Ultimate goal of development

China should meet new theoretical and practical challenges to ensure continued progress in balancing human rights

Enjoying comprehensive human rights is the grand ideal for all human societies and the ultimate goal of the Chinese people's unremitting efforts in recent history.

Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Chinese people's struggle for independence and prosperity has been and continues to be a struggle for human rights.

There are some valuable lessons we can learn from the experience.

We must stick to the leadership of the CPC to ensure we go in the correct direction and follow the right road for the development of human rights in China. Ninety years of history indicate only the CPC can guarantee the true realization of human rights in the country and that China's national conditions are the only starting point for the development of human rights in China. We must combine universal principles with China's real conditions.

The comprehensive realization of the human rights of the general public is the ultimate goal of the Party and the government's works. Stable development is the only way for modern China to protect people's right to live fulfilling lives in peace and prosperity. The human-oriented Scientific Outlook for Development maintains a good balance between development and human rights.

The principle of rule of law will guarantee that people's rights to equal participation and development are protected. Democracy with Chinese characteristics must be practiced and developed along with the progress of Chinese society. People's rights to know, to speak, to supervise and to participate will be better protected with the deepening of political system reform.

The Chinese government's responsible performance in dealing with the global financial crisis and effective response to serious domestic natural disasters have been recognized and praised by people at home and abroad and China's development model has attracted worldwide attention. These have ensured favorable conditions for the development of human rights in China.

But the fundamental changes in the international environment and China's growth have also posed practical challenges to the development of China's human rights. Human-oriented sustainable development should pay attention to improving social fairness and justice, especially among disadvantaged groups, such as ethnic minorities, women, children, senior citizens and disabled people.

Human rights protection is basically a legal issue. To improve the human rights protection in a country entails proper legislation. China's human rights legislation is still far from mature in balancing rights and obligations. The past 30 years of human rights legislation is actually an ongoing process in pursuit of balanced human rights. Chinese people have made unremitting efforts to solve the problems of unbalanced legislation in the field of human rights and will continue to do so.

After the National Human Rights Action Plan (2009-2010) was successfully accomplished, the new five-year action plan is being drafted according to the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), which will be the guideline for the development of human rights in the country during the next five years. This new plan will provide a new opportunity for Chinese people to further develop their human rights in accordance with the country's changing conditions.

Human rights education should be spread across the country to increase the whole society's consciousness of human rights. Human rights research agencies and higher education institutions will be encouraged to play leading roles in human rights research and education, especially among intellectuals and civil servants.

The mass media should also spread basic human rights knowledge and increase the citizens' ability and awareness to defend their basic human rights. The formation of a consensus respecting and protecting human rights will not only maintain social stability, but also contribute to the global human rights cause.

The rise of China on the world stage and the country's fast economic development call for the further development of human rights theory in China, which will be meaningful in China's response to the international community's concerns about human rights in the country and will help promote the development of the nation's human rights.

China needs to fight for its right to a say in the international human rights field. Chinese human rights theorists and researchers have a responsibility to construct a convincing human rights theory in the context of the country's conditions and cultural differences.

How to tell China's human rights story in reader-friendly way is a pressing challenge for China's human rights circle in today's networked and globalized world.

The author is minister of State Council Information Office and this is part of his speech at the seminar of the "Development and Creation of Chinese Human Rights Theory and Practice" on August 25 in Beijing.

(China Daily 08/26/2011 page8)