--An Address on the Opening Ceremony of the Seventh Beijing Forum on Human Rights, Spet.17, 2014
Huang Mengfu, Chairman of the China Foundation for Human Rights Development

Since its initiation in 2008, the Beijing Forum on Human Rights has been bent on promoting our mutual understanding and expanding our common grounds. It has carried out very fruitful exchanges and researches around many important questions concerning human rights development, and hence attained great achievements. It has played a very constructive role in promoting exchanges about and cooperation in human rights between China and other countries, becoming an important and influential platform for international dialogs over human rights. This session of the Forum takes the theme of “Chinese Dream: A New Progress of the Cause of Human Rights in China,” and it will further push the international community to know better the current situation and development trend of human rights in China. I believe that by means of equal and practical dialogues and explorations, the human rights officials, experts and scholars attending this Forum will certainly be able to gain more achievements, and contribute their wisdom and shares to human rights development both in China and the world.

The Chinese people are now striving for their Chinese dream about the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. The Chinese dream is a worthwhile cause of the Chinese people, which implies that the country will be rich and strong, the nation will meet its rejuvenation, and the people will live a happy life. After all, the Chinese dream is a dream for every Chinese to pursue a happy life, and it is a concrete and real cause of human rights. In last November, the third plenary session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) put forward important measures to deepen an all-round reform in the fields including economy, politics, culture, society, and ecological conservation, explicitly stressed that human rights should be respected and protected, and required the whole country to “improve the judicial system to protect human rights.” We have every reason to believe that with the all-round deepening of China’s reform and opening up, with the continual development of its economy and society, with the constant advancement of its legal construction, and with the step-by-step implementation of all its human rights action plans, China will surely make new and greater progresses in the cause of human rights.

For several times Chinese President Xi Jinping has pointed out that the Chinese dream is closely linked with the dreams of the world people. While fulfilling the Chinese dream, the 1.3 billion Chinese people will join those from other countries, impelling them to realize their own dreams better. Insofar as people from all countries achieve their beautiful dreams together and share sufficient human rights, a basic precondition is to create an international environment for the peaceful and stable development. The world is now undergoing profound and complex changes, and all countries are getting increasingly interdependent, hence peace, development and cooperation have become a common aspiration. At the same time, the process of world economic recovery is fragile, regional turbulences and hotspot issues emerge here and there, and both traditional and non-traditional security issues are intertwined. In order to boost the sound development of human rights on the international stage, we have to respond to the challenges effectively. Taking advantage of this opportunity, therefore, I would like to express a few of my opinions, for your reference only.
 

First, the international community should firmly defend world peace, oppose the solving of disputes by force, and work together to lay a footstone for the cause of human rights. It is clear to all that among all the human rights, the right to subsistence comes first. Without subsistence, any other rights would be impossible. War, however, is the most barbaric and the most brutal infringement and deprivation of human beings’ right to subsistence. Only through the maintenance of peace, the opposition to war and the abandonment of violence and conflicts, can the cause of human rights be fundamentally guaranteed. A dozen days ago, people from China and other countries have commemorated in various ways the 69th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese people’s war of resistance against Japanese aggression and the world anti-fascist war, expressing their common aspiration to draw lessons from history, look forward into the future, treasure peace and safeguard human rights. The Second World War brought an unprecedented calamity to mankind, and has been the gravest disaster of human rights. Nearly 70 years have passed since the end of that war, but not all people have drawn lessons from that painful history. A few countries and forces still disregard the basic historical facts and international justice, attempting to overturn the history of aggression and challenge the conscience of mankind and the dignity of human rights. That cannot but arouse greatest indignation among all the people with the sense of justice and conscience in the world. China has always held that only when the history is regarded with an objective, responsible and respectful attitude, only when people deeply reflect the history and draw a lesson from the war, and only when the fruits of victory in the world anti-fascist war, as well as the postwar international order based on the Charter of the United Nations, are firmly maintained, can the cornerstone of the international cause of human right can be laid firmly, and can the reoccurrence of historical tragedies be avoided.

