The European Commission has appointed the Galway-based Irish Centre for Human Rights to co-ordinate a €1.5 million project which will promote the implementation of international human rights covenants in China.
The programme involves 15 European human rights centres, one from each member state, and the same number of Chinese institutions. A wide range of human rights issues will be addressed, including capital punishment, torture, the right to education, labour standards and the right to a fair trial. The working languages of the project will be English, French and Chinese.
"In the last few years China has shown increasing willingness to accept the role of international human rights monitoring mechanisms," says Prof William Schabas, director of the ICHR.
"Consequently, it has ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and is preparing to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It is essential, however, that China's commitments go beyond simply formalistic gestures and that they be given substance," he adds.
The EU-China project will allow European human rights specialists to contribute to human rights monitoring in China by adding their expertise, Prof Schabas says. The project will comprise academic seminars, exchanges and internships. The first seminar will be held in Galway, at the ICHR, where the project secretariat will be based.
The seminar themes will be determined by the network steering committee, composed of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, the University of Paris II, the University of Essex, the University of Milan and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Lawyers, academics and government officials will also be trained in aspects of human rights law and practice.
Prof Schabas acknowledges that China's concern about international human rights standards can be understood in the context of its desire to participate fully in international affairs, including developing economic and cultural links such as the 2008 Olympic Games.
"There is now an openness within China to international human rights that everybody who is familiar with the situation has noticed," he says.
He visited Beijing in May as part of developing the current project. "It was very clear that debate evolves very, very rapidly in China on the subject of human rights," he said.
"Everybody agreed that the kind of discussions and the level of exchange we had in May could not have taken place two or three years ago."
