Full coverage: China 2012-2015 Human Rights Progress Review

 V. Human Rights Education

From 2012 to 2015, China redoubled its efforts in promoting human rights concepts; publicizing human rights knowledge; carrying out human rights education; and going all out to raise the awareness of honoring and safeguarding human rights throughout Chinese society.

The State Council Information Office and another eight human rights education and training bases jointly held a total of 144 training sessions about human rights for Party cadres and government employees at various levels, judiciary and media personnel. Administrative institutes at various levels conducted courses in human rights, providing human rights knowledge education among cadres at various levels.

Starting from 2012, the state made sure that knowledge about personal rights, economic rights and the right to receive education was included in courses and textbooks in all primary and secondary schools in accordance with both the newly-revised course standard for every subject of nine-year compulsory education and the characteristics of students'age. It also made sure that students were aware of citizens' legitimate rights and duties, in an effort to enhance the awareness of rights among students.

In accordance with the requirements in the Action Plan, institutions of higher learning strengthened the development of human rights related majors, offered related courses for four-year college students majoring in law, compiled human rights teaching materials and accelerated the education for special talents on human rights. They enriched courses on human rights education by independently offering the general course "Introduction to Human Rights" and some selective courses including "Human Rights Law", "International Human Rights Law" and "Special Features on Human Rights Law". Institutions of higher learning enrolled masters and Ph.D. candidates in disciplines including human rights law, politics and philosophy of human rights, and set up post-doctoral research centers in human rights. The China University of Political Science and Law and the Southwest University of Political Science and Law independently offered secondary disciplines on human rights law.

The media including TV and radio stations, newspapers and periodicals and online media, through news broadcasts, commentary, call-ins, interpretation, interviews, Weibo and WeChat interaction, energetically spread human rights knowledge, made the awareness of guaranteeing human rights according to law deeply rooted in people's mind and created a good social environment where the state honors and guarantees human rights and citizens obey laws.

In April 2014, five new national-level human rights education and training centers were opened, including human rights research centers at Renmin University of China, Fudan University, Shandong University, Wuhan University and Southwest University of Political Science and Law, which achieved planned goals in advance.

Theoretical research on human rights was carried out by the China Society for Human Rights Studies, China Human Rights Development Foundation and National Human Rights Education and Training Base. They edited and published a series of books on human rights, including China's Human Rights in Action and Report on the Development of Human Rights in China. They also set up an academic exchange platform for human rights, and started to publish academic periodicals including Human Rights, Human Rights Studies, China Human Rights Review and the Research on the Rights of the Disabled. They developed human rights training materials including Series on Human Rights Knowledge and publicized human rights knowledge throughout the Chinese society. They made efforts to conduct academic exchanges with domestic and foreign counterparts by holding and attending international academic meetings.

VI. Fulfillment of Obligations to International Human Rights Conventions, and International Exchanges and Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights

From 2012 to 2015, China continued to earnestly fulfill its obligations to the international human rights conventions to which it has acceded, conducted international exchanges and cooperation in the field of human rights, and enhanced the healthy development of the international human rights cause.

(1) Fulfillment of obligations to international human rights conventions

In September 2012, China attended the dialogue meeting held by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities deliberating China's first report on implementing the "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities," giving a detailed account of the achievements China had made in the cause of persons with disabilities with full and accurate data, and providing full answers to the questions raised by the committee.

In September 2013, China attended the dialogue meeting held by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child which deliberated China's third and fourth combined report on implementing the "Convention on the Rights of the Child" and China's first report on implementing the "Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict", introducing China's actual situation on the implementation and giving a serious and full answer to the questions raised by the committee.

In June 2013, China submitted to the UN Committee against Torture its sixth report on implementing the "Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment." In November 2015, China attended the dialogue meeting held by the committee, and during the deliberations on the report, fully outlined China's situation on the implementation of the convention providing full answers to the questions raised by the committee.

In May 2014, China participated in the dialogue meeting held by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which deliberated the second report on implementing the "International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights", giving a detailed account of China's achievements made in the fields of guaranteeing economic, social and cultural rights and answering the questions raised by the committee.

In October 2014, China attended the dialogue meeting held by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, which deliberated China's seventh and eighth combined report on implementing the "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women", giving an account of China's achievements in gender equality and women's development, and also gave full and detailed answers to the questions raised by the committee.