Violations Of Political Rights Research Articles

INFORMATION FLOW OF PROTEST MOBILIZATION IN THE RUSSIAN SEGMENT OF SOCIAL MEDIA

This article presents the results of applied political research dedicated to the analysis of information flows of protest mobilization in the Russian segment of the social media. The context of the research is conditioned by the increasing external information pressure, destructive activities of opposition political actors, as well as protest processes in neighboring countries, which are used to implement the technology of contagion and distribution of protest activity on the territory of the Russian Federation. The research methodology is based on the use of a hybrid strategy and a combination of modern methods of socio-media predictive analytics: cognitive mapping of digital content, automated social media analysis, social graph method, and oculometric (eye-track) analysis. According to the results of the study the authors made a conclusion about the significant impact of the special military operation in Ukraine on the level of protest potential in the society: at the start of the special operation the growth of protest sentiments was determined, in the process of implementation the decrease and growth of social consolidation. During 2022 the moderators of protest information flows, following the ‘catch-all’ strategy use a variety of triggers: violation of political rights and freedoms, social problems, new geopolitical challenges. Protest communities generating digital content aimed at protest audiences are characterized by high controllability and density of internal connections. The greatest mobilization efficiency was demonstrated by communities with a high proportion of opinion leaders. At the same time in the process of formation of protest information flows continues to use the technology of demonstration of ‘peaceful’ protest, which allows to scale the user audience. Users characterized by a restlessness, impulsiveness, risky behavioral patterns and an external locus of control demonstrated loyalty to protest content.

Human rights violations and associated factors of the Hijras in Bangladesh-A cross-sectional study.

Hijras in Bangladesh face considerable discrimination, stigma, and violence despite the 2013 legislation that recognized Hijras as a third gender. There is a dearth of published literature describing the extent of human rights violations among this population and their associated factors. A questionnaire was administered to 346 study participants aged 15 years and older, living in five urban cities of Bangladesh who self-identified as Hijra, in 2019. The six human rights violation indicators (Economic, Employment, Health, Education, Social and Civic and Political Right) assessed were categorized as binary. Associations between sociodemographic characteristics and the six human rights violations were tested using univariate and multivariate logistic regression. Human right violations including economic, educational, political, employment, health and social/civil right violations were reported in 73.3%, 59.3%, 58.5%, 46.4%, 42.7%, and 34.4% of the participants, respectively. Economic rights violations were associated with bisexuality (Adjusted odds ratios [AOR] 3.60, 95%CI: 1.57, 8.26) and not living with family (AOR 2.71, 95%CI: 1.21, 6.09), while Hijras who earned more than 10,000 Bangladesh Taka experienced higher odds of educational (AOR 2.77, 95%CI: 1.06, 7.19) and political rights violations (AOR 4.30, 95%CI: 1.06, 7.44). Living in Dhaka city was associated with a reduced odds for economic and political rights violation while experiencing violations of one human right could lead to violation of another in the Hijra community. Human rights violations were common in Bangladesh Hijras, particularly the Bisexual Hijras. Media and educational awareness campaigns are needed to address the underlying roots of a violation. Programs focused on the families, young people and high-income earners of this community are needed in Bangladesh.

Framing enemies by the state television: delegitimization of anti-government protest participants during the first wave of the pandemic in Poland

ABSTRACT This article aims to explain how and why the ruling party used the state television to delegitimize protesters during the first wave of the pandemic in Poland. The main argument is that the limitation of freedom of assembly provided the state-owned broadcaster with a new means of delegitimizing the current enemies. The dominant strategy, outcasting, assumed the categorizing of political opponents as madmen and criminals. By showing the protesters as notorious and multiple offenders, the state television diminished their credibility and deprived them of legitimacy in their political roles in order to stabilize antidemocratic tendencies and reduce the threat of political system breakdown that came from ordinary Poles whose non-compliance took the form of protests and oppositional actors responsible for organizing resistance. The media also addressed the risk stemming from intra-elite splits. The opposition to the democratic backsliding, erosion of the rule of law, and political rights violations, which deviated from the ruling party’s course, was on a par with a revolt over the government. Gaining support for the ruling party and taking it away from its opponents aimed to limit dissidents’ resources and the need to repress them.

