On The Rights Of Foreigners Under International Human Rights Law Perspective

With the trend of economic globalization as well as labor transfer on a global scale, there have been an increasing number of foreigners working in China. This fact requires China to make corresponding adjustment and improvement with regard to the legal status and treatment of foreign workers in China. Meanwhile, given that China has been a signatory of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the contemplation of this issue shall be conducted within a broader framework of International Human Rights Law.This thesis intends to review international and domestic legal documents as well as judicial practices with regard to foreigners' right to work by means of documentation analysis and comparative studies, and conduct empirical analysis and researches in conjunction with China's current legislation and practice in this field. The main body of this thesis consists of five chapters as follows:ChapterⅠprovides basic theoretical analysis on foreigners' right to work. First, relevant basic concepts will be defined, including the definition of foreigner, right to work, and foreigners' right to work. Then, on this basis, specific regulations concerning foreigners' right to work will be analyzed in conjunction with international legal documents, esp. the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.ChapterⅡfocuses on the international and regional legal framework of the protection upon foreigners' right to work. First, major international and regional legal sources concerning the protection of foreigners' right to work will be analyzed, and a summary of the progress in these fields is made. On this basis, this chapter further demonstrates the regional enforcement framework for the protection of foreigners' right to work. Analysis will be conducted from the relevant enforcement institutions and regional judicial practices; the respective features, advantages and disadvantages of different regional enforcement mechanisms are discussed. ChapterⅢanalyzes the civil legal status of foreigners, which is closely related with foreigners' right to work. This chapter first reviews different kinds of civil legal status of foreigners in the host state, and the close relationship between the extent of foreigners' right to work and foreigners' civil legal status is underlined. Then discussion and comparison of foreigners' treatment relevant with the right to work in different countries is made in conjunction with relevant regional and state practice.ChapterⅣprobes into another important mechanism, work permit for foreigners, which is related with foreigners' right to work. This chapter first reviews the jurisprudential and legal basis of work permit for foreigners, and then makes analysis on its impact upon the realization of foreigner' right to work, in conjunction with state practice in this field.ChapterⅤdiscusses China's protection for foreigners' right to work on both the international law level and the domestic law level. This chapter starts with discussion of China's existing major legal sources in the field of foreigner' right to work, and the major content of foreigners' right to work in China is summarized. On this basis, the author makes comments and analysis upon the status quo of the enforcement of foreigners' right to work in China, and provides relevant suggestion for the improvement of the foreigner' right to work in China.