Preliminary Exploration on Practical and Academic Significance of the Global Security Initiative for Protection and Promotion of Human Rights

The Global Security Initiative is a far-sighted Chinese approach proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping to make up for global peace deficit and safeguard world peace and tranquility based on pain points of the times, specific impediments and key solutions of the global security issues against the backdrop that the international community is experiencing rare multiple security challenges and mankind is once again standing at the crossroads of history. Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action is a milestone in world history of human rights. It is the crystallization of mankind's wisdom and determination to continuously explore the promotion and protection of human rights. The two are mutually reinforcing. The proposal of the Global Security Initiative will contribute greatly to revitalizing the spirit of Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action and inject powerful positive energy for its effective implementation.

I. It is of great practical significance to make up for global security deficit and promote the protection of human rights

There is a close relationship between security and human rights. As pointed by United Nations Human Rights Council, human rights violations are the root cause of conflicts and insecurity, which in turn inevitably lead to further violations of human rights. in Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, the serious negative impact of armed conflicts on the protection of human rights was also repeatedly mentioned. It can be said that security is of great significance to the realization and protection of human rights, and a safe environment is the basis for the realization of human rights. Insecurity factors such as crises, conflicts and turmoil not only hinder the realization of human rights, but also lead to human rights violations and even various human rights crises.

At present, global security issues are facing many challeges. Various traditional and nontraditional security issues are emerging one after another, entwined and mutually strengthened. Risks of instability and insecurity are significantly increased, and the international security situation is significantly deteriorated. Especially in recent years, the global security situation has entered troubled times. “Gray Rhinos” and “Black Swans” in traditional and non-traditional security fields keep emerging. Fear and anxiety of various parties about the division and conflict of the world have unprecedentedly been increased, and the nerves of preparing for wars are becoming increasingly tense, and they have stepped up to deal with the situation full of dangers. The international community seems to be caught in a general sense of insecurity. This is the first time in more than 30 years since the end of the Cold War. Meanwhile, the challenges posed by non-traditional security issues such as major epidemics, climate changes, ecological destruction, and terrorist attacks are also becoming increasingly severe.

Affected by this, protection of human rights in the field of international security faces many challenges. First, the intensification of strategic and geopolitical competitions among great powers has made the world shrouded in the shadow of confrontations, struggles and even conflicts. The sense of insecurity and uncertainty in the international community is on the rise and the willingness to cooperate is on the decline. The politicization of human rights has become increasingly serious. Human rights have become a tool and an excuse for very few great powers to contain, suppress, divide, stigmatize and demonize other countries. International cooperation on human rights has been severely undermined, and global human rights governance couldn’t be carried out or has failed. Second, very few great powers pursue hegemonism, unilateralism and interventionism, promote color revolutions, create camp confrontations, make the complex situations of regional hot spots even more serious, induce and aggravate regional instability and conflicts, and create humanitarian disasters and human rights crisis. Third, a variety of non-traditional security issues are emerging and entwined, posing threats to the protection and realization of human rights in relevant fields.

The Global Security Initiative adheres to the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, emphasizes implementation of comprehensive measures, coordinate security in traditional and non-traditional security fields, and calls on the international community to find a new security path featuring dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance and win-win over zero-sum, jointly address security in non-traditional fields, and improve global security governance, and work together to achieve lasting peace and universal security. The Global security Initiative helps the international community build consensus and synergy to address various security challenges, and is of great practical significance to the protection of human rights in the field of international security. First, it is conducive to alleviation of human rights and humanitarian crises by promoting the solutions of various conflicts, turmoil and other hot security issues; Second, it contributes to construction of a more peaceful and safe environment for the world so as to lay a realistic foundation for the protection and realization of all human rights by promoting a new vision of security; Third, it is helpful to maintain and practice true multilateralism, and resist the trend of politicizing and instrumentalizing human rights issues with new security concept and value guidance.

II. It contributes to the International Human Rights Development Agenda and improves global human rights governance

The Global Security Initiative advocates pursuing sustainable security, solving conflicts through development, and eliminating the root causes of insecurity. As clearly stressed in Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, the right to development is an inalienable right. There is a clear consistency between the two. On the whole, the Global Security Initiative is in line with the human rights development agenda currently being formulated and implemented by the United Nations, including Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, and plays an important role in assisting the international community in achieving human rights development goals and promoting the improvement of global human rights governance.