Closing the cultural rights gap in transitional justice: Developments from Canada’s National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls

Canada’s National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (the ‘MMIWG Inquiry’) is the latest truth-seeking body to grapple with legacies of violence against indigenous peoples in settler colonial states. While the name, Missing and Murdered, ostensibly limits its scope of application to bodily integrity crimes, the MMIWG Inquiry instead embraced an expansive understanding of violence to encompass gross violations of indigenous cultural rights and cultural harm more generally. This article argues that this holistic approach represents a stark departure from mainstream transitional justice models which have overwhelmingly prioritised the redress of a limited set of civil and political rights violations, while neglecting the underlying structural violence and cultural harm that permeates divided societies. This article advances a case to understand the MMIWG Inquiry as a transitional justice mechanism and draws upon its Final Report to analyse how truth commissions can engage with cultural rights violations in more meaningful ways. By directly and robustly accounting for indigenous cultural harm, the MMIWG Inquiry challenged the conventional parameters of the field and demonstrated the opportunity and utility of addressing cultural rights violations through a transitional justice framework.

ОБМЕЖЕННЯ ПОЛІТИЧНИХ ПРАВ І СВОБОД: НОРМАТИВНІ ПІДСТАВИ, МЕХАНІЗМ РЕАЛІЗАЦІЇ

The article examines the problem of restriction of political rights and freedoms. It is emphasized that the protection against unlawful restrictions on political rights and freedoms is particularly important for the functioning of direct and mediatory democracy. The meaning of the concept of «restriction of rights and freedoms» is analyzed. The article addresses the basic principles which should not be violated when the restriction of rights and freedoms is applied. To achieve this goal, the author analyzes the rules of domestic law, the practice of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the rules of international law governing these issues. The author differentiates political rights and freedoms into those that may be restricted in accordance with the provisions of the Basic Law of Ukraine and those that are not subject to any restrictions; features of realization of political rights and freedoms in comparison with other groups of rights, such as social and economic, cultural are defined. Some of the political rights and freedoms that may be restricted are analyzed and ways to restrict them are identified, in particular: the right to join political parties, suffrage, the right to peaceful assembly, rallies, marches and demonstrations, the right to equal access to public service, freedom words, thoughts, views and beliefs. It is noted that from the standpoint of the ECHR it is important to check whether the possibility of restricting the exercise of the right was provided by law; whether the purpose of such a restriction is legitimate; whether such a restriction is necessary in a democratic society. The legitimate grounds for restricting human rights enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine have been identified: public health; social necessity; rights, freedoms and dignity of citizens; public order; economic well-being; national security; territorial integrity; morality of the population. It is emphasized that in accordance with the practice of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the restriction of the content and scope of rights and freedoms should be considered as a restriction. It is important that all restrictions were established exclusively by the constitution; were not arbitrary and unjust; the law restricting human rights must be of a general nature; restrictions must be proportionate and justified; they must optimally achieve a legitimate goal with minimal interference in the exercise of rights or freedoms, not to violate the essential content of the relevant right. It is determined that special qualification requirements for holding public positions, as well as participation in the electoral process (implementation of active and passive suffrage) cannot be considered restrictions. It is emphasized that the state, represented by its organs, should refrain from unjustified interference with political rights (for example, from discriminatory restrictions on the suspension of political rights of prisoners, violation of electoral secrecy of the ballot); take measures against possible violations of political rights by third parties (individuals, companies, etc.). It is concluded that restrictions on the exercise of political rights of individuals can be introduced either in favor of guaranteeing the rights of other individuals, or in favor of ensuring the functioning of the state. The legitimate exercise of political rights can be restricted only if the general conditions for interfering with fundamental human rights are met.

Profiling of Human Tragedy in Kashmir and Kashmir Movement: Post Revocation of Article 370

This research paper is an attempt to make a comprehensive profile of human tragedies occurred in Kashmir, look into the sources of human tragedies and provide contemporary developments regarding the issue of human tragedy in Kashmir. This paper also highlights the severe crimes being committed in Kashmir which have affected lives of millions of people in living in Kashmir. There are numerous cases which reflect the violation of humanitarian laws in Kashmir by the Indian on ground troops in the valley. This research paper looks at the massive level of violation of human rights protected in UN charter. Pressing problems such as force full abduction, extrajudicial killings, and violation of political rights, liberty and even right to life will be discussed with comprehensive case studies. In later part Kashmir movement will be introduced and will elaborate its effectiveness in resistance against Indian brutalities.

