UN art show looks at human rights

China's progress on human rights promotion was applauded by a number of senior diplomats and leaders of international organizations, who joined some 800 viewers at the opening of a photo exhibition on the subject.

For a Better Life of the People showcases China's progress and achievements in human rights promotion in recent years. The exhibition opened on Monday in the Palais des Nations, the UN headquarters in Geneva.

"I am able to visit China every year, and I'm pleased and honored to have such an opportunity to see the progress being made there in human rights of its people," Ambassador William Lacy Swing, director general of the International Organization for Migration, told Xinhua News Agency.

He said most impressive to him is the reduction in poverty levels in China.

According to figures provided at the exhibition, since the start of its reform and opening-up in 1978, China has lifted more than 700 million rural people out of poverty.

Ambassador Farukh Amil, Pakistan's permanent representative to the UN and other international organizations in Geneva, told Xinhua his country is always happy to see China's development advance at such an "incredible speed".

"What I saw here at the exhibition is a testimony to that, and what I see here shows very clearly that China has improved the human rights situation for hundreds of millions of people," he said.

Amil said it is normal for the world to have different understandings about issues, including human rights, "but the important thing is how you put these differences in a harmonious and constructive way".

Ambassador Alexey Borodavkin, Russia's permanent representative to the UN Office and other international organizations in Geneva, also applauded China's development as being "very impressive, especially China's reduction of poverty and the sustainability of social and economic development".

The exhibition, the first ever held in the Palais des Nations, contains a collection of 70 pictures and 15 short videos.

"I believe they provide a comprehensive guide to how far China has come in social and economic development," Ma Zhaoxu, China's ambassador and permanent representative to the UN at Geneva, said at the opening ceremony.

China also is making every effort to improve education, create more reliable jobs, deliver more rewarding incomes, weave a stronger social safety net, provide more advanced healthcare, improve housing conditions and the natural environment and offer a more enriched cultural life, Ma said.

Huang Junxian, inspector of the Human Rights Affairs Department of China's State Council Information Office, said that respecting and protecting human rights is a key principle of governance for the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government.

"It is also an important goal of pursuing socialism with Chinese characteristics," he said.

Xinhua