Promote Cooperation Based on Mutual Benefits in Human Rights and Participate in Global Human Rights Governance
LIU Xinsheng (China)
Human rights are the common ideal of mankind and symbolize the progress in civilization. Countries with different civilizations hold different positions in human rights in their local human rights protection and international human rights activities, but it is supposed to be the common pursuit of the international community and all countries to fully realize the human rights available to all people in accordance with the purposes of promoting and respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms in the UN Charter. To this end, the international community should jointly explore and advance forward, and carry out equal cooperation. It is the common cause of mankind to promote and protect human rights, so countries should continue to explore their own path of human rights development by focusing on their people and based on their actual conditions and people's needs. The rights to subsistence and development are the primary human rights faced by developing countries, and in this regard all countries and all ethnic groups in the world should have equal opportunities and rights.
I. It is crucial for the international community to promote mutual equality and mutually beneficial cooperation in international human rights and abide by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, so as to realize human rights governance.
Global human rights governance should be negotiated jointly by all countries, and the outcomes of human rights development should be shared by people of all countries. The General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council, the Human Rights Council and other UN bodies should uphold the principles of impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity, promote exchanges and cooperation among countries in human rights, and advance human rights and the right to development in a balanced manner. Countries should conduct dialogue and exchanges on human rights on the basis of equality and mutual respect, enhance mutual understanding and trust, expand consensus, narrow differences, and work together to meet the common challenges faced by mankind. Civil societies of all countries should give full play to its own advantages and role, advocate trust and understanding of other civilizations on the basis of equality and inclusiveness, and jointly advance the cause of human rights.
The UN Human Rights Council is the main intergovernmental forum and platform within the UN system to deal with international human rights issues, which was set up under UN General Assembly resolution 60/251, and authorized to comprehensively protect international human rights. In this regard, it is of great significance to help UN member states improve their capacity and level of human rights protection by technical assistance and capacity building, with relevant mechanisms and trust funds and the participation of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, promote human rights by dialogue and protect human rights by cooperation. This type of cooperation in human rights based on equality has been recognized by the international community and favored by some UN member States, especially many developing countries facing special difficulties.
II. It has been proved in the practices of the UN and the Human Rights Council that technical assistance and capacity building by equal cooperation plays an important role in promoting and protecting human rights.
Only dialogue and cooperation in an equal position can enhance mutual understanding and achieve the goal of protecting human rights. Countries have different historical and cultural traditions, different levels of economic and social development, and different ideologies and political systems, so, in order to continuously improve the human rights available, they should learn from each other and realize win-win cooperation and common progress in human rights. Countries should support the participation of developing countries in global governance, explore approaches to promoting democracy and law-based governance, and promote the healthy development of global human rights governance.
The international community should respect the diversity of human rights development and oppose the application of a single model or criterion. Human rights thoughts and human rights governance are generated from and developed based on factors such as national, ethnic, and religious background and stage of development. At present, global human rights governance has been severely impacted by profound changes unprecedented for the century, the COVID-19 pandemic and armed conflicts, and the world is faced with an endless number of new issues and challenges, which place new demands on the development of human rights. The international community should respect the human rights and dignity of all people, and promote civil and political rights, economic, social and cultural rights and the right to development in an equal manner. Developing countries are facing grave challenges, and compared to developed countries their gap between the rich and the poor is widening, so comprehensive and systematic measures should be taken to promote common development of all countries in the world. We should abide by the international rule of law, uphold multilateralism, and oppose unilateralism, hegemonic politics and politicization of human rights. Global human rights governance should be conducted in accordance with the basic principles of international law enshrined in the UN Charter, such as sovereign equality and non-interference in internal affairs. Some western countries arrogantly abuse the international human rights mechanism and use power to bully in the name of human rights, which violate international rule of law and undermine human rights governance, in