By He Yin, People’s Daily
Chinese President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the Forum on Global Human Rights Governance on June 14.
Offering Chinese propositions in the letter, he stressed that China advocates safeguarding human rights with security, promoting human rights with development, and advancing human rights with cooperation, which demonstrated China’s sense of responsibility in participating in global human rights governance and promoting the progress of human rights development of the world.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, a document that has played an important role in developing human rights.
The document stresses the equality and indivisibility of human rights. It emphasizes that the international community should promote practical international cooperation to realize the right to development and remove the barrier hindering growth.
It represents the will of developing countries that account for most of the global population and lays a foundation for international cooperation and reaching the goals of protecting human rights and fundamental freedom set in the UN Charter.
Today, mankind is again at a pivotal crossroads, where global human rights governance faces severe challenges.
Human rights development has encountered accelerating confrontation and division. The politicization and instrumentalization of human rights seriously poison the healthy development of the global human rights cause.
To improve global human rights governance, the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action should be followed, and it’s also essential to steer global human rights governance toward greater fairness, justice, equity, and inclusiveness.
Security is the most basic need of mankind. Human rights can never be safeguarded without peace and stability. Only by protecting human rights with security, respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, following the path of peaceful development, and putting into action the Global Security Initiative (GSI), can the world create a tranquil environment where human rights are well-protected.
The Cold War mentality would only wreck the global peace framework; hegemonism and power politics would only endanger world peace; and bloc confrontation would only exacerbate security challenges in the 21st century.
The GSI proposed by Xi stresses that humanity is an indivisible security community. It offers Chinese plans for narrowing the security deficit and tackling security challenges and contributes Chinese wisdom to global human rights governance.
The international community should stay committed to the vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative, and sustainable security, and jointly safeguard world peace and security, to better protect and promote human rights.
The right to development is universal and indivisible. It is a part of fundamental human rights. Global growth is still unbalanced, uncoordinated, and inadequate, which is to the disadvantage of the full enjoyment of human rights in the world, especially the developing countries.
China advocates for promoting human rights with development, puts into action the Global Development Initiative (GDI), makes growth more inclusive, beneficial to all, and sustainable, and ensures fair entitlement to human rights by people of all countries through modernization paths with their characteristics.
The GDI has received comprehensive support and is forcefully refocusing international attention on the development issue and speeding up the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It has become an essential global public product ensuring that people of all countries enjoy human rights equally.
Only by adhering to solidarity and cooperation, communicating sincerely and profoundly on human rights issues, seeking consensus, and managing disputes can countries improve their human rights protection and promote the development of the global human rights cause.
China stands for advancing human rights with cooperation in the spirit of mutual respect and equality, implementing the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI), and deepening exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations. It is committed to building consensus through dialogues to promote human rights development with the rest of the world.
The GCI proposed by Xi champions equality and mutual respect, strengthening dialogue and communication. It respects the right of all countries to choose their path of human rights development independently and is conducive to promoting the healthy development of the global human rights cause.
China is an active participant and advocate of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action and a staunch upholder and practitioner of the document’s spirit. China puts the people first and follows a path of human rights development that conforms to the trend of the times and suits its national conditions. It has continuously strengthened human rights protection and promoted people’s unimpeded and all-around development in advancing Chinese modernization.
China actively joins global human rights governance. The visions it has proposed, including promoting human rights with development, have won broad support and made essential contributions to the development of the global human rights course.
All people in the world aspire to the entitlement of human rights. It’s a common cause for humanity to promote and protect human rights. China is willing to work with the rest of the world to promote the shared values of all society, stay committed to the vision of equality, mutual trust, inclusiveness, mutual learning, win-win cooperation, and joint development, and inject positive energy into the healthy development of the global human rights cause.
