound natural environment for all mankind and their descendants in further generations. Seen from the perspective of human rights law, in order to realize the harmonious coexistence between man and nature, governments of various countries should undertake more environmental protection obligations. Not only do they “have the responsibility to ensure that activities within their jurisdiction or control will damage the environment of other countries or regions not under their jurisdiction”, but also they should the removal of toxic or other substances and the heat they emit shall be prevented from exceeding the environmental capacity to render them harmless in quantity or concentration, so as to ensure that the ecological environment will not suffer serious or irreparable damages.” As stipulated in Article 3 of Principles of Conduct in the Field of the Environment for Shared Natural Resources realized in 1978, “Each country shall try to avoid and minimize adverse environmental impacts not under its jurisdiction arising from the use of shared resources.” Furthermore, citizens of any country shall, from the perspective of harmonious coexistence between man and nature, jointly undertake the obligation of protecting the natural environment and exercise the corresponding environmental rights. “All the people should have the opportunity to participate in the formulation of decisions directly related to their environment individually or collectively in accordance with their own laws; when encountering such environmental damage or degradation, there should be ways to seek remedies.”

6. “Staying committed to results-oriented actions” emphasizes the focus of the human rights cause. Human rights are more than propositions, which concerns all aspects of human existence and development. Each country has an inescapable mission and responsibility for the development of human rights. According to the Global Development Initiative, all countries should give priority to poverty reduction, food security, anti-epidemic and vaccines, development financing and climate change, and take concrete measures to promote practical cooperation in the fields of green development, industrialization, digital economy and interconnection. These initiatives in action are intended to demonstrate that progress in the human rights cause lies in implementation and action. Global cooperation and joint efforts are required for global development. The Chinese government issued National Human Right Plans of Action (2021-2025) on September 14, 2021. It is a phased policy document for the Chinese government to implement the principle of “respecting and safeguarding human rights” and the requirement of “promoting the comprehensive development of human rights”. It is the first declaration and roadmap for China to respect and safeguard human rights in the new journey to fully build a modern socialist China, and the fourth national human rights action plan issued by the Chinese government, which has contributed China's efforts to global human rights governance. China's National Human Rights Action Plan has also set a new example in the field of global human rights, contributing Chinese wisdom and the Chinese Approach to promoting the development of the global human rights cause and solving the common development problems of mankind.

In conclusion, a series of propositions in the Global Development Initiative have systematically, comprehensively and vividly demonstrated China's human rights propositions and its position on human rights. Meanwhile, through its own unremitting efforts, China has actively promoted the human rights cause in China, actively participated in global human rights governance, provided Chinese approach for the development of the global human rights cause, made clear the new development direction of the global human rights cause, provided clear value guidance, practice methods and implementation strategies for the development of the global human rights cause, and offered Chinese wisdom for achieving a more universal, equal, open and inclusive world human rights landscape and building a human rights community with a shared future for mankind. Therefore, the implications for global human rights development in a new era are fully reflected in the Initiative which deserves the concerted efforts of all countries.

(The author is Party Secretary of the School of Political Science and Law, Northeast Normal University)