Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Social Justice: A Chinese Interdisciplinary Dialogue with Global Perspective

229 Pages·2020·2.757 MB·English

by  Zhibin Xie, Pauline Kollontai, Sebastian Kim

Zhibin Xie
Pauline Kollontai
Sebastian Kim   Editors
Human Dignity,
Human Rights,
and Social
Justice
A Chinese Interdisciplinary Dialogue
with Global Perspective
Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Social Justice
Zhibin Xie Pauline Kollontai
(cid:129) (cid:129)
Sebastian Kim
Editors
Human Dignity, Human
Rights, and Social Justice
A Chinese Interdisciplinary Dialogue
with Global Perspective
123
Editors
ZhibinXie Pauline Kollontai
Shanghai, China York,UK
Sebastian Kim
Pasadena,CA, USA
ISBN978-981-15-5080-5 ISBN978-981-15-5081-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-5081-2
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Acknowledgements
TheEditorswishtoacknowledgethosewhocontributedtothesymposiumserieson
human rights and social justice: one is the “International Symposium on Religion
and Social Justice” in Shanghai 2015, organized by the Institute of Christian
Culture, Academy of European Cultures, Tongji University (Shanghai,
P.R.China),theInstituteofSino-ChristianStudies(HongKong,P.R.China)and
theCenterforReligioninSociety,YorkSt.JohnUniversity(UnitedKingdom)and
the other is the “International Symposium on Dignity, Morality and Rights:
ChristianTheology, Interdisciplinary Studies and Inter-cultural Dialogue” inHong
Kong in 2017, organized by the Institute of Sino-Christian Studies, the Center for
ChristianStudiesatTheChineseUniversityofHongKong,theCenterforReligion
in Society at York St. John University, the Public and Contextual Theology
Research Center at Charles Sturt University (Australia), the Center for Theology
and Public Issues at University of Otago (New Zealand), and MF Norwegian
School of Theology (Norway). The chapters included in this volume are selected
and developed from the papers from these two symposiums.
In particular, we wish to thank Prof. Kjetil Fretheim, Prof. Clive Pearson, Prof.
Zhouxing Sun, Prof. David Tombs, Prof. Francis Yip, and Mr. Daniel Yueng for
theirsupporttothesymposiums. Wealsowouldliketorecognizetheinvolvement
of those scholars in the symposiums: Prof. Honglin Chen, Prof. Jason Lam, Prof.
Xin Leng, Prof. Quan Li, Prof. Monghong Lin, Prof. Robin Lovin, Dr. Joshua
Mauldin, Prof. Michelle Miao, Prof. Diane Obenchain, Prof. Jiajun Qiu, Prof.
Milton Wan, and Prof. Chuanxing Wang. We would like to thank Dr. Lasma
Latsone for her efficient and skilled assistance with editing and proofreading.
Thanks are also due to the staff of Springer for their support for the publication
of the volume.
v
Introduction
Themes: Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Social Justice
IntheChineseandotherglobalcontextstoday,socialjusticehasbeenasignificant
topic among many disciplines and we believe it is an appropriate topic for
philosophers, theologians, legal scholars, and social scientists to sit together, dis-
cuss,enricheachother,andthendeepenourunderstandingofthetopic.Ontheone
hand, there are traditional religious teachings about justice concerning the poor,
slaves, and the oppressed. On the other hand, more recent approaches to social
justice come from the perspectives of moral philosophy, political philosophy, law,
sociology,etc.,highlightingthethemesofdistribution,procedures,equality,rights,
pluralism, culture, community, etc. The aim of promoting social justice in practice
isoneareawhichtheUnitedNations(UN)continuestoworkon.Its“WorldDayof
Social Justice” (February 20) is one of the ways the UN continues to promote
development and human dignity in face of serious challenges including insecurity,
poverty, exclusion, and inequality within and among societies. As its document
states,“socialdevelopmentandsocialjusticeareindispensablefortheachievement
andmaintenanceofpeace andsecurity withinandamongnationsandthat,inturn,
socialdevelopmentandsocialjusticecannotbeattainedintheabsenceofpeaceand
security or in the absence of respect for all human rights and fundamental
freedoms.”1
In academia, there are a lot of discourses on the conjuncture between social
justice,humanrights,andhumandignity.Thequestionsthisbookasksare:what’s
theplaceofhuman rights insocialjustice?Howishuman dignity importantinthe
discourse on human rights? And, through these inquiries, we ask further: how is
possible to achieve humanist justice?