Now the world is still very unpeaceful, the world peace still faces a complicated and grave situation. Because of the interference, manipulation and infiltration of various interest groups and separatist and subversive forces, some regions and countries are undergoing continual wars and frequent violent conflicts, and the disorder appears complicated and worsening, hard to be controlled. The evidence includes the crisis in Syria, the conflicts between Palestine and Israel and the current situation in Ukraine. China has always held that disputes between countries should be solved by means of peaceful dialogues, and opposed both the casual resort to armed forces and the threat to use armed forces. In the present complicated and changeable situation, China advocates to enhance the consciousness of a community of destiny of all human beings, proposes a new concept of security characterized with commonness, comprehensiveness, cooperation and sustainability, and calls for strengthened international and regional cooperation, so as to respect and guarantee the security of all the countries, and further safeguard the permanent peace of the world.

Second, the international community should commit itself to the realization of common development, and guarantee a firm foundation for various human rights. For more than three decades, China has insisted on taking economic construction as a central task to vigorously boost the all-round development of the cause of human rights. In so doing, it has achieved great successes, made important contributions to the cause of international poverty reduction and the progress of human rights, and provided referential experiences for other developing countries to promote the progresses of their human rights. Now we appeal to the international community to treat and respect various kinds of human rights with a fair and equal attitude, especially to respect the people’s rights to subsistence and development in developing countries. At present, the imbalance of global development is worsening, and the gap between north and south hemispheres is being enlarged, and there are still 1.3 billion people living below the poverty level in the world. Extreme poverty prevents people from sufficiently enjoying human rights, and is also an important cause of violence. The international community should strengthen its cooperation, improve the mechanism of global governance, and strive together for eliminating poverty and boosting development. Developing countries should actively explore the road of development suitable for themselves, further speed up their economic development, and improve their people’s living standards. Developed countries should really keep their promises of assistance, helping developing countries to push forward their sustainable development of economy and society.

Third, the international community should carry out constructive dialogues and cooperation, properly handling disputes about human rights. There is no country on earth whose human rights are in a perfect state. We maintain that all countries should, on the basis of equality and mutual respect, and under the principle of openness and tolerance, seek a common ground while reserving differences, properly handling disputes over human rights by means of constructive dialogues and sincere cooperation, and exploring together measures for the development of human rights. We should respect the diversity of world civilizations, and leave aside the differences between countries and prejudice of social systems and ideology, viewing the situation of human rights in each country with a just, objective and comprehensive attitude. As for the special difficulties and challenges that developing countries encounter in the process of human rights development, we should show our sufficient understanding, and offer constructive help under the precondition of respecting the sovereignty of the concerned country. We oppose imposing one’s own pattern of human rights development upon others, taking the question of human rights as a political tool for striking rival countries, and even more strongly, interfering in the domestic affairs of other countries on the excuse of human rights protection. Some countries customarily condemn others and pick bones out of eggs, acting as a “tutor” in the international issues of human rights, but turn a blind eye to many of their own serious problems. They are just unconvincing.

Fourth, the international community should cooperate to crack down on terrorism, the public enemy of mankind. In today’s world, some terrorists and extremist organizations use extremely cruel means to slaughter civilians and cause calamities, such outrages, which are anti-mankind, anti-society and anti-civilization, are not only defiance and violation against human rights, but more importantly the brutal overriding of the bottom line of civilization of man, and they should be firmly opposed and unanimously condemned. We should see that in the current situation of globalization and informationization, terrorist activities have overstepped the boundaries of countries. So, we should strengthen international cooperation, take a “zero tolerance” attitude, and increase the intensity of strikes, so that people of all countries get free of terrors and enjoy a peaceful life. China is a victim of terrorism. In face of the real and direct threat of the “ETIM” terrorist force, it firmly opposes any forms of terrorism. At present, such terrorist organizations as ISIS are carrying out the reign of extreme terror in Iraq-held areas, causing a serious crisis of human rights and humanity. The international community has to take concerted actions immediately, preventing the further spread of terrorism. At the same time, we maintain that the anti-terrorist actions should observe the Charter of the UN and the principles of the international law, equally protect the right to subsistence and other legitimate rights of people of all countries, fully respect the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of other countries, and reject double standards in the anti-terrorist issue. Insofar as a certain country employs drones to cause the casualty of a large number of civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, that is against humanity and human rights no matter what it has been intended for.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the clause “the State respects and protects human rights” being written into the Constitution of China. The China Foundation for Human Rights Development, which is a non-governmental organization committed to developing and improving the cause of human rights in China, will continue to take an active part in the implementation of the National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2012—2015), and try its best to play a greater role. We also expect, through such platforms as the Beijing Forum on Human Rights, to improve the exchanges and cooperation with human rights organizations of other countries, and make efforts for the cause of healthy world human rights development.