ABSTRACT
Li Buyun, vice-director of the Human Rights Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, has been one of the influential voices of human rights. His main argument is, that prior to any legal rights people have due rights, is important, since it seeks to establish a ground for human rights independent of the state, yet without falling back on earlier Western ideas about natural rights. He explains that in all countries, but especially those with weak democratic traditions, legal rights often fail to be translated into real rights-that is, rights that people enjoy. He argues that our due rights derive from a combination of our biological and social natures, and that far from being mere abstractions, they concretely exist in social practices and norms. He believes that we may differentiate human rights from the perspective of the forms in which they are realized and exist, and so distinguish them as: due rights, legal rights, and real rights.