Acrucialissuearisingfromsocialjusticeishumanrights,eventhoughthereare
debates about the connection between justice and human rights. This volume is
sympatheticwithNicholasWolterstorff’sideaof“justiceasgroundedultimatelyon
1Seehttps://undocs.org/A/RES/62/10[accessedDecember19,2019].
vii
viii Introduction
inherentrights.”2His mainconcern is“tospeak for thewronged oftheworld….to
seethefacesandhearthevoicesofthosewhoarewronged.”3Tothisend,hisideal
is distinctive from distributive and communicative justice.4 While this volume
examinesvariousissuesofsocialjusticeindifferentcontexts,itconcentratesonthe
problem of human right and its “human” aspect.
We then come to the central question of the morality of human rights, as
Michael J. Perry states, “[a]lthough it is only one morality among many, the
moralityofhumanrightshasbecomethedominantmoralityofourtime.”5Theidea
and practice of human rights demands our understanding of humanity herself. The
morality of human rights, particularly the theme of human dignity is crucial in the
rights talk. We recognize the role of human dignity in human rights discourse is
indispensable but also rather controversial.
According to Michael Freeman’s summary, there is some consensus on the
characteristic of human rights, i. e., “(1) they are universal: everyone has human
rights; (2) everyone has them equally; and (3) they are the rights of individuals.”6
Still, there ispartial consensuson therelevanceofhuman dignitytohuman rights,
“Humanrightsmaybegroundedinthevalueofhumandignity,butthejustification
ofhumanrightsmustprovideargumentsthatleadusfromhumandignitytohuman
rights.”7As“humanrightsmayhavevariousjustifications,”8otherreasonssuchas
moral actions, human sympathy, and human flourishing also support human rights
in their own ways. Despite these, it is recognized that “we would give human
dignityaveryfundamentalroleintheunderstandingofhumanrights”9eventhough
we need to give careful clarification of the meaning of human dignity itself.10
Marcus Düwell further proposes that human dignity as categorical demand for
ordering legal and political institutions, “To see human rights as based on or
derived from respect for human dignity would here be the recognition that it is
morally required to respect human dignity, to ensure the legal provisions of the
human rights would be an institutionalized answer to this moral requirement.”11
In this regard, while we see human dignity has its own constitutional value and
constitutional right,12 a lot of efforts have been made to connect human rights,
2Wolterstorff[1].
3Ibid.,ix.
4Ibid.
5Perry[2].
6Freeman[3].
7Ibid.,p.69.
8Ibid.,87.
9Du well[4].
10MarcusDu wellclarifieshumandignityinthreesenses:asaright,asanorm,andasaprinciple.It
is in the third sense which provides “unique status as the primary source of moral and legal
obligations”and“guidingfortheinterpretationsoftheentiresetofhumanrights.”Ibid.,p.30.
11Ibid.,p.32.
12SeeAharonBarak,trans.,Kayros[5].Thisvolumeexploresthesourcesofhumandignityasa
legalconceptanditsroleinconstitutionaldocumentsindifferentlocations.
Introduction ix
human dignity, and human nature,13 to affirm the value of human dignity for
commonhumanityandthejustificationforvariousformsofhumanrights,14andto
endorse that “The notion of human dignity is intimately connected to the corner-
stones of modern human rights thinking.”15 In particular, Perry expounds the
twofold meaning of human dignity for human rights, “…to say that (1) every
humanbeinghasinherentdignityandweshouldliveourlivesaccordingly(thatis,
inawaythatrespectourdignity)istosaythat(2)everyhumanbeinghasinherent
dignity is inviolable: not-to-be violated, in the sense of ‘violate’ just indicated.”16
While we explore the connections between human dignity, human rights, and
socialjustice,wehavetoacknowledgethisinvestigationshouldbeconductedfrom
variousdisciplinaryandculturalperspectives.AsJohnWittesuggests,“Thetaskof
defining the appropriate ambit of human dignity and human rights must be a
multi-disciplinary, multi-religious, and multi-cultural exercise.”17 Freeman also
expresses the idea of human rights as a topic which different disciplines engage in
and should work together for by saying “the concept of human rights lies in the
domain in which normative philosophy, law and social science meet” and
“human-rights law is inadequate without support from the social sciences; and the
social sciences are inadequate without from philosophy.”18
From cultural and religious perspectives, the issues of social justice and human
rights are studied by different religions and through inter-religious dialogue. In the
case of Christianity, the topic of social justice has been considered one that public
theology has to address. Nicholas Sagovsky claims, “Since the end of the Second
WorldWar,onecrucialtaskforpublictheologyhasbeentosupporttheinstitutions
and political practice of democratic states publicly committed to social justice.
A key task for public theology today is to articulate in a secular public sphere the
fundamentalChristiancommitmenttothestruggleforsocialjustice.”19Thispublic
theological commitment is also to include the issue of human rights. John Witte
highlights thecontributionof Christianity to thepublic discourse on the scope and
13Mieth[6].
14SeeGilabert[7].
15Roger Brownsword, “Human Dignity from a Legal Perspective,” in Düwell, et al. eds., The
CambridgeHandbookofHumanDignity,p.1.
