We have the most beautiful season Autumn in Beijing. I am glad to meet you in Beijing in the beautiful autumn to inaugurate the 2015 Beijing Forum on Human Rights.

 

Since its establishment in 2008, the Beijing Forum on Human Rights has been developed to be a pivotal stage for the Chinese people to make friends and expand multilateral ties worldwide and also a vital platform for the world people to communicate with each other. These achievements could not have been made without the support of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government, without the concerted efforts of all colleagues or without the vigorous backup of the Chinese and foreign friends. I’m sincerely grateful for it.

 

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the Global War against Fascism, as well as the 70th anniversary of founding of the United Nations. All countries in the world held diverse commemorative activities. On September 3, 2015, China held the grand military parade to engrave on our mind the history, cherish the memory of our revolutionary martyrs and further promote peace. 

 

The 2015 Beijing Forum on Human Rights is themed on “Peace and Development,” focusing on the victory of the Global War against Fascism and progress of human rights. General Secretary Xi Jinping of the Communist Party of China Central Committee sent a congratulatory letter to the forum. Since the setup of the China Society for Human Rights Studies, there have been three letters sent by the General Secretary, which encouraged the society a lot. We will make persistent efforts and strive to do a good job.

 

I want to talk about the theme of the forum.

 

 

Fascism threatened the mankind. The Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the Global War against Fascism stood as a brave struggle of the countries and people loving peace and upholding justice. As an indispensable part of the Global War against Fascism, the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, at the expense of 35 million Chinese being dead or wounded, significantly contributed to safeguard world peace and promote the reconstruction of a post-war international order. To prevent aggression and safeguard world peace and security after the war, the world people got together and jointly established the international organization called the United Nations. The founding of the United Nations signaled the new international order after the war. 

 

Since its founding, the United Nations has placed equal importance to such three tenets as peace, development and human rights. The preface of the Charter of the United Nations declared the basic human rights, dignity and worth of the human beings and established the respect and incentives of the human rights and the basic freedom of the mankind as the fundamental purposes. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights promulgated in 1948 was one of the fundamental laws of the United Nations. Human rights have become the value system universally accepted by the world people, the important parameters to measure social development of human beings and the symbol of human progress and civilization. 

 

 

The populist ideas had been prevailing in China since ancient times. After its introduction to modern China, the concept of human rights was rapidly accepted by the Chinese people. In a sense, the process of the Chinese people withstanding foreign invasion and fighting for national independence and self-improvement was part of history in which people pursued and embraced human rights. 

 

Human rights and rule by law are inseparable. The realization of human rights is ultimately guaranteed by rule of law while the overall realization of human rights is the final objective of the pursuit of rule by law. In 2004, the clause that “the country shall respect and guarantee human rights” was written into the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, which was the milestone in history of safeguarding China’s human rights. In October 2014, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee passed the Decision of the CPC Central Committee on the Important Issues to Promote Rule by Law. Rule by law is the essential requirement and vital guarantee to persist in and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics and the inevitable requirement to modernize the state governance system and capacity, providing fundamental institutional guarantee for the development of China’s human rights. 

 

 

China always holds that the rights to subsistence and development compose the primary human rights. It is a summary of the miserable historical lessons of the Chinese nation, a clear awareness of China’s development stage and environment for a fairly long time, and also an objective cognition of the human rights development rules. 

 

The Declaration on the Right to Development of the United Nations explicitly makes the right to development an inalienable human right. All the people worldwide have the right to participate in, promote and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development. All the countries should take necessary measures to materialize the right to development and ensure equal opportunities of everyone in basic resources, education, healthcare services, food, housing, employment and fair income distribution. 

 

At present China’s persistence in development is the key to all the problems. The vital strategic judgment firmly places the right to development in a focal position, attaches top priorities to the rights relating to people’s livelihood, protects the most relevant, direct and realistic interests of the people, takes people’s livelihood as first, important and essential, completes the social security system, eliminates poverty and stimulates development. Based on people’s livelihood as top priorities, vigorous efforts should be made to promote the comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development of various human rights in economy, politics, culture, society and ecological environment. China has found its own path in human rights protection and development and has formed its own idea and discourse system of human rights. 

 

Adhering to the principles of mutual respect and two-way learning for many years, China persists in enhancing exchanges and cooperation with other countries in human rights. China’s progress in human rights is part of the development of human rights of the whole world and make valuable contribution to it. The realization of human rights worldwide has a long way to go. I believe that China will make more friends on that way.

 

I wish the forum a complete success.