The Significance of Collective Rights to Public Health Development: The Case of Oromia Regional State in Ethiopia

Colonialism is a violation of the collective rights of people. This violation has denied them the right to decide on their social, economic, political, cultural and environmental rights. This has hindered them from building their social, economic, political, cultural and environmental capitals and achieving the highest possible level of physical and social well-being. The essence of collective rights includes the social, economic, political, cultural and environmental rights; all of them are essential to the development of public health. First, as the violation of social rights is an attack on the social wellbeing of people, so the violation of economic rights is an attack on the economic wellbeing. Second, the violation of political rights is taking away the decision making power. The violation of cultural rights is obstructing societies from culturally reproducing themselves and developing problem-solving skills. The violation of environmental rights has caused severe degradation of the natural environment. Violations of those rights act individually and synergistically and hinder the development of public health. The efforts the Oromo people make to assert their collective rights are part-and-parcel of building their social, economic, political, cultural and environmental capacities and promoting health and preventing diseases.

Human Rights as Political Determinants of Health: A Retrospective Study of North Korean Refugees

The gravity, scale, and nature of human rights violations are severe in North Korea. Little is known about the mental health consequences of the lifelong exposures to these violations. In 2014-2015, a retrospective study was conducted among 383 North Korean refugees in South Korea using respondent-driven sampling to access this hidden population. This study collected information on the full range of political and economic rights violations and measured post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression symptoms, and social functioning by standard instruments. Multivariate regression analysis was performed with the adjustment of political, economic, and demographic variables in 2016-2017. The results indicate elevated symptoms of anxiety (60.1%, 95% CI=54.3%, 65.7%), depression (56.3%, 95% CI=50.8%, 61.9%), and post-traumatic stress disorder (22.8%, 95% CI=18.6%, 27.4%), which are significantly associated with exposures to political rights violations (ten to 19 items versus non-exposure: anxiety AOR=16.78, p<0.001, depression AOR=12.52, p<0.001, post-traumatic stress disorder AOR=16.71, p<0.05), and economic rights violations (seven to 13 items versus non-exposure: anxiety AOR=5.68, p<0.001, depression AOR=4.23, p<0.01, post-traumatic stress disorder AOR=5.85, p<0.05). The mean score of social functioning was also lower in those who were exposed to political (adjusted difference= -13.29, p<0.001) and economic rights violations (adjusted difference= -11.20, p<0.001). This study highlights mental health consequences of lifelong human rights violations in North Korea. Beyond the conventional approach, it suggests the need for a collaborative preventive response from global health and human rights activists to address human rights in regard to mental health determinants of the 20 million people in North Korea.

Consent, Repression, and Emerging Student Activism in Northeastern Thailand

AbstractStudent movements in the mid-1970s pushed Thailand toward democratization, but not without great cost. Perceived threats to the Thai monarchy and legitimacy of the military government led to brutal acts of state violence and repression, culminating in the 1976 Thammasat Massacre. More than forty years later, student groups have emerged to protest environmental, social justice, and political rights violations—also under the threat of state repression. Using Gene Sharp’s consent of power theory, which suggests that political power resides within individuals and rulers derive their power from the consent of their subjects, we approach the current political climate in Thailand through the actions of the Dao Din group, a network of students originally from the Faculty of Law at Khon Kaen University. Through a review of primary sources, secondary literature, and a series of unstructured interviews with student activists from Northeastern Thailand, we argue that the contemporary student movement has helped undermine popular legitimacy of Thai coup makers. However, mass mobilization and dissemination of political messaging has remained a challenge due to the severity of state repression. Despite these difficulties, we argue that the Thai junta’s repression tactics have not been completely successful in eroding the political power of student-led movements.

HRMI Civil and Political Rights Metrics: 2018 Technical Note

This paper details a new methodology developed to measure civil and political rights violations in a pilot sample of 13 diverse countries. In doing so, we discuss the problems present in previous attempts to measure civil and political rights cross-nationally and argue that our approach overcomes many of those problems. Using an expert survey that draws on the knowledge of human rights researchers, advocates, lawyers, journalists, and others responsible for directly monitoring the human rights situation in countries worldwide, we present new measures of the intensity and distribution of respect for seven separate areas of civil and political rights and compare those data with existing work. The results demonstrate that our technique for producing data on civil and political rights produces outcomes with strong face validity vis-a-vis existing measures, while providing more and better information than any previous cross-national data collection effort. We aim to extend this approach to most other countries in the world over the coming years.

