This is also the core of the so-called receptor approach to human rights being developed by a group of academics, including scholars from the International Law Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Law School of Shandong University. This concept assumes that the state's duty to fulfill a particular human rights obligation can be matched by values and social institutions other than law.

Underlying this approach is the idea that international obligations can be performed while taking the local cultural, social and political context into account. The concept is based on the idea that human rights will only be effective if they spring from local values.

This calls for a bottom-up approach, which emphasizes the importance of local values and culture, while being complemented by the international legal order. This bottom-up approach matches the Chinese perspective on Sino-African relations.

China is promoting the right to education by sending teachers to schools in Africa and by offering scholarships to African students to study in Chinese universities. It is also promoting the right to health by sending doctors and nurses to treat patients in Africa. And through its investment in the African economies, it is creating jobs and helping reduce poverty.

But there is also need for China to address the Western audience to clear misgivings over its engagement in Africa, especially on the human rights front. The Chinese Dream deserves to be shared with people outside China as well.

Such efforts will be supported by the "Cross-cultural Human Rights Centre" that is being set up in The Hague, the Netherlands, which is a collaborative effort of scholars from across the world, mainly from China and Africa, who share the idea that local culture is an important building block for human rights protection. The role of the center will be to highlight Chinese and African views on human rights in a way which will help Westerners to understand them better.

The author is professor at Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

(China Daily 03/14/2015 page8)