In the past decade, the international community has generally felt China’s proactive role in the international human rights discourse. China has made substantive contributions in the creation of international human rights law and continues to promote a global moral consensus view of human rights. Additionally, China regularly and positively interacts with international human rights mechanisms such as the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and special procedures and treaty bodies. It practises the principles of respect, dialogue and cooperation rather than confrontation, while resisting politicization, selectivity and double standards. Since China emphasizes economic, social and cultural rights, there is an impression that it ignores civil and political rights or selectively safeguards human rights. This conclusion is difficult to support when we review the recent movements within Chinese policy and judicature when it comes to human rights. Considering its positive commitment to civil and political rights during the third UPR and in its fourth National Human Rights Action Plan, China is expected to make substantive progress in the comprehensive, balanced protection of all human rights.

Preferential trade agreements (PTAs) have been estimated to increase bilateral foreign direct investment (FDI) between the signing countries. There is, however, significant heterogeneity between PTAs, and, with increasing frequency, several non-trade issues (NTIs) are also incorporated into PTAs. These include provisions on political and civil rights, economic and social rights, and environmental protection measures. Given the overall intrinsic heterogeneity in PTAs, it is relevant to analyse which of their characteristics are driving the increase in bilateral FDI flows after signing a trade agreement. The chapter uses a structural gravity model of FDI to empirically test the specific relation between non-trade provisions contained in preferential trade agreements with bilateral FDI. It is found that NTI provisions have, if any, a positive relation with bilateral FDI. The civil and political rights (CPR) index has a positive, significant and robust relation with bilateral FDI. However, the other two indicators, economic and social rights (ESR) and environmental protection (EP), usually have positive coefficient signs, but they are not robust to different specifications. The policy implications of these results are that we do not find any negative relation between including more and/or stronger non-trade provision in trade agreements and FDI flows.

This chapter explores the emergence of a distinct right to artistic freedom in international human rights law. It starts with an exploration of the input of constitutional traditions, as well as State practice and arguments brought by delegates during the drafting process of article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with respect to freedom of creativity. It further provides an exhaustive examination of the legal instruments protecting freedom of enjoyment of the arts as an individual right, as well as its collective dimension. In particular, the chapter adopts a twofold approach to artistic freedom, viewed both as a component of freedom of expression (the ‘free speech’ approach) under article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and as a cultural right under article 15 of the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Finally, the chapter thoroughly explores the scope and institutional protection of artistic freedom in the practice of international and regional human rights bodies (including but not limited to the European Court of Human RIgths), as well as the UN Specialized Agency for Science Education and Culture (UNESCO).

Explores the contents of the thousands of Urgent Action alerts issued by Amnesty International from 1975-2007 on behalf of individuals at risk from human rights violations. The chapter references to care, law, and justice as part of a distinctive culture of human rights argument. By analyzing references to law and aspects of justice in the thousands of UAs, the chapter charts change and continuity in human rights appeals over many years. Throughout the time period, the alerts give voice to the active care found in the justice of neighborhood by expressing, for example, fear for a person’s safety, and by inquiring about alleged ill-treatment of people by authorities or their agents. Appeals to global human rights norms in the documents indicate the emerging importance of law as a tool for the political realization of justice at the global level.

International cooperation finds application in a wide variety of domains, including peace and security, human rights, international economic relations, development and many others. This chapter considers the provision for international cooperation under specific treaty regimes as well as in the context of particular rights. Given the cross-cutting nature of international cooperation, the aim is to provide an insight into the way international cooperation can operate in practice to establish altruistic legal relationships as well as create regulatory spaces for altruistic behaviour.