By He Yin, People’s Daily
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) recently concluded its 52nd session in Geneva, Switzerland.
During the session, the Chinese delegation comprehensively promoted China’s human rights philosophy and approaches, and called for joint efforts to advance healthy development of global human rights, which was broadly welcomed and supported by representatives attending the session.
China champions international cooperation on human rights, opposes politicizing human rights issues, and steers global human rights governance toward greater fairness, justice, equity and inclusiveness with concrete actions. The country has made important contributions to the development of global human rights.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 30th anniversary of the Vienna Declaration and Program of Action. The values, purposes and principles of the two documents, which hold all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, are a common aspiration of mankind.
Speaking on behalf of over 70 countries at the 52nd session of the UNHRC, China made important proposals on further implementing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. On behalf of nearly 80 countries, it called for strengthening international cooperation and revitalizing the spirit of the Declaration and promoting high-quality development.
The speech is of positive significance for global efforts to better promote and protect human rights, enhance and improve global human rights governance. It reflects the strong aspiration of the international community, especially the vast developing world.
China pursues a people-centered vision on human rights. Putting emphasis on the people is the distinguishing feature of the Chinese path of human rights protection.
China has brought about a historic resolution to the problem of absolute poverty, built a moderately prosperous society in all respects and is pursuing modernization of common prosperity for all.
For the Chinese government, the biggest human right is the happiness of the 1.4 billion Chinese people. Meeting their immediate interests is what all its endeavors are about. The 1.4 billion people have been deeply involved in the development of human rights, and have benefited the most in this process. They now have a growing sense of fulfillment, happiness and security.
Under the constitutional principle that “The state shall respect and protect human rights”, China has constantly developed the whole-process people’s democracy, advanced law-based governance and enhanced legal protection of human rights, to uphold social fairness and justice. The Chinese people now enjoy fuller and more extensive and comprehensive democratic rights.
Rui Lourido, Chairman of Portuguese think tank Observatory for China, believes that China has truly made human rights a part of the Chinese people’s life.
The historic achievements of China in human rights protection fully prove that respecting and safeguarding human rights must be based on recognizing the universality of human rights and the commitment to a path of human rights development that suits the realities of each country.
Countries vary from one another in historical background, cultural heritage, national conditions and needs of the people. There is no one-size-fits-all model in the protection of human rights. Blindly copying the model of others would be ill-fitted for one’s own conditions, and imposing one’s model upon others would entail endless troubles. The right of all countries to independently choose one’s own path of human rights development should be respected.
Tom Zwart, director of the Cross-cultural Human Rights Center, Utrecht University, noted that the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind proposed by China respects cultural diversity and promotes mutual learning among civilizations, which is conducive to placing human rights issues in a new and sustainable international context.
No country is qualified to act as the judge on human rights, and human rights should not be used as a pretext for meddling in other countries’ internal affairs or holding back other countries’ development.
Since 2019, the United States has gathered a group of countries for four times to smear China on human rights issues, which were firmly opposed by the vast majority of countries and all ended in failure.
Nearly 100 countries have voiced understanding and support of China’s just position at UNHRC sessions, opposing politicization of human rights issues and double standard, and opposing using human rights issues as a pretext to interfere in China’s internal affairs. It fully indicates that the international society has fair judgments.
What’s urgent for the countries that smear China on human rights issues is to take practical actions to resolve their own severe human rights problems and reflect upon the human rights disasters they have created for other countries.
At the 52nd session of the UNHRC, Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Michael Fakhri said that some countries today would only focus on unilateral coercive measures, which almost always resulted in human rights violations and weakened the ability of countries hit by those measures to respond to food crises.
UN Special Rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures Alena Douhan expressed her concerns in a statement, noting that U.S. unilateral coercive measures like prohibiting entry into the United States and freezing any assets with a United States connection violate basic human rights of individuals and entities concerned including labor rights and freedom of movement.
In a world fraught with various global issues, the international human rights cause is confronted with severe challenges. China is ready to work with all parties to promote the common values of humanity, namely, peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy and freedom, launch human rights exchanges and cooperation based on equality and mutual respect, take an active part in global human rights governance, promote all-round development of the human rights cause and advance the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
