人权硕士项目

PekingUniversityLawSchool and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Lund University Sweden (RWI) (http://www.rwi.lu.se/ ) have been cooperating in the field of human rights promotion and education since 1997. In 2002, PULS Research Centre for Human Rights, which is the first academic institution on human rights in China, developed a proposal for a human rights program for master students to be implemented in cooperation with the RWI.Approval was obtained from the concerned departments of PekingUniversity to add a Research Direction in Human Rights within the current Master of International Law program at the university. With financial support from SIDA, the proposal was further developed and various preparations carried out during 2003 and in February 2004, a 3-semester Research Direction in Human Rights for master students was launched at PekingUniversity.

The objective of the programme is to contribute to the establishment of a cadre of professionals skilled to work institutionally and individually for the promotion and protection of human rights in China, to contribute to the institutionalisation of academic human rights programmes at the master level at the elite education institution in China, and to provide a model for similar initiatives at other Chinese universities.

The duration of the programme is three semesters. The preliminary plan is that each round of the Programme enrols 20 students from the postgraduate students of PekingUniversity. The Programme is composed of eight courses. The Programme students study these courses while studying for their own degree courses for the first school year and write thesis in the third semester. In order for the students to obtain a programme certificate jointly issued by PULS and RWI, 12 of the 36 credits required for a master degree at PekingUniversity must be credits from the human rights. All programme students and teachers are given a set of four English language human rights textbooks at the beginning of each year. The programme students and teachers will be also provided with additional reading materials and books in Chinese and English in accordance with the reading materials and books in accordance with the reading requirements of each course. PULS has since 1998 received collections of English human rights literature from RWI as part of the Literature Acquisition project, providing a comparatively good basic human rights library for the students and teachers to make use of.

So far, 3 groups of totally 60 program students were selected among more than 300 applicants from inter alia the LawSchool, the School of International Relations, the Department of Sociology, Guanghua School of Management, the School of Public Administration, the School of Economics, the Department of Party History and Marxism, and the School of Journalism and Communication. These programme students have high English proficiency and strong interest in human rights protection. Three groups of studentswill graduate from the programme within the framework of the 2004-2007 RWI Capacity Building Programme. In the future, students from other universities in Beijing and other cities should also be able to apply for the programme, provided that matters such as credit recognition, thesis writing etc. can be solved among the universities.

This programme is funded by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) through RWI. The SIDA grants cover the cost of the visiting professor who teaches four courses in English at PekingUniversity, the cost of necessary teaching materials, office equipments and personnel support as well as a stipend of RMB5,000/person to do thesis research during the third semester. PULS has the main responsibility for the management of the programme, including student admission and enrolment, schedules, teachers, classrooms, exams, tutoring, thesis defence etc. RWI has a general advisory and supervisory responsibility as regards implementation and development of the programme.

On 9 February 2004 the opening ceremony of this programme was launched. Eight program courses has since then been regularly given to students, which include Human Rights and the Rule of Law, Civil, Economic, Social, Political and Cultural Rights, International Human Rights Protection Mechanisms and Business and Human Rights, Regional Protection of Human Rights, Minority Rights Protection, Lecture Series on the Protection of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law. Being the first institution that has introduced human rights education in its curricula (1998), the Center now conducts the most human rights courses among Chinese universities and research institutions, with four courses given in English. Many students who are not the programme students have also taken the above-mentioned courses as selected courses or audited the programme courses.

In addition to the regular courses, the programme has been inviting renowned scholars and practitioners in law-related or human rights fields to give lectures to the programme students. These lectures, together with teaching reform and experimental measures, have resulted in very positive outcomes. Most programme students speak highly of the programme progress and teaching impacts of the past semester. Each summer, the programme will reach out to the international organizations, government agencies and domestic enterprises to get internship opportunities for the programme students during the summer vacation.

It is of profound practical relevance to launch the research direction on human rights while China is revising its constitution to better protect human rights. It is in this sense that this programme also marks the forefront of the reform in law education. However, there are practical obstacles to overcome to make the programme sustainable. The Human Rights Research Centre of Peking University has reached an agreement with RWI for independent and sustainable development of the Programme, on the basis of which, from 2004 to 2007, SIDA will provide the programme with the core fund while PULS will gradually undertake the responsibility of managing the programme and cover the entire financial cost.

With the development of the human rights protection in China, there will surely be enough career opportunities for graduates from the Programme. Not only the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and academic and research institutes are looking for such talents, but also civil society and law firms will be in increasing need of professionals in the field of human rights. It is worth pointing out that there are very few human rights professionals from China working for international organizations and human right agencies within the United Nations system. The development of this programme will certainly help build a strong reserve in this field.