China Wednesday called for exchanges and cooperation in the field
of human rights, voicing its hope that all countries will, through
dialogue and exchanges on an equal footing, properly handle
divergent views on the human rights issues.
The statement came as Zhang Yishan, the deputy Chinese permanent
representative to the United Nations, took the floor at a meeting
of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
"It is generally held that under the current circumstances, we
shall still face with many serious challenges and daunting tasks in
fully safeguarding human rights and basic freedom," he said. "Only
when all countries seize the opportunity and cooperate together,
can we jointly promote a healthy development of the world cause for
human rights."
"First, the strengthening of exchanges of cooperation in the field
of human rights helps promote mutual understanding and good
neighborliness among States," he said.
After the human society has withstood several thousand years of
vicissitudes, there have formed diverse national characteristics
and cultural traditions, thus bringing about diversity in world
civilization, he said.
"Due to different historical conditions, social systems, levels of
development and concepts of values, it is only natural to have
different views on the human rights issue," he said.
By
respecting the universal principles of human rights, countries
should be allowed, encouraged and welcomed to take effective
measures to protect and promote human rights while taking into
account their own national conditions, he said.
"It is therefore neither practical nor feasible to demand all
countries adopt the same development model," he said.
"Secondly, the strengthening of exchanges and cooperation in the
field of human rights helps enhance fairness and efficiency of the
Commission on Human Rights," he said.
"Being an important UN agency for protecting and promoting human
rights, the Commission on Human Rights should have become an
important forum whereby all countries should gather together, pool
their wisdom and make concrete contributions to the development of
the world cause of human rights," he said.
"Regrettably, some countries have, over the past few years,
disregarded the basic facts and politicized the human rights issue
by adopting dual standards," he said, referring to the insistence
by some countries on tabling in the commission session in Geneva
draft resolutions on individual developing countries so as to turn
the session into what he called "an arena for ideological
struggle."
"This has not only given rise to seriously undermining the
commission's fairness and efficiency, failing to solve problems,
but also wasting a lot of precious resources," he said.
"Thirdly, the strengthening of exchanges and cooperation in the
field of human rights is an effective tool to combat terrorism," he
said.
Terrorism jeopardizes innocent people's life, dignity and safety,
he said. "It also constitutes a blatant violation of democracy and
human rights and a serious threat to peace, prosperity and
development of all countries."
"Many countries, including China, have been victims of terrorism,"
he said. "The international community should, proceeding from the
common interests of all peoples, take a unified position and
resolutely combat all forms of terrorism."
"To fight against terrorism, we need to address both its symptoms
and root causes," he said. "The long-term and effective way of
eradicating terrorism is to help solve the increasingly serious
problem of development, narrow the gap between the North and the
South and between the rich and the poor and increase mutual
understanding and dialogue among different countries and
civilizations."
(
July 26,
2002)