Human Rights and Democracy with Chinese Characteristics?

ISDP FORUM with Dr. Phil C.W. Chan

Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law (University of Lapland).

Comments by Prof. Tony Fang, PhD, Stockholm Business School (Stockholm University).

Tuesday, November 10, 2015, 10.00-11.30

Criticism has long been laid about China’s unwillingness to subscribe to international human rights norms, the rule of law, and liberal democratic practices. The United Nations and Western States and scholars have argued that human rights and liberal democracy underlain by a Western rule-of-law model are prerequisites to human development and governmental legitimacy.

Is authoritarianism in China incompatible with human rights and democracy? Is the rule of law rejected entirely by the state apparatuses in China? Is there really no human rights protection under China’s Constitution and laws? Has China’s approach to international human rights law evolved since its realization of the roles it may play in shaping international law? What do the Chinese people think or want about China’s political reform vis-à-vis human rights and democratic practices?

The Institute for Security and Development Policy is delighted to invite you to our upcoming ISDP Forum. Join us on Tuesday, November 10, from 10.00 to 11.30.

The key-note speaker of the event will be Dr. Phil C.W. Chan from the University of Lapland. Dr. Tony Fang from Stockholm University will offer his insights and commentaries, and a Q&A session with the audience will follow.

Dr. Phil C.W. Chan is Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Northern Institute for Environmental and Minority Law, University of Lapland. A lawyer by training with a Ph.D. from the National University of Singapore, he has worked in Law, International Relations and Asian Studies at universities in Europe, Asia, Australasia, North America and the Middle East. He is author of China, State Sovereignty and International Legal Order (2015) and over 30 refereed original journal articles.

Prof. Tony Fang, PhD, is Professor of Business Administration at Stockholm Business School of Stockholm University, Sweden. He specializes in cross-cultural leadership and intercultural communication, Chinese business studies, and Chinese political science. Prof. Fang was earlier a Visiting Scholar of the Political Science Department at the Massachussets Institute for Technology (MIT), hosted by Prof. Lucian W. Pye. Prof. Fang is author of Chinese Business Negotiating Style, Att göra affärer i dagens Kina, and Yin Yang: A New Perspective on Culture.

 

Photo credit: Flickr user Max Brown

Location: ISDP, Västra Finnbodavägen 2, Stockholm-Nacka. Follow this link for a map.

To attend: RSVP to Mr. Simone Cappati at scappati@isdp.eu