First, it is conducive to the realization of the human rights goals in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations. The United Nations points out that human rights are essential to achieving sustainable development that leaves no one behind and are at the core of three dimensions of sustainability: economy, society and environment. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations aims for “the enjoyment of human rights for all” and is firmly based on human rights principles and standards, including Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights conventions. Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action has also repeatedly stressed that extreme poverty or poverty and obstacles to development and other problems hinder the full and effective enjoyment of human rights, and called on the international community to give high priority to poverty reduction and eradication. Security, development and human rights are mutually reinforcing and inseparable. Security is the prerequisite for development, and development is the purpose of security. Without security, there will be no development; and without development, there will be no security in the real sense. On the one hand, the Global Security Initiative itself provides vision and value guidance for the solutions of various security issues in the world, contributes to the construction of a more secure international environment so as to provide favorable conditions for global development. Meanwhile, the Global Security Initiative advocates pursuing sustainable security, resolving conflicts through development, and eliminating the root causes of insecurity. By addressing the dialectical relationship between security and development, the Global Security Initiative contributes to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the realization of the human rights development goals in the Agenda.

Second, China will actively participate in the formulation of the “New Peace Agenda”. In September 2021, Secretary-General of the United Nations issued the report of Our Common Agenda, which provides recommendations for better addressing humanity's most pressing challenges. Among them, the security-related issues are mainly reflected in the section of “New Agenda for Peace”. “The Agenda” focuses on the following six core areas: reducing strategic risks; strengthening international foresight and the capacity to identify and adapt to new peace and security risks; rebuilding responses to all forms of violence; investing in prevention and peace-building; supporting regional prevention; and putting women and girls at the centre of security policy, respectively. It is clearly stated in the Global Security Initiative Concept Paper that China will actively participate in the work specified in Secretary-General of the United Nations' report of “Our Common Agenda” on formulating the “New Agenda for Peace” and other proposals, and support the United States in playing a more important role in global security affairs. Moreover, many of the concepts in the Global Security Initiative are also in line with the six core areas of the future efforts of the “New Peace Agenda”, so as to provide strong support for maintaining world peace and promoting the protection of human rights, especially the protection of the rights of women and girls. It is also mentioned in Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action that terrorism in all its forms destroys human rights and that the international community shall cooperate in combating it. As also mentioned in Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, importance shall be attached to the impact of issues such as food and energy on human rights issues. Many aspects of the “Six Insists”, 20 priorities of cooperation and five major cooperation mechanisms and platforms put forward in the Global Security Initiative and its Concept Paper are also related to these issues.

Third, it provides a useful supplement to the global human rights governance mechanism. With the development of the times and the progress of concepts, the characteristics of “cross-cutting” and “large-scale agenda” of human rights has become increasingly significant. The crosscutting theme of human rights will be addressed in all United Nations policies and programmes in the key areas of peace and security, development, humanitarian assistance and economic and social affairs. The existing international human rights mechanisms are mainly the Third Committee of the United Nations General Assembly-Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee, United Nations Human Rights Council, the United Nations Human Rights Treaty Bodies, International Labour Organization, United Nations Educational，Scientific，and Cultural Organization, which are difficult to deal with the endless human rights issues in various fields, especially in the field of international security. The key directions, platforms and mechanisms for cooperation proposed in the Global Security Initiative include giving full play to the role of Shanghai Cooperation Organization, BRICS cooperation, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), “China plus the Five Central Asian Nations”, and mechanisms related to East Asia cooperation, supporting the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, the Middle East Security Forum, Beijing Xiangshan Forum, Global Public Security Cooperation Forum, which help make up for the deficiencies of human rights protection mechanisms in the field of international security, complement the existing international human rights protection mechanisms with the United Nations at the core, and improve the global human rights governance mechanism. There is also considerable ideological consistency with Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action. For instance, the latter emphasizes that “regional arrangements play a fundamental role in promoting and protecting human rights” and that the role of non-governmental organizations should also be valued.

III. It has significant enlightening effect on promoting the scientific exploration of human rights protection in the field of international security

The Global Security Initiative contains a series of new security concepts and principles, which provide a rich conceptual foundation, value guidance and paradigm inspiration for research on the protection and promotion of human rights in the field of international security.

