Laureate of 2025 Li Buyun Law Prize: Zhang Yonghe
Zhang Yonghe is a Grade 2 Professor and doctoral supervisor. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Human Rights Institute of Southwest University of Political Science and Law, Chief Expert of the National High- Level Think Tank Development and Cultivation Unit, and a member of the university’s Academic Degree Committee. He also serves as an executive council member of the China Society for Human Rights Studies, an executive council member of the Human Rights Development and Exchange Center of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, a council member of the China Human Rights Development Foundation, and the special expert of the Chongqing Municipal Government’s International Communication Expert Committee.
Professor Zhang Yonghe graduated from Chongqing Second Normal University in 1982, obtained his Master's degree from Southwest University of Political Science and Law in 1991, and earned his Ph.D. from Yunnan University in 2005. He has long been dedicated to the study of human rights law, legal theory, socio-legal studies, and legal anthropology.
Professor Zhang's human rights theory is characterized by distinct Chinese features. His master's thesis, "On Human Rights Protection," completed in 1991, is one of the earliest academic works in China focusing on human rights. This work marks the early start of his academic exploration into human rights issues. He consistently emphasizes that human rights are historical, specific, and practical, and should not be discussed in abstraction from a country’s social political conditions and historical cultural traditions.
Regarding the issue of the right to development, Professor Zhang Yonghe put forward the important view that “the right to development is an eternal right of humankind,” arguing that the right to development is the enduring main theme of human civilization and should not be confined to the traditional understanding that it pertains only to developing countries. He also introduced the concept of the “right to peaceful development,” which has had a certain influence internationally.
Professor Zhang values empirical investigation. He has led multiple research projects on petition system reform, grassroots jury systems, urban management law enforcement, court mediation, and more, producing works such as Lintong Petitions, Wuhou Jury, and Dayi Mediation. In recent years, he has led research teams to conduct fieldwork in border regions, resulting in more than a dozen independent reports in Chinese and English, presenting China’s human rights progress to the international community.
Professor Zhang has published monographs including The Origin of Rights, Faith and Authority, and The Meaning of Law, and co authored The Chinese Approach to Human Rights Protection Worldwide, which has been published in seven languages. He has edited works such as Marx and Engels on Human Rights: Texts and Interpretations and Human Rights Stories in China’s New Era, and contributed to the script of the CCTV political documentary Human Rights in China’s New Era. He has published numerous articles in leading journals such as Chinese Journal of Law, Legal Studies, and Political Science and Law Forum, many of which have been reprinted by Xinhua Digest, China Social Sciences Digest, and others.
Professor Zhang has led his team in securing national level platforms such as the “National High-End Think Tank Construction and Cultivation Unit” and the “National Human Rights Education and Training Base,” and established the “Chongqing Yige Social Development Promotion Center,” which holds UN ECOSOC consultative status. He has organized the drafting of over one hundred policy advisory reports that received positive instructions from central leadership, participated in the drafting of several human rights white papers, and led the Assessment Report on the Implementation of the National Human Rights Action Plan (2016–2020).
Professor Zhang is also active in international human rights exchanges. He has spoken multiple times at sessions of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva and has organized teams to submit nearly 20 shadow reports to the Council, explaining China’s human rights situation and telling China’s human rights stories. He actively participates in global human rights governance and promotes China’s constructive role in UN human rights affairs.
