Dec. 22, 2017 -- China has made much headway in human rights protection and will continue to make contributions to humanity's development with its wisdom and solutions, scholars noted during a human rights seminar held in Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong Province, on Dec. 19, 2017.

 

China will perform even better in regard to human rights protection, improving the livelihoods, and guaranteeing the political rights of its people, according to some experts. 

 

The one-day "Seminar on Development of China's Human Rights Undertaking in the New Era" was co-hosted by the China Society for Human Rights Studies and the Publicity Department of Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and organized by the Human Rights Research Institute of Guangzhou University. It offered a unique opportunity for domestic scholars to reveal their visions and views.

 

Xia Changyong, deputy director of the Department of Policies, Laws and Regulations of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, said: "The Chinese government has always attached great importance to the country's human rights development and given top priority to people's rights to subsistence and development."

 

According to General Secretary Xi Jinping's report at the 19th CPC National Congress, the country, having lifted more than 60 million people out of poverty during the past five years with the poverty head count ratio falling from 10.2 percent to less than 4 percent, is expected to eradicate poverty by 2020.

 

The United Nations' "Millennium Development Goals Report 2015" also showed that China contributed more than 70 percent of global poverty reduction in the last 30 years. 

 

However, poverty alleviation is not a single force for China to demonstrate its resolution to enhance human rights protection for its citizens. 

 

Li Erping, professor and director of Human Rights Research Center of Kunming University of Science and Technology, said the vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind and the Belt and Road Initiative, both proposed by Xi, also offer a reference to fulfill economic, political, civil rights and the right to full development. 

 

Professor Zhou Wei from the Human Rights Law Research Center  of Sichuan University, talked about how to better protect rights of workers, such as deliverymen, in a new digital era when the sharing economy is booming.

 

Zhou said China's emerging sharing economy has created job opportunities for millions, but at the same time brings to the fore new problems concerning certain negligence of the emerging labor force's legal rights, such as their overtime working hours, unstable employment and job safety concerns.

 

To better protect these workers' rights and interests, the expert believes establishment and improvement of the relevant legal frameworks are inevitable.

 

According to Chang Jian, director of the Research Center for Human Rights of Nankai University, "During the new era, the Chinese people are asking for more reliable support in regard of human rights protection, not just through education and the implementation of specific policies but also through legislation, law enforcement, justice and law-abiding practices."