China Thursday called for dialogue and cooperation in the field of human rights, saying that "only by doing so, can the international effort to protect human rights move forward in a sound manner."

The appeal came as Shen Guofang, deputy Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations, took the floor at the Third Committee of the 55th General Assembly session. The Third Committee is in charge of social, humanitarian and cultural affairs.

"Past experiences have shown that for maintaining peace and security and promoting and protecting human rights of all people, respect for state sovereignty is an important principle to follow, dialogue and cooperation are the effective means while prosperity and development constitute the necessary basis," he said.

"During the Cold War era, however, human rights became a tool for political confrontations between countries and interference into other country's internal affairs," he said, adding that this seriously violated the principle of the UN Charter, which has established the basic principles of sovereign equality and respect for human rights.

"Regrettably, this kind of Cold-War mentality is still lingering in today's world," he said. "A very few countries still stick to the practice of political confrontation and double standards in the field of human rights, which is not helpful to the reduction and elimination of differences. Nor is it conducive to cooperation."

At the Millennium Summit, held in September here, Chinese President Jiang Zemin said, "Dialogue and cooperation in the field of human rights must be conducted on the basis of respect for state sovereignty. This is the fundamental and most effective way to protect and promote human rights."

"As countries vary in terms of history, culture, social system, values and levels of development, the ways in which they promote and protect human rights are, naturally, also different," Shen said.

"These differences, however, should not be used as a basis for evaluating their performance on human rights," the Chinese envoy said. "Countries should only seek mutual cooperation and complementarity through dialogue on an equal footing. Only by doing so, can the international effort to protect human rights move forward in a sound manner."

(Xinhua 10/27/2000)