Experts look to strengthen human rights exchanges

Experts have called for the strengthening of human rights exchanges and cooperation with foreign countries to promote the development of China's human rights cause in the new era.

More than 50 experts attended a video seminar on China's human rights development on Saturday co-organized by the China Society for Human Rights Studies and the human rights research center at Tianjin-based Nankai University to mark the 10th anniversary of the publication of China's human rights development report.

The Blue Book of China's Human Rights, an annual report with both Chinese and English versions, has been published since 2011. It records China's progress in promoting the development of human rights and makes recommendations. The 10th annual report was published in October.

Experts attending the meeting said the study of human rights in the new era should adopt a people-centered approach and be based on the practice of socialism with Chinese characteristics to make theoretical innovations to deepen international exchanges.

Luo Yanhua, from the School of International Studies at Peking University, said over the past decade, China has made progress in international cooperation and exchanges on human rights.

"The United Nations Human Rights Council has become an important platform for China to express its position on human rights and to express its position on behalf of countries with the same or similar views on human rights as China," Luo said.

Some of China's concepts on human rights have been incorporated into resolutions of the UN Human Rights Council, including the concepts of building a community with a shared future for mankind and promoting win-win cooperation in the field of human rights, she said.

In recent years, China has conducted bilateral human rights dialogue with more countries, including both developed and developing countries, Luo said.

Human rights organizations in China have taken an active part in international exchanges, including hosting or attending international meetings and visiting foreign countries, which have become a channel for the international community to learn about China's human rights situation, she said.

Lu Zhian, from the Research Center for Human Rights at Fudan University in Shanghai, said some western countries stigmatize and criticize the development of China's human rights cause, which is a challenge to its human rights development.

Human rights is becoming a universal language of the international community and a tool for western countries to impose sanctions on other countries, Lu said.

With growing demand for human rights protection in China, improving the human rights protection mechanism will help the country participate in international human rights governance and improve its international influence, he said.

Liu Hainian, director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' Center for Human Rights Studies, said that realizing the all-around development of the people－namely human rights－is integrated throughout the Communist Party of China leadership's proposal for the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) and the long-range objectives through 2035.

As China enters the stage of building a modern socialist country in an all-around way and faces a complex situation, exchanges and cooperation with foreign countries on human rights, including the European Union and countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, should be strengthened to promote mutual understanding, he said.