16Perry,TowardsaTheoryofHumanRights,p.6.
17Witte[8].
18Freeman,HumanRights:AnInterdisciplinaryApproach,pp.117–118.
19Sagovsky[9].AlsoseeForrester[10].Ofcourse,weneedtobeawareoftherelationofvarious
religionstosocialjustice,seePalmer[11].
x Introduction
substance of human rights protections20 while he simultaneously attempts to dis-
covertheengagementwithhumanrightsbydifferentreligiousresources.21Among
these resources, and in the Chinese context, Confucianism provides its own
understanding of social justice and human rights.22 We believe this
multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural, and multi-religious method will contribute to the
understanding of the complex, the richness, and challenge regarding social justice
and human rights and its inherent problem of human dignity.
Rationale for the Volume
This volume addresses the questions raised above through philosophical, theolog-
ical, sociological, political, and legal perspectives and these are placed in dialogue
between the Chinese and other global settings. We are concerned with the norms
regarding human dignity, human rights, and social justice while we take seriously
into account their practice. This volume presents the significance, challenges, and
constraints of human dignity inhuman rightsand social justice, rather than simply
support or undermine their affinity. In this way, we aim to further the discourse.
This volume consists of two main sections. The first section examines Chinese
perspectives on human rights and social justice, in which both from Confucianism
andChristianityareconsideredandtheissuessuchaspatriotism,religiousfreedom,
petition, social protest, the rights of marginalized people, and sexual violence are
studied. Several questions regarding the theory and practice of human rights and
social justice in the Chinese context are raised: What’s the role of social justice in
Confucianism? What’s the Confucian contribution to human rights and human
dignity in light of human nature and virtues? What’s the contribution and limita-
tionsofChristiantheologyonhumanityandlove,inparticular,inunderstandingthe
problem of human rights and social justice in China? What’s the role of political
authority and governance in the protection of human rights (including religious
rights)? What kind of state-society relations can advance social justice and human
rights in China? These studies demonstrate the significance of such ideas as the
communalaspectofsocialjustice,benevolentrule,virtueapproachtohumanrights,
affective care in governance, and a loving, forgiving, and dignified manner in
pursuing justice and human rights in the Chinese context.
20WitteandLatterell[12].AlsoseeWitteandAlexander[13].
21SeeWitteandGreen[14].
22On social justice, see Joseph Chan, “Confucianism: Historical Settings,” in Palmer, ed., The
Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Religion and Social Justice, pp. 77–92 and Stephen C. Angel,
“Confucianism: Contemporary Expression,” in Palmer, ed., The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to
ReligionandSocialJustice,pp.93–109.Onhumanrights,seedeBaryandWeiming[15].One
exampleofcomparativestudyonhumanrightsbetweenConfucianismandChristianityisLai[16].
Onhumandignity,agoodexampleisZhang[17].
Introduction xi
ManyoftheauthorsofthesecondsectionareChristianpublictheologians.They
examine the influence of Christian thought and practice in the issues of human
rights andsocialjustice descriptively andprescriptivelyand addressissues suchas
religious laws and rights, diaconia, majoritarianism, general equality,
social-economic disparities, and climate justice from global perspectives including
in the contexts of America, Australia, Israel, and Europe. Several points are
addressed here: common good, human responsibilities, Christian responsibility,
social diversity, etc.
The contributors to this volume are from mainland China, Hong Kong, South
Korea, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Norway, and the United States,
etc. Their various academic disciplines and contextual geographical locations
provide important cross-cultural and interdisciplinary insights and perspectives on
thechallengesandopportunitiesofhumandignity,humanrights,andsocialjustice
intheory and practice. Many pointsof common concerns regardingthetopic draw
theseessaystogethersuchasthehumanaspectofhumanrights,Christianidentity,
the problem of minority or marginalized people, the relation between individual,
community, and state, all of which contribute to our thinking and efforts toward a
responsibleandhumanisticsocialjusticeinourworldtoday.Itisourhopethatthis
volumewillopenupaconversationonthepublic,social,andmoralissuesinglobal
settings from Christian, Confucian, and different disciplines’ perspectives while
engagingtheideasdevelopedintheWestfromspecialChinesecontextandissues.
We look forward to further engagement from those scholars who are interested in
the roles of religions in the public sphere, the interface, and inter-relationship of
religion, politics, and society, and Chinese culture, religion, and society.
References
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UniversityPress.
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3. Michael,F.(2011).Humanrights:Aninterdisciplinaryapproach(p.68).Cambridge:Polity
Press.
4. Marcus,D.(2014).Humandignity:Concepts,discussions,philosophicalperspectives.InD.
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Interdisciplinaryperspectives(p.30).Cambridge,UK:CambridgeUniversityPress.
5. Aharon, B., trans. D. Kayros. (2015). Human dignity: The constitutional value and the
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