Sept. 21, 2022 -- Experts at an online human rights event called for eliminating the negative impact of the politicization of human rights and promoting the healthy development of international human rights causes through cooperation and dialogue.
The online event, with the theme of Risks and Problems of Politicization of International Human Rights, is an event held on the sidelines of the United Nations Human Rights Council 51st Session. It was hosted by Jilin University on Monday.
The politicization of international human rights is not a new trend. The United States has repeatedly attached human rights issues to economic and military issues to maintain its world hegemony through economic sanctions, technological blockades and even military invasion, said Liu Hongzhen, deputy director of the Human Rights Center of Jilin University.
The politicization and instrumentalization of human rights erode the value of human rights, and the solution to resolve such issues should be equal dialogue and sincere cooperation under the UN system, she said.
"There should be universal respect for human dignity, human rights conventions and the right of each country to choose its own human rights path," Liu said.
The Western concept of human rights contains the elements of political confrontation, and Western countries tend to observe human rights issues from a political perspective from the very beginning, and have interfered in other countries' internal affairs with human rights issues, said Mao Junxiang, executive director of the Human Rights Center of Central South University.
The theory, system, practice and culture of human rights are always rooted in the economic, social and cultural traditions of a specific region. The diversity of human rights is natural, but Western countries often impose their human rights concept on others with a sense of cultural superiority, which hinders international human rights exchanges, said Mao.
Human rights have been used to serve national interests and provide justification for violations of international law, and were considered an ideal excuse to justify military intervention in foreign countries, Mao said.
"As a basic principle of the working mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council, cooperation and dialogue, rather than confrontation, are the right way to promote human rights," he said.
Tang Yingxia, deputy director of the Center for Human Rights Research of Nankai University, said that the politicization of human rights is inconsistent with the purpose of the international human rights law and also undermines the universality of the international law.
The essence of the politicization of human rights is to use human rights as a tool to realize foreign policy, implement unilateralism and promote human rights diplomacy, she said.
Universality is the foundation of the concept of human rights, and inclusiveness is what gives the concept of human rights vitality and should be the solution to the differences in the field of human rights that we are dealing with today, Tang said.