(1) It provides the basis of the concept. At present, there is no integrated concept of human rights protection in the field of international security. In the traditional security field, the United Nations has adopted the philosophy of “conflict prevention, peace keeping, peace building” and practice to resolve conflicts and crises. The international community has put forward the philosophy in human rights protection such as “humanitarian intervention” and “The Responsibility to Protect”. In the field of non-traditional security, the international community has discussed environmental rights, and rights to data and health in response to the impact of climate changes, cyber security and major epidemics on human rights. However, there are generally problems of two aspects with the philosophy of human rights protection in these security fields. On the one hand, these philosophies in human rights protection are basically specific concepts limited to specific security issues or topics, relatively scattered, and lack of integrity and system. On the other hand, threats to international security are constantly changing and challenges facing human protection are constantly evolving. Some of these philosophies in human rights protection urgently need to keep pace with the times in order to adapt to the changes in the new international security situation; and the relevant United Nations agencies are also well aware of this issue and are taking active actions. However, in general, the international community lacks a comprehensive system and initiatives with value of the times to deal with traditional and non-traditional security in a coordinated manner, and thus cannot provide overall philosophy support for promoting human rights protection in the field of international security. The proposal of the Global Security Initiative has filled this philosophy gap. The connotation of security in the Global security Initiative is broadly inclusive, which not only emphasizes the core elements of traditional security, but also extends to non-traditional security fields. It objectively reflects the characteristics of the times in which the concept of security is constantly evolving, and thus provides a grand conceptual basis for the conceptual and theoretical explorations and principle study of the overall protection of human rights in the field of international security.

(2) It provides value guidance. Value principle contained in the Global Security Initiative plays an important role in guiding human rights protection in the field of international security. In today's world, unilateralism, hegemonism, and power politics are rampant; the trend of camp-based and group confrontation has intensified; and conflicts in the international community are on the rise. Moreover, the international system with the United Nations as the core and the international order based on international law have been continuously impacted, and the international political ecology has been deteriorated. Causes, effects and solutions of various security issues all show complicated characteristics. Conflicts and confrontations, blame shifting and beggar-thy-neighbor practices are prominent in the international community. Affected by this, issues of human rights protection in the field of international security is also facing the same situation. For instance, unilateral sanctions in violation of international law undermine the livelihood of the target country and aggravate the humanitarian plight of the unprivileged populace. Refugees and humanitarian aid in regional conflicts often become the tools and victims of political games between countries, and various parties are mutually shirking responsibilities on the issue of reducing emissions to tackle climate changes. Under such circumstances, new value guidance is required to meet various security challenges and realize human rights protection. The Global Security Initiative calls on all countries to abide by the purposes and principles of Charter of the United Nations and resolve differences and conflicts peacefully through dialogue and consultation, abandon the Cold War mentality, unilateralism, and camp-based confrontation, and advocate for equal consultations, focus on the common security interests of all countries, and promote security cooperation, seek peace through cooperation and promote security through cooperation, adhere to genuine multilateralism, uphold justice and justice, and bring together the efforts of all parties. These macro value principles go beyond the narrowness of western theories of political security and human rights protection, and play an important role in guiding the value of human rights protection in the current international security field.

(3) It provides paradigm inspiration. The Global Security Initiative contributes to promotion of research on a new human rights paradigm beyond West centralism. When it comes to security issues, the West pays more attention to individual rights, mainly civil and political rights, advocates that “human rights are higher than sovereignty”, and despises the right to subsistence, the right to development, and the right to peace as collective human rights. For instance, on the issue of the right to peace, the United States, Europe and other western countries insist that the establishment of a new right to peace separated from the traditional concepts and mechanisms of existing international human rights law violates the basic spirit of international human rights law and conflicts with established specific rights. However, a series of traditional and non-traditional security issues threaten people's right to survival and development. The significance of peace and security for the realization of human rights is also self-evident. Human history has repeatedly proved that without peace, development is out of the question, like water without source and a tree without roots. The international community is made up of sovereign states. Numerous historical lessons have shown that bypassing and ignoring of the state as an organizational form, holding the banner of “human rights are higher than sovereignty”, promoting interventionism and creating crises and conflicts, have led to numerous humanitarian tragedies and cases of human rights violations. All these reflect the major defects in the western theory of human rights protection in the field of international security. The proposal of the Global Security Initiative is conducive to further research and exploration of collective human rights such as the rights to self-determination, peace and development, the relationship between security and development, and the relationship between human rights and sovereignty.

(The author Cui Xiaotao is research assistant of International Institute for Strategic Studies, China Institute of International Studies, once worked at Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations at Geneva; Zhu Zhongbo is director of International Institute for Strategic Studies, China Institute of International Studies, and a member of the China Society for Human Rights Studies.)