Progress on human rights
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At the end of last month, China issued a white paper on Progress in China's Human Rights in 2009, which was a full and comprehensive stocktaking of the human rights achievements of China during the year, among which, achievements in economic, social and cultural rights merit special attention.
It has been a consistent policy of the government to continuously raise the standard of human rights with the advancement of economic and social development. To counter the negative impact of the global financial crisis, the government took effective measures to solve problems in areas such as employment, healthcare, education and social security.
A more detailed and comprehensive overview in this regard can be found in China's second periodic report on the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which the country presented to the United Nations on June 30.
Besides presenting the achievements China has made in protecting people's economic, social and cultural rights during the past seven years, the report also responded to the observations made by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights when it reviewed China's first implementation report in May 2005.
Under the coordination of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, more than 30 departments in charge of legislative, judiciary and government administration took part in discussing and composing the report, which was prepared in a timely, thorough, comprehensive and objective manner.
The submission of this report is an important step toward the protection and promotion of human rights in China and shows the country's willingness to seek international cooperation on human rights issues.
China's implementation of the covenant, one of the most important international human rights instruments, can be illustrated by its measures to create new jobs, raise household incomes and reform the income distribution system.
The government has made great efforts to improve social welfare, labor protection, disaster relief and education and it is trying hard to curb the soaring housing prices and handle housing demolition in a more cautious way.
The Employment Promotion Law, promulgated in 2007, legalized government policies and mechanisms aimed at creating jobs, providing career assistance and improving public services.
Detailed standards were also stipulated to ensure equal rights to employment and to eliminate job discrimination. More than 10 million new jobs have been created nationwide each year in recent years, and the urban registered jobless rate has been kept below 4.3 percent.
More proactive measures were adopted last year to cope with the financial crisis, with more funding and more flexible pension, healthcare and insurance policies put in place.
While China has made tremendous economic progress, problems do exist in such a big country with unbalanced development and a population of 1.3 billion. The widening income gap and the increasingly high costs of housing, education and healthcare are the issues that people complain about most these days. The government is working hard to alleviate these problems, but it will require great effort and wisdom to find effective solutions.
Internationally, as we can see from the observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights when it reviewed China's first implementation report, there are concerns about China's law enforcement, labor rights and environment protection.
However, China's judicial system is different from that of Western countries, and it won't develop in a way that will satisfy their imagination. Still, reform and progress in this area will continuously be made within the framework of our political system.
For example, research has been carried out on amendments to the Administrative Procedure Law to better ensure the supervision of the exercise of administrative power by administrative organs. Also, the law clearly stipulates judicial power should be exercised independently with respect to administrative cases, and should not be subject to interference by any administrative organ. It is not that China doesn't have the law; it is the inadequate implementation at the local level that leaves room for improvement.
While the number of labor disputes is on the rise as a result of economic development, China has made great effort to better protect workers' rights.
Trade unions at all levels are non-governmental organs and represent workers' interests when communicating and negotiating with the government or their employers. This conforms to the requirement of the international covenant.
China has been active in participating in human rights dialogues since its reform and opening-up. Regular human rights dialogue mechanisms have been established between China and the United States, the European Union, and other European countries.
The mechanisms provide good opportunities for China and Western countries to strengthen mutual understanding and the exchange of ideas and to learn from each other's best practices.
There are many reasons behind the different ways China and Western countries look at human rights issues.
Some Western politicians view China through a tainted lens and make conclusions that only serve their own political agenda. Others do not know China very well, and their impression of China is based on what the Western media say about the country. And, there are still conceptual and academic differences, and different cultural, social backgrounds and legal systems.
These misunderstandings and differences make it all the more important to solve human rights disputes through dialogue. It may be difficult to have a universally agreed set of standards, but China will continue to make persistent progress and will never cease in its efforts to ensure better human rights for its people.
The author currently serves as a member of the Advisory Committee of the UN Human Rights Council.
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