Opinion / Op-Ed Contributors

Coordinating human rights development

By Cai Mingzhao (China Daily) Updated: 2014-09-18 07:38

The citizens' rights and political rights have been effectively guaranteed.

At the 12th National People's Congress held in 2013, NPC representatives were elected proportional to the populations both in urban and rural areas for the first time, the number of substratum representatives increased, and the number of representatives of farmer-workers was doubled. The channels for rights relief have been continually smoothed and broadened, special efforts have been made to solve remarkable problems concerning petitions through letters and visits, the masses' claims for benefits have been actively responded to. Corruption has been strictly punished, and the supervision and restriction over public power have been strengthened, leaving public power functioning in the sunlight. Accordingly, remarkable achievements have been attained in the construction of clean politics. The means for citizens to exercise freedom of speech have increasingly multiplied, and the Internet has become one of the important channels for citizens to express their opinions. By June 2014, netizens in China amounted to 632 million, and the popularization rate of the Internet was as high as 46.9 percent. Within the range of the Constitution and law, the public can discuss various social problems at will.

The legal guarantee for human rights has taken important steps.

The construction of rule by law has accelerated in China. China has insisted on ruling the country by law, carrying out the Constitutional principle of "respecting and protecting human rights" through all the links of legislation, administration and judicature, and the level of human rights protection has been constantly improved. The reform of judicial system has been further deepened, and the construction of a just, efficient and authoritative socialist judicial system has been accelerated to guarantee the people's rights and benefits and maintain justice in the society. The system of judicial guarantee for human rights has been improved, the system of re-education through labor has been abolished, crimes seriously infringing citizens' personal rights have been punished by law, a mechanism preventing and rectifying cases in which people are unjustly, falsely or wrongly charged or sentenced has been enhanced, and many measures have been simultaneously taken to guarantee the personal rights of crime suspects, defendants and detainees.

The consciousness of human rights has been intensified throughout society.

After the concept of "human rights" was written into the Constitution, the idea to "respect and protect human rights" has been included into important documents such as the Constitution of the Communist Party of China, becoming an important principle and basic guideline for the CPC and the Chinese government to rule the country. China has worked out two "National Human Rights Action Plans," and the second Action Plan (2012-15) is being carried out in a good order. Various tasks and particular index are being effectively implemented. The popularization and specialization of human rights education have made new progresses, and five more famous universities have been named as "national human rights education and training bases." Now, centers for human rights education have been set up in tens of universities and colleges in China, and have been active in doing work on human rights training.

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