The Chinese delegation on Monday stated its point of view at a conference of the United Nations' principal human rights body in Geneva, saying that a comprehensive and objective understanding of civil and political rights is the precondition and basis for their full realization. 

"First, civil and political rights constitute an important component of basic human rights, and are the first generation of human rights to obtain legal recognition," said Shen Yongxiang, alternative representative of the Chinese delegation to the 61st annual session of the Commission on Human Rights.

"Second, civil and political rights are strongly linked with human factors and cannot be isolated from the social environment, the history and culture, religions and traditions of the countries concerned," he added.

He urged the international community to persistently combine the perspectives of universality and specificity, review the process of the realization of civil and political rights in countries and respect their various choices.

"The commission should be a forum for the promotion of these rights, and not be reduced to a battleground of confrontation as what it is now," he told participants at the session, which is being held from March 14 to April 22.

And third, he pointed out, the full realization of civil and political rights is a systematic endeavor that entails a step-by-step approach.

Governments of all countries should make efforts in relevant aspects including formulating integrated strategies, and sincere international cooperation is also essential, he said.

He also introduced to the participants the Chinese government's efforts in promoting and protecting civil and political rights.

In the administrative field, the government has comprehensively carried out administration on the basis of law, whereby the use of power is supervised, violations of law are sanctioned, and violators of rights must pay compensation, he said.

And in the judicial field, he added, China is working hard to improve state compensation law and provides economic compensation to the parties who have suffered losses due to administrative and judicial proceedings in violation of law.

"China greatly appreciates the positive role of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and has been preparing for its ratification since its signature in 1998," he said.

Recently the Chinese government has put forward the concept of building a "harmonious society," so as to build China into a "dynamic, stable and orderly society based on democracy and the rule of law, equity and justice, honesty and fraternity where human beings and nature harmoniously coexist."

The Chinese delegate said this would surely have a positive and far-reaching influence on the realization of civil and political rights in China.

(Xinhua News Agency April 5, 2005)