Multilingual China through Human Rights Lenses : Comparative Analysis of Laws on Language Rights for Minorities in China from International Humam Rights Law Perspective

Abstract

The primary research question of the thesis is: To what extent are laws on language rights for minorities in China comparable with human rights norms at the international level and the European regional level? Taking the typology of ¡°trans-judicial communication¡± as the analogy, the comparative study of this research is intending to create a communicative diagram regarding the certain legal phenomenon, namely language rights for minorities, under international and European human rights laws, and the Chinese laws.

From this study, tentative conclusions and recommendations on Chinese laws are drawn as the following. Firstly, community-based notion of language liberty need to be individualized in Chinese laws, referring to human rights languages under international and European laws. Secondly, the legislations at the ethnic autonomous areas of China as important tool to practice the right to autonomy, should take into account the realities of the localities, but not merely duplicate the laws at upper levels. The flexibility and broad margin of discretion under European laws can be taken as references. Thirdly, diminishing the political slogans among the legal texts, and making the laws coherent and enforceable.