Gudmundur Alfredsson

Professor Li, Professor Sang, President Tsui, all our dignitaries, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to get some help with interpretation.

In 2011, the UN General Assembly adopted a new declaration on human rights education and training. It was more than 60 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—high time—but it’s a good declaration from 2011. It addresses human rights education at all school levels, in all disciplines, and for a variety of relevant officials.  It makes good sense and is absolutely essential for the successful introduction of a human rights culture where people will know their rights, and where officials will know how to conduct their business and know the limits of their power.

I’ve been engaged in this type of work for some 30 years now, much of it in human rights education and training, also in some technical cooperation and monitoring work, and I thought today, with this event, it was a good occasion to maybe draw a few lessons—I could go on for a long time—but I wanted to mention four lessons that one has acquired from this experience.

1. Human rights are popular. People want human rights for themselves, and people want to know what are their rights. There is a thirst for this knowledge. And in my mind, notwithstanding all the possible theories you have backing up human rights, this is the strongest theoretical background for human rights and human rights education that I have been able to come up with.

2. I believe a good basis for human rights education are the international standards—of course combined with international law. But the international standards do have the advantage of coming along with the consent of states when treaties are ratified, when customary law emerges. And that way, we overcome our void—the differences that will flow from philosophical or religious or political approaches to human rights, so I believe international human rights law has a great future and a great reason for us to promote it further.

3. Human rights education should be separated from human rights monitoring. Human rights education should be positive, based on the legal standards we have, and is for people in each country to learn the lessons from that and import them and implement them when they see fit.

4. And I think that will be the final lesson that I mention today, it’s nice to work in the field of human rights education because you meet interesting people. You meet people who are engaged and involved and very often committed to new developments in society. Things are happening and I think a good demonstration for that in a way is my own limited experience in China. I came here first 20 years ago, and we were allowed to organize meetings on international law, but not on human rights. We were, in the first several years, having a monologue in these meetings. Foreigners would speak and Chinese delegation would politely listen. This period was followed by a dialogue—when the foreigners would speak, and it was a Chinese position, but it seemed as though all the Chinese in the room had the same opinion. Today, and now for several years, in the human rights education room, there is a lot of opinions. There is a multilogue—the Chinese discuss among themselves, they do not always agree, they certainly feel free to disagree with us foreigners, engage their lively discussion, and I find this development is very veryencouraging, and demonstration of the art of the possible and of the good and interesting people you meet.

During my work in China, I’ve mainly been associated or attached to two great institutions, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights from Sweden, and more recently, with China University of Political Science and Law, and their Human Rights Institute, now one of the national centers for human rights education. I’ve just been there for two weeks in a summer school for human rights. This spring I was there teaching a whole course in the master’s program, and I must say, I find that experience also very encouraging, in terms of the students, the staff, the research being undertaken, new publications, the type of human rights spirit in the air that eventually is going to make a difference. This may be difficult for ？---？to translate because he is the director of the institute, but I ask him to translate it faithfully anyway.

I want to say many things for the prize that I have just been awarded. I got a translation of a statement describing my activities, and it was so nice and so positive. I am not sure I recognized everything in it, but it was heartwarming. I accept this prize with humility and gratitude, and in my mind, more than anything else, it will serve as encouragement to continue doing more of the same thing. Thank you very much.

Gudmundur Alfredsson