Mab Huang, Director, Chang Fo-chuan Center for The Study of Human Rights, Soochow University
This presentation is taken from a larger study of human rights discourse and practice in three ethnic Chinese societies, a two-year research project by Professor Huang and several colleagues. In focusing on the efforts to create a National Human Rights Commission, this talk will deal primarily with the interactions between the government on the one hand, and the civil society, NGOs and academic community on the other. The endeavors to set up a National Human Rights Commission provided a good opportunity to analyze the possibilities and limits of human rights discourse and practice under a new administration which proclaimed itself committed to international human rights standards