The Dislocation of the Chinese Human Rights Movement

Abstract:     
This article argues that the increasing number of repressive strikes against human rights lawyers, petitioners, and civil society organizations are disquieting symptoms of a wider, intellectual shift that has occurred over the past few years. This shift has included official and academic attempts at a conceptual dilution of rights, for instance through the confusing rhetoric of ‘harmonious adjudication’ and ‘harmony rights;’ and a shift toward anti-rationalism in judicial processes, for instance through the propagation of the ‘Three Supremes’ doctrine and a reversion to more authoritarian practices of settling disputes. Its problematic further consequence has been the human rights movement’s dislocation, its forced migration into spaces and forms of expression far removed from the – in crucial areas - increasingly inoperable law of state institutions.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 19

Keywords: China, human rights, social movements, human rights defenders, harmony

Accepted Paper Series