Wei Jingsheng and original rights

Wei Jingsheng (58) is known as a pro-democracy and human rights activist in China. He is recognized as , perhaps, the best Chinese fighter for human rights against communist dictators of the Peoples Republic of China. Wei Jingsheng spent a total of eighteen years in prison as a dissident charged with “counter revolution propaganda and agitation.” Wei was released from jail in 1997.

In early 1998, he issued a joint statement with Amnesty International in which he spoke about universal human rights that people innately possess:

“Human rights have already been accepted globally as a standard of conduct. … Even autocratic countries, even those countries where slavery is practiced, have to pay lip service to the acceptance and respect -- of human rights principles. (This attitude) creates favourable conditions for those who fight for human rights, freedom and democracy, and gives the people who suffer persecution growing encouragement to fight for the rights which originally belong to them. … Those rights which originally belong to the people have been taken away by the oppressors.”

Wei spoke with such conviction and such certainty about “original rights” that people everywhere possess, regardless of borders or citizenship. Wei believed this so fervently, and spoke out and wrote so adamantly against the oppression of the communist People's Republic of China (PRC) that, as I said earlier, he was imprisoned by the Chinese government. Despite his many years suffering in Chinese prisons and labour camps, he continued speaking out for his belief in democracy and human rights – as though it was irrepressibly fire at the core of his being.

Wei spoke of rights that “originally belong to the people.” What rights was Wei referring to? When he used the word "originally" what did he mean?

Important questions

Do these rights come with adulthood or do children possess them too? Is there a certain age at which these rights begin or an advanced age at which they are lost? Do some people enjoy these rights (whatever they might be) while others do not? Do these “original rights” only exist in this generation or have they existed throughout the ages – regardless of what any government or court declared? Who or What gives these rights?

These are critically important questions. How we answer them will determine how we view and act toward humanity. We must answer these questions as individuals and as nations.

To whom do human rights apply?

Although Wei spoke about human rights as they apply to the Chinese people suffering under a communist regime, parallels can be drawn to “original rights” denied by oppressors to other members of the human community. These “original rights” must begin with the right to life for all other human rights are predicated upon the right to exist being protected.

We know that Wei was speaking about rights that belong to everyone because he spoke about them as global. We know that these rights belong to children because these rights were people’s “originally” – from the beginning.

What did Wei mean by using the word “originally”? When was the origin of human rights? There are clues.

The rights Wei spoke of have the similar attributes and appearance that America’s Founding Fathers envisioned and mentioned in their blazing Declaration of Independence. Therefore, we can reasonably conclude these rights date back at least to the 1700s.

Could it be that such rights might stem from the same origins that utterly convinced abolitionists slavery must end, or those who fought against child labour in England? I am alluding (and I think Wei was too) to some sort of law or standard of behaviour or conduct, defining right and wrong, written deep within humanity’s heart that was originally there.

It does not date back to our births, rather centuries. I submit that whether or not Wei was overtly aware of it, he was touching upon the same truth previous generations understood and spoke openly about, dating back into antiquity.[1]

Wei Jinsheng mentioned in his statement that “human rights have already been accepted globally as a standard of conduct.” He spoke about these human rights being innate to all humanity. Everyone accepts – deep in their heart of hearts – there is a “standard of conduct.” A standard for right and wrong. They may not admit it, but they do. In fact, we know that Wei thought this truth was self-evident because he said that people are aware these rights are originally theirs’ and that oppressors are wrongfully taking them away.

Oppressors

The oppressors are oppressing something that is inalienable to the oppressed. Notice these inalienable human rights are even self-evident to the oppressors who “pay lip service to the acceptance and respect – of human rights principles.” In short, the oppressors, the deniers of universal human rights, know they are doing something wrong and they try to either cover it up or diminish the wrong-doing. They may deny the wrong-doing or try to alter public perceptions of the gravity of their assault on human rights.

Original rights and abortion

In North America, the most glaring example original rights being violated and taken away is in the area of abortion. The original right to life of millions of unborn children have been systematically taken away from them, with the full endorsement of the state. If life begins at conception (and there has never really been any doubt about that) then the right to life exists from life’s origin. Civilized and compasionate societies that truly believe in universal human rights must be supportive to women in crisis pregnancies so they will give life to their babies, and never participate in abortion which is a crime against humanity.

Where do rights come from?

We are still left with a dilemma: Who or What bestows universal human rights that were originally endowed to all humanity? The Declaration of Independence says that inalienable human rights are endowed to humanity by their Creator: God. My own heavily secularized country of Canada has a Preamble to its own Charter of Rights and Freedoms which recognizes “the Supremacy of God”—a lawgiver. It's there.

Who is this God? I mentioned America and Canada. Both counries have their legal roots in British Common Law and Common Law has Christianity at its base. This is not a matter of opinion, it is plain historical record. In 1829, Joseph Storey stated in his inaugural address as Dane Professor of Law at Harvard University, “There has never been a period in which Common Law did not recognize Christianity as laying at its foundation.”[2] Sir Francis Hale said, “Christianity is part of the Common Law of England.”[3] Christ is behind Christianity. Christianity is at the foundation of British Common Law. Rights that were originally there, as inalienable, come from God, not legislatures or Courts -- how ever Supreme they may be.

It has been a decade since Wei Jingsheng issued his human rights statement. I hope he still believes what he said and implied. Original rights still belong to everyone and the oppressors are still on the prowl.

Mark Pickup

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[1] References to the Law of God written on the human heart can be found in Jeremiah 31.33, Hebrews 8.10, Romans 2.14-15, cf Romans 7.21-22.
[2] Quoted in Perry Miller, editor, The Legal Mind in America (New York: Doubleday, 1962), p.178.
[3] Historia Placitorum Coronae, ed. Sollom Emlyn (1736). Also in W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, iv, 1765.