China opposes double standard on human rights

UNITED NATIONS - The international community must reject politicization of and double standard on human rights in order to tackle the challenges facing the global cause, a senior Chinese UN envoy said here Thursday.

While addressing the Third Committee of the 67th Session of the UN General Assembly on human rights, Wang Min, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, also called for efforts to enhance human rights dialogue and cooperation.

"International human rights endeavor continues to be plagued by double standard and politicization," the envoy said to the committee, which is in charge of social, humanitarian and cultural affairs.

"Some countries are keen on criticizing developing countries and interfering in their internal affairs by using human rights as a pretext," Wang added.

Certain countries, he noted, always turn a blind eye to human rights violations at home, but are enthusiastic about pressuring developing countries with country-specific human rights issues and creating confrontation in the international human rights arena.

"This has undermined mutual trust among countries and impeded human rights cooperation," said the representative. "China is firmly opposed to such practice and urges those countries to reflect more on their own record and stop their self-righteous lecturing and finger-pointing."

China calls on all countries to proceed on the basis of equality and mutual respect, act in the spirit of openness and inclusiveness, seek common ground while shelving differences, and learn from each other's experience so as to make common progress, he said.

Wang also stressed the importance of firmly adhering to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and refraining from interfering in other countries' internal affairs under the pretext of human rights.

"The international community should respect the path of human rights development and model for safeguarding human rights chosen independently by governments in view of their national conditions," he said.

China, he said, also urges the international community to eliminate all forms of discrimination, protect vulnerable groups to ensure equality and dignity for all, and further improve the work of the UN in the field of human rights.

Wang further pointed out that over the past 30 years of reform and opening-up, China's economy has undergone rapid growth, with the Chinese people's livelihood as well as their rights and fundamental freedom witnessing widely acknowledged improvement.

He stressed that an applicable and efficient human rights development strategy calls for combining the universal principles of human rights with specific national conditions.

In addition, he said, an effective way to improve human rights is to "put people's rights to survival and development first and fully safeguard people's legitimate rights and interests on the basis of rapid and sound social and economic development."