Can human rights conditionality reduce repression? Examining the European Union’s economic agreements

The insertion of human rights commitments into international economic agreements is now a widespread practice. We argue that the effect of such commitments depends on the degree of leverage held by one partner over the other. In a comprehensive analysis of the European Union’s (EU’s) relations with developing countries, we find that human rights clauses are conditionally effective; they are associated with improved political freedom and physical integrity rights only in countries that are more heavily dependent on EU aid. An in-depth look at the EU’s enforcement of its human rights clause in the African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) group reveals that the Union most often responds to violations of political rights—particularly coups and flawed elections—and that enforcement is indeed a more powerful catalyst for change in highly aid-dependent states. Alternative explanations—that the impact of the human rights clause depends on legalization, the country’s strategic importance, NGO activity, or domestic institutions—find little support.

‘The Cast of the Past’: Truth Commissions and the Making and Marginalization of Identity

While truth commissions have become the ‘go to’ response in the aftermath of violent conflict and human rights abuses, serious critical discussion on the extent to which commissions have tended to shape and reify the identities of victims and perpetrators and obscure the reality of structural culpability is only tentatively emerging in the field. Drawing on the literature from the field of transitional justice, this article critically interrogates the relationship between truth commissions and the three key constituencies of victims, perpetrators and structural actors. It suggests that binary oppositions between victims and perpetrators are frequently privileged, resulting in hierarchal conceptions of innocent victims and guilty perpetrators. These polarized categories fail to reflect the complexity of conflict and promote easy and uncritical allocations of blame and responsibility. It also argues that the capacity of truth commissions to engage with structural actors and the structural causes of conflict is limited due to the influence of human rights and criminal justice on transitional justice and an individualized focus on violations of civil and political rights. An impunity gap is thus created, eliding broader patterns of institutional complicity and responsibility for structural violence, while the focus on civil and political rights violations creates further hierarchies of harm and hierarchies of victimization. The paper concludes that greater recognition of the complexity of identity and involvement in conflict is required to provide a more honest reflection on the past and a more sustainable link between truth telling and peace building.

Rehabilitation and the Right to Health in Times of Transition

The harm to health of victims of civil and political rights abuses has been a focus of some reparations programmes. Rehabilitation has been the primary form of reparation for harm to health. Is this current approach an appropriate response by reparations programmes to violations of the right to health during conflict or repression? Given the nature of right to health violations in conflict or repression, we suggest that reparations programmes should broaden their focus to also address not only the health consequences of civil and political rights violations, but also the destruction or neglect of the health system, and policies which harm health. We consider whether rehabilitation is the only suitable form of reparation for such abuses. We also consider the relationship between the fields of transitional justice and public health in periods of transition, including whether some conflict-related right to health violations should be addressed in the health sector rather than reparations programmes and, if so, how this can be done successfully.

Structural Violence, Socioeconomic Rights, and Transformative Justice

This article provides a critique of the scope of existing models of transitional justice, which focus on legal and quasi-legal remedies for a narrow set of civil and political rights violations. The article highlights the significance of structural violence in producing and reproducing violations of human rights, particularly of socioeconomic rights. There is a need to utilize a different toolkit and a different understanding of human rights from that typically employed in transitional justice in order to remedy structural violations of human rights. Focusing on a case study of land inequalities in postapartheid South Africa, the potential for transformative (rather than transitional) justice in postconflict and postauthoritarian contexts is discussed. The article outlines a definition of transformative justice, relevant actors, and relationships for such an agenda and discusses the kinds of strategies that promise a more transformative approach.

