Seek shared ground on human rights, say experts

Countries should seek more shared ground on human rights through multilateral communications conducted on the basis of respect and inclusiveness, experts said at a human rights meeting in Beijing on Tuesday.

The meeting was a side event at the 48th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. It was organized by the China Foundation for Human Rights Development and the Minzu Unity and Progress Association of China.

Countries with different national conditions and cultural backgrounds often have different paths of human rights development, but people of all countries share the same dream of pursuing a happy life, said Men Lijun, deputy head of the China Foundation for Human Rights Development.

“Therefore, social organizations of all countries should actively promote the countries to expand consensus and strengthen cooperation on the issue of human rights so as to realize common development of all countries,” he said.

A democratic and fair international order is essential to promote and protect human rights. China, as a staunch defender of the international order, actively promotes the reform of international human rights institutions to make them more just, reasonable and inclusive, Men said.

China has engaged in dialogue and consultations on human rights with more than 20 countries and regional organizations, and has continuously expanded international exchanges and cooperation on human rights, said Yao Kun, deputy head of the Institute of World Political Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.

“Besides, China has made remarkable achievements in protecting and developing its own human rights and walked a path of human rights in line with its situations to systematically promote well-rounded human development,” Yao said.

The world does not need “a human rights preacher”, and countries such as the United States that falsely criticize China’s human rights issues should examine their human rights issues first,” Yao said. The centuries-long racial discrimination in the US is getting worse amid the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with the inaction, incitement and connivance of some politicians, and the human rights of ethnic minorities in the US have been violated in the distribution of wealth, health, employment, education and political participation, Yao said.

The United Nations faces fundamental systemic challenges in a time of unprecedented global changes and the pandemic, and the existing mechanisms and agenda of the UN are far from adequate to meet these challenges, said Zhang Guihong, head of the Center for the United Nations and International Organizations at Fudan University.

The current global governance of human rights lacks a complete, integrated, specialized and independent strategy and agenda for the promotion and protection of human rights, he said.

“Global human rights governance also requires an agenda, the same way as global peace issues,” Zhang said. “The agenda should clearly oppose the politicizing of human rights issues or using human rights as a tool for ideological confrontation, recognize the commonality and universality of human rights values and respect the diversity and specificity of means of realizing human rights,” he said.

Zhang also called on the UN to strengthen and upgrade its human rights framework, with the Human Rights Council at its core, and incorporate the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind in its human rights agenda.