Citizenship, Equality, and Reformation of Household Registration System in China from the Perspective of International Human Rights Perspective
LI, CHENG
1. Background Description of the Household Registration System
The household registration system, which is also called HuKou system in China, has imposed strict limitation on ordinary Chinese citizens changing their permanent place of residence since 1950s. According to the place of residence, Chinese are categorized as “agricultural resident” and “non-agricultural resident”. Authorities issue citizens hukou identification through a registration system, and the parents pass their hukou status to their children, which constitute an inheritable social identities and status. This system traditionally served the main purpose of resources distribution and migration control. On the basis of the household registration system, the people with “agricultural resident” identification are treated differently compared with the people with “non-agricultural resident” identification in several areas.
Household Registration System is a very cultural system in China, based on which a series of human rights problems have risen, besides the right to freedom of movement. The country's transition from a planned economy to market socialism and from a totalitarian state to a democratizing authoritarian state has given rise to perhaps the most spectacular human movement in history. Despite the rapid development of economy and transition of the society, the attendant effect of the household registration system which is a product of the time of planed economy still in place prevents those agricultural residents and migrants from having equal access to healthcare and work benefits, and make obstacle for migrants’ children from equal access to education. A Chinese scholar concluded that the hukou system has been “affixing people’s social career, role, personal identity, production and living space; restricting the free migration of people and labor; maintaining and strengthening the dual economic and social structure between the urban and rural areas.”[1]
As regards the household registration system, during the recent years the Chinese national government and some local governments have made some sporadic reformations as response to it; however, the outcome is not so good as they thought before, accompanied with a lot of criticism. In 2004, the Amendment of Constitutional Law was adopted with the articulation of “The state respect and protect human rights”. Therefore, now in 2007 the national government is doing the legislation survey and study, which aims at the adoption of new HuKou law and further reformation.
2．Project Description
This project intends to describe this special household registration system in China and its attendant and discriminatory function for different Chinese citizens, and then analyze what human right problems have been caused when related to the international human rights Covenants and, how the Chinese government makes response to the problems. Furthermore, this thesis attempts to point out the new challenges China has to be faced with by the operation of the household registration system after the signature of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the ratification of International Covenant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights. And finally, this thesis, according to China’s special economic and social situation, tries to make recommendation of the way of the effective implementation of the international human rights instruments or human right standards in the household registration system practice of China.
2. Research Sub-issues
The point of departure of the thesis is the principle of non-discrimination on the ground of “Social Origin” explicitly regulated in Art.2 in ICCPR and Art.2 in ICESCR. Vulnerable populations—for instance, rural inhabitants and migrant workers—are still largely excluded from the benefits of China’s economic growth due to both the preferential development of urban areas and to mechanisms such as the household registration system. Thus, this thesis will mainly focus on some issues of household registration system related to ICCPR and ICESCR, however, not discuss the agricultural residents’ violated rights article by article, but by describing the fact and analyzing the situation, it will address the following research questions:
When referring to ICCPR:
- Can the right to freedom of movement be sacrificed due to the control of resources by household registration system? If we can argue the rationality of limitation of freedom of movement in the history under the planed economy, but is the control reasonable or not in contemporary market-oriented China?
- Should people’s freedom of movement be sacrificed due to the control of some targeted people and the public social security?
- Is the policy of inter-migration a kind of discrimination?
For example, to strictly control any migration that changes agricultural or rural hukou to nonagricultural or urban hukou, but without limiting dispersal from urban areas to the countryside.
- If it is unreasonable and discriminatory, thus incompatible with international human rights standards, should the household registration system and can it be changed or abolished overnight in China? And in the coming reformation of household registration system and adoption of new HuKou Law, should the citizens be given the absolute freedom of movement without limitation?
- China has not yet ratified the ICCPR, or confirm the freedom of movement in China’s Constitutional Law, how can the international human right standard be applied in China?
- To what extent, will the reformation of household registration system make contribution to accelerate China’s process to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Right?
When referring to ICESCR:
- How is the different treatment towards agricultural residents, especially as regards the right to work and access to public service, supported by a lot of Chinese administrative regulations and policies, despite the confirmation of equality in China’s Constitutional law? Is the differential treatment a kind of discrimination on the ground of “social origin”?
- Since China has ratified the ICESCR, does it well fulfilled its obligation under the Covenant to prohibit discrimination? Has it taken effective steps to achieve progressively the full realization of the agricultural residents and migrants’ right to work and access to public service? Has it meet its minimum core obligation to ensure the minimum essential levels of the rights?
- As China doesn’t ratify the Optional Protocol of ICESCR which allows individuals to bring complaints about violations of their economic, social, and cultural rights to the attention of the Committee on Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, can the agricultural residents and migrant workers’ relevant rights be well protected through national legal mechanism?
And,
- Shall the ultimate purpose of the reformation of household registration system only focus on the management of personal identification information, or still keep the attendant function of control?
- Are the international human right standards good enough for China to solve its human right problems in the household registration system?
- According to China’s situation, especially the huge population problem, what is the effective way for Chinese government to fulfill its obligation of the international human right instruments? And incorporate international human rights standards into national human right practice?
3. Methodology
Generally speaking, this master thesis will mainly adopt the legal approach and social science approach together to touch different levels of the household registration system. On the vertical level, it will start from the international human right instruments to China’s Constitutional Law, other national legislation and, then the relevant local policies, guidelines, decrees, and etc. On the horizontal level, different national cases will be compared and discussed; data will be collected and analyzed, both of the different treatment towards individuals and the situation of whether government fulfills its obligation. What’s more, this thesis may also adopt some economy approach to discuss the objective reason of the establishment, change and coming reformation of the household registration system.
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[1] Peng Yiyong: “Shehui Zhuyi Shichang Jingji yu hukou tizhi gaige” (Socialist market economy and the reform of the hukou system) in Xuehai, Nanjing, no.5 (1994),39.