Forced-Urbanization: The Alienation of Urbanization in China

Aims: Forced-urbanization that deviates from the intended purposes can lead to the alienation of some societies, especially those that had been forced to migrate to urban areas. This holds potential threats to the sustainable development of the urbanized communities. This likelihood mainly comes through the erosion of well being rights and lack of improvement of social welfare for migrated communities. Rooted in GDP-oriented mechanical paradigm, forced-urbanization damages the dynamic mechanism of urban. The New-style Urbanization strategy proposed by Chinese Government in 2011 which seeks to curb the forced-urbanization. The research tries to answer the question i.e. could the New-style Urbanization really curb the forced-urbanization in China? Study Design: China’ urbanization is a process of wellbeing rights erosion which is described as Forced-urbanization. The research begins with the harm caused by Forced-urbanization, and then focuses on the generation logic of Forced-urbanization. After that, a discussion about the effect of New-Style Urbanization Strategy to curb the Forced-urbanization is taken. Methodology: This research did a random survey of 210 landless farmers in some provinces such Original Research Article Cheng; AJAEES, 6(3): 126-135, 2015; Article no.AJAEES.2015.070 127 as Jiangsu, Shandong, Sichuan and Fujian etc. in 2010 and 2011. The main aim of the survey was to understand some special issues, such as the identity and role confirmation, recognition of urban life and the emotional memory of the respondents. Results: Forced-urbanization has caused serious harm to farmers, including restriction on economic rights, violation of political rights, and deprivation of migrants’ cultural rights. The foundation of civil social supports was damaged as well in the process. The primary reason of forced-urbanization is that the value paradigm of urbanization in China was GDP-oriented rather than wellbeing-oriented. In order to curb the forced-urbanization, Chinese Government established New-style Urbanization Strategy in 2012. The random survey shows that some kinds of risks of forced-urbanization still exist in the implementation process of New-style Urbanization strategy. Conclusion: It is necessary to avoid the unintended purposes of New-style Urbanization by breaking the generation logic of forced-urbanization. Some local governments have offered certain successful experiences. But there is still a long way to go because of some real constraints. However, the way out of forced-urbanization in China is still urbanization but preferably through the New-style Urbanization strategy that takes various possibilities into consideration.

Electoral Rights: Concept and Theory

This paper attempted to analyze electoral rights, how it develops within the democratic framework and its correlation with universal and regional human rights charters. The exercise of right to vote adds to the individual’s self-respect, dignity, sense of responsibility, political and civic education. In the democracy, if the election is unable to be organized in a regular interval, that may not be treated as democracy on the one hand, and violation of political right like electoral rights on the other. Electoral rights -- those political rights, the right to vote and right to be candidate is the most important political right which is treated as electoral rights. It concluded with observation citing the nuance of electoral rights. Indeed it is an attempt to develop a conceptual thought for the understanding of electoral integrity.

Old Questions in New Boxes: Mia Kirshner's I Live Here and the Problematics of Transnational Witnessing

Old Questions in New Boxes: Mia Kirshner's I Live Here and the Problematics of Transnational Witnessing Elizabeth Swanson Goldberg (bio) and Alexandra Schultheis Moore (bio) Symbolized in Amnesty International's candle illuminating the darkness, the rhetoric of exposure has long been a central trope of humanitarian discourse: the promise of revelation presumes that egregious violations are otherwise secret and that, in Thomas Keenan's words, "those agents whose behavior it wishes to affect—governments, armies, businesses, and militias—are exposed in some significant way to the force of public opinion, and that they are (psychically or emotionally) structured like individuals in a strong social or cultural context that renders them vulnerable to feelings of dishonor, embarrassment, disgrace, or ignominy." 1 Despite the implausibility of these conditions, as well as the dangers of oversaturation, "mass and especially the image-based media" have only accentuated the ostensible self-evidence of this approach. 2 The rhetoric of exposure posits a liberal subject as its addressee who is ready and willing to respond to humanitarian appeals constructed through an "aesthetics of suffering," particularly in the form of indignation-inducing shock or the representation of victims who are "deserving" of aid or assistance. 3 Such familiar humanitarian narratives comprise, as Lilie Chouliaraki writes, "rhetorical practices of transnational actors that engage with universal ethical claims, such as common humanity or global civil society, to mobilize action on human suffering." 4 In her recent scholarship, Chouliaraki traces the contemporary movement from these rhetorical practices to a new "post-humanitarian sensibility"—one she locates explicitly in mixed-media humanitarian appeals—that "breaks with [the emotional repertoire of] pity and privileges a short-term and low-intensity form of agency, which is no longer inspired by an intellectual agenda but momentarily engages us in practices of playful consumerism." 5 The humanitarian rhetorics she identifies at both poles, whether based on shared sentiment "in a moral economy of abundance, an economy where everyone can, in principle, feel for and act on distant suffering in an unrestricted manner" or appeals operating in an "economy of scarcity" and through the "individual judgment" of the consumer, pose particular challenges for a transnational feminist approach to gender-based rights violations. 6 We turn to a case study of the Canadian actress and self-styled activist Mia Kirshner's multimedia project I Live Here to illuminate both the contradictions and the potential embedded in its construction of transnational subjects and addressees, as well as to resist the collapse of "transnational" into a presumed universalism of either [End Page 233] capitalist or post-Enlightenment humanitarian sensibilities. Executed with support from Amnesty International and linked to a website featuring book sales, short videos, fan art, and descriptions of ongoing projects, I Live Here encourages consumption of its diverse texts "revealing secret lives" as a means of raising awareness and mobilizing public opinion against the violations it chronicles. 7 The project is presented in a whitewashed box which folds out to reveal one eighty-four-page "notebook" in each of its four pockets, each claiming to bear witness to the experiences of people living in a distinct region in the grip of a distinct human rights or humanitarian crisis. The goal of our inquiry into I Live Here is to further ongoing intellectual conversations about the potential for literary and cultural texts to ethically advance the emancipatory and progressive aspects of global human rights claims and cultures—and about the risks that they may instead remain aestheticized commodities, nourishing the neo-imperialist global capitalism that is so profoundly implicated in conditions enabling both civil and political rights violations and economic deprivations and abuses. In an essay on the "geopolitical rhetorics" of human rights responses to the global sex trade, Wendy Hesford examines the trope of exposure and argues that campaigns based on that trope "overlook the rhetorical-geopolitical dimensions of identity and identification practices produced by the contradictions of transnationality." 8 We extend Hesford's argument in order to decipher the transnational address of I Live Here at our particular historical moment. The text, which depicts women's vulnerability, sexual abuses, and sex work in Chechnya/Ingushetia, Burma, Ciudad Juárez, and Malawi, begins with the statement...

