On Theory And Practice Of Human Rights In Europe

At the present time, how to respect human rights and protect them has become a heated topic for research, which helps a lot to spread communication, promote understanding, and expand cooperation between countries in the fields of philosophy, ethics, politics, law, etc. This dissertation tries to take the social modernization in Europe as an angle of view to elaborate on the situation of European human rights in both practice and theory, by which the European human rights' developing process is shown to some extent.This dissertation is composed of three parts: the preface, the body and the conclusion. The preface mainly introduces the gist of the paper, the study already carried out inside and outside China on the European human rights theory and practice, the framework of the paper, the research method used, and the literature application, etc.The body part consists of three sections. First, it analyzes the production of human rights in Europe, which is involved in Chapter One and Chapter Two.Chapter One tries to seek the origin of the European human rights theory in the ideological development of the nature law from the ancient Greece-Rome to the Middle Ages. The ancient Greece-Rome times saw the process of the establishment of the general nature law in which the concepts of equality and universality found their way in the Rome Law. It went from the law of the God to the nature law first, and then from the law of nature to the law of human beings. It laid the foundation for bringing up the theory of human rights. The mediaeval ideologists had the further understanding of the concept of equality. That "everybody is equal in front of the God" also provided the foundation for the common equality later. The ideology of the nature law spread widely in Europe after Renaissance. They have not only become the origin of human rights, but also the basis of the thinking of modernization in Europe.Chapter Two mainly illuminates that in modern times, some political thinkers inherited the ancient Greece-Rome theory of the nature law and the rational form of the Christian theory of the nature law in the Middle Ages. By approaching the state of the nature, they put forward the theory of natural rights which was then applied to individuals. Thus fulfilled the transforming the theory of the nature law into the theory of human rights and the latter exerted a great influence on the capitalist revolutionary practice. The principles of human rights were finally established in the law form in many documents, such as "The Declaration of Independence", and "The Declaration of Human Rights", as well as in the constitutions of many countries. Chapter Three mainly expounds the establishing process of the European human-right mechanism which accounts for the institutional practice of human rights in Europe. This chapter plays the role of linking the preceding to the following in the whole paper. It describes concretely the European human-right mechanism according to "European Convention for Protection of Rights and Fundamental Freedoms" and "European Social Charter", elaborates briefly how human-right mechanism in the European Union was established and developed on the way of integration. It shows that the two mechanisms are different but connected, and operate together in the advancement of European human rights practice.The fourth, fifth, and sixth chapters make up the European human rights practice part.Chapter Four mainly sets forth the fair trial right. By analyzing this right establishment in International Human Rights Treaty and Europe human rights system, it shows that the fair trial right in "European Convention for Protection of Rights and Fundamental Freedoms" impacts on International Human Rights Treaty. By explaining the contents of this right with cases, it fully manifests the legal protection for human rights in Europe. At last, it introduces briefly how the Mid-east European countries have obtained this right after affiliating to "European Convention for Protection of Rights and Fundamental Freedoms", which shows, in turn, the right has certain influence on the Mid-east European countries.Chapter Five mainly describes the protection for the right to education. First, By telling the process of establishing the right to education, it explains the uniformity between this right and the European social modernization advancement; second, by analyzing the protection for this right set up in "The European Human Rights Convention: Protocol No. 1", it explains the attribute of "the first generation of human rights"; through analyzing the protection for the right to education by European Union and the several representative countries in Europe, it explains the attribute of the second and third generations of human rights. Thus it also explains the complexity of the right to education and the unity and multiplicity in Europe regarding the protection for this right.Chapter Six mainly elaborates the environmental right production and its developing process, emphatically the legislation protection by the European Union. Because the environmental protection is one of the important elements that come together with the generalized social modernization, it appeared comparatively later and belongs to "the third generation of human rights". But as soon as it came into being, it attracted much attention of various countries. European Union consummates extremely in legislation protection, and is also developing unceasingly. It has taken a series of measures to assort with other policies so as to protect citizens' right to making good use of their environment. Besides, with "Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation and Access to Justice in Environmental Decision-making" and related instructions, European Union has carried out its protection for the right to environmental information, public participation and environmental relief. Thereby, the omni- protection for the environmental right is set up.In the conclusion part of this paper, it summarizes the European human rights protection, and carries on with the brief explanation of the present situation in China concerning human rights protection, and ends up with some ideas.