I.An Overview
The Institute of Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is the earliest academic institution to carry out human rights research in China. As early as 1994, the Center for Human Rights Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences was established, which is the earliest human rights research institution in China. Since the establishment of the Centre for International Law of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 2002, international human rights law was also one of its important research fields. At that time, the researchers in this field mainly belonged to the Research Department of Public International Law. In 2009, when the Centre for International Law was renamed the Institute of International Law, a separate Research Department of International Human Rights Law (IHRL) was also established.
When the IHRL Research Department was established, there were three researchers, namely Zhao Jianwen, Liu Huawen and Dai Ruijun, with Zhao Jianwen as the head of the department, and Chen Zexian, the director of the CASS Institute of International Law, was associated with the IHRL Research Department for the purpose of membership in a research department. In 2011, Qu Xiangfei joined the IHRL Research Department; in 2012, Liu Huawen was transferred to the Editorial Board of Chinese Review of International Law as the deputy editor-in-chief; in 2016, Zhao Jianwen retired, Sun Shiyan and Zhong Ruihua were transferred from the Research Department of Public International Law and the Research Department of International Economic Law, respectively; Sun Shiyan was appointed the acting head of the IHRL Research Department in 2016 and the head of the department in 2018.
Currently there are four full-time researchers at the IHRL Research Department: Research Fellow Sun Shiyan and Research Fellow Qu Xiangfei, Associate Research Fellow Dai Ruijun and Assistant Research Fellow Zhong Ruihua. Mo Jihong, the Director of the CASS Institute of International Law, and Liu Xiaomei, Deputy Head Librarian of the CASS Law Library, are associated with the IHRL Research Department for the purpose of membership in a research department. All members of the IHRL Research Department have long-term experience of visiting and working abroad, and maintain long-term and close contacts with foreign human rights academic institutions. In addition to conducting research and teaching in the field of international human rights law, the IHRL Research Department has also participatedextensively in China's international human rights activities, including the preparation of reports submitted by China to United Nations human rights bodies and the considerations of these reports by United Nations human rights bodies in various ways.
II.Main Research Work
The main research area of the IHRL Research Department is international human rights law. However, this is a broad cross-disciplinary area. In addition to the study of international human rights law, it also includes the study from the perspective of international human rights law of other phenomena and problems that may be related to human rights in the field of international law. In the context of China, it also includes the study on the policies, laws and practices of China from the perspective of and with reference to international human rights law.
At the Institute of International Law, in addition to the fact that research stuff of the IHRL Research Department focus on human rights and related legal issues, researchers in other departments have also conducted extensive research on human rights topics. The papers in this volume on the subject of international human rights law include not only articles published by the researchers at the IHLR Research Department, but also those published by the research staff of other research departments of the Institute of International Law as well.
The research outcomes in the field of international human rights law include books (including monographs, translated works and collections of papers), journal articles, newspaper articles, compilations of materials, and a large number of internal reports. In terms of their contents, those outcomes can be divided into the following categories: fundamental theories of human rights; the theory, law and practice of human rights in China; international human rights covenants and conventions; specific human rights and human rights of special groups; the relationship between human rights and other phenomena and problems in the field of international law; human rights issues in other regions and countries; and international humanitarian law - an area closely related to international human rights law. Although most of the papers in this volume are published in academic journals, they basically cover all the above-mentioned categories.
III. Summary and Prospect
The Department of IHRL has three characteristics. Firstly, its research scope is very broad, covering almost all the fields related to international human rights law. Secondly, its research is very realistic. In addition to paying attention to the practice and development of international human rights law itself, it is particularly important to pay attention to the significance of international human rights law to the construction of the rule of law in China. Thirdly, its research is of introductory nature. International human rights law, whether as a legal area or a legal discipline, has not been known for a long time in China. Therefore, an important task of the Department of IHRL is to act as a "bridge" to help the domestic human rights and legal academia to understand the latest developments, both practical and academic, in the field of international human rights law.
In the new era, the Department of IHRL will continue to play the role as "bridges of human rights between the world and China". First, it will continue to study the practice and development in the field of international human rights law itself, so that the domestic human rights and legal academia can learn the latest developments in this field at the international level. Secondly, it will continue to study the role and significance of international human rights law in the construction of the rule of law in China, make use of the resources available in international human rights law to further contribute to the cause of respecting and safeguarding human rights in China. Finally, and most importantly, it will move more from the Chinese side of the "bridge of human rights" to the world side, that is, to make efforts to achieve two points: one is to play more the role of showing the practice and research results of China in the field of human rights to the outside world; the other is to participate more in international human rights discussions and discourse construction, so as to make Chinese contributions to such discussions and construction.
Ⅳ.Staff