Political space in Vietnam: a view from the ‘rice-roots'

Single-party, authoritarian states such as Vietnam are frequently characterised as having ‘closed’ political opportunity structures and ‘un-free’ socio-political systems. The validity of this observation depends, however, on the viewer's frame of reference. Seen from the perspective of active citizens, Vietnamese political structures offer increasingly greater space for collective action than a state-centred institutional analysis would predict. Episodes of contentious politics surrounding land disputes and public parks during 2007 provide evidence of the changing dynamics of participation in politics. Actors involved in these and similar campaigns are broadly optimistic about the future prospects for an opening of political space within the existing system. These findings are contrasted with international reports of violations of political rights and with the Vietnamese government's own efforts at legal reform. Although signals remain mixed, to some extent Vietnam might be becoming a ‘rice-roots democracy’ in practice, while remaining a single-party state. The voices and experiences of civil society actors will continue to shape opportunities and risks in the expansion of political space.

Plunder and Pain: Should Transitional Justice Engage with Corruption and Economic Crimes?

This article examines the various points at which accountability for economic crimes, including large-scale corruption, intersects with accountability for human rights violations. To date, transitional justice has largely compartmentalized legacies of abuse into those based on a narrow set of human rights violations and those based on economic crimes, which the author argues is an inadequate way to address both sets of abuses. Because corruption and human rights violations are mutually reinforcing forms of abuse, the field of transitional justice should approach economic crimes in the same way it approaches civil and political rights violations. The author suggests that traditional transitional justice mechanisms would be strengthened by an engagement with corruption and economic crimes, which would allow for both sources of impunity to be confronted.

The “Active Rightists” of 1957 and Their Legacy: “Right-wing Intellectuals,” Revisionists, and Rights Defenders

In this article, Chen Ziming makes use of recent publications and many first-hand witness accounts to bring a new perspective to the Anti-Rightist Campaign of 1957. The first part draws a distinction between “active rightists” (zhudong youpai) and “passive rightists” (beidong youpai)and further divides the former category into three groups: “right-wing intellectuals”, “revisionists” and “rights defenders, analysing the specificities of and differences between these groups. While the “right-wing intellectuals” consisted of democratic personalities influential prior to 1949, particularly Zhang Bojun and Luo Longji, who advocated “changing the constitution and the mode of government,” the “revisionists” encompassed intellectuals within the Party (Li Shenzhi and Liu Binyan) as well as students raised “under the red flag” (Lin Xiling and Tan Tianrong). Influenced by recent developments within the communist camp, they denounced the personality cult and the excesses of the system and called for a change of political and ideological line in favour of a “great democracy.” The “rights defenders” referred to the constitution of the People’s Republic of China to denounce violations of political rights (in particular during political campaigns), and of individual freedoms, economic and social rights, as well as the absence of liberty in the scientific, cultural, and artistic spheres (epitomized by the suppression of entire academic fields such as law, political science, and sociology). The last part of the article highlights the legacy of the movement, and describes how its ideas have been taken further by various forces campaigning for a democratisation of China. For this issue of China Perspectives, we have chosen to publish a full translation of the part of Chen Ziming’s essay that deals with the first group of rightists, the “right-wing intellectuals,” as well as substantial extracts from the last part. (Editor’s note)