China pledges greater efforts in human rights education, research

BEIJING -?China will intensify its efforts to promote human rights education and training over the next five years to enhance public awareness of the importance of human rights, says an action plan released on Thursday.

China plans to set up a human rights research platform to provide intellectual support for the cause of human rights, according to the National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2016-2020) released by the State Council's Information Office.

Human rights knowledge will be included in the education of Communist Party of China committees (leading Party groups), in the curricula for Party schools, cadre colleges and administration institutes at all levels, and also made a required course for government employees, including judges, prosecutors and police officers, at the beginning of their careers or during training, the action plan states.

Human rights knowledge will be integrated into teaching activities of elementary and middle schools in flexible and diverse ways, with human rights training provided for preschool, and elementary and secondary school teachers, it says.

Moreover, China will continue to support human rights education in institutions of higher learning, as well as in enterprises and public institutions.

It also plans to develop five new human rights education and training bases by 2020, train more personnel, invest more money, and build new-type and high-end human rights think tanks with Chinese characteristics, the action plan says.

China will study the necessity and feasibility of establishing a national human rights institution.

In addition, the action plan will be made an important part of human rights training so that Party and government officials at all levels could fully understand the importance of implementing the plan.

Concerned agencies at all levels are also urged to work out detailed measures for implementing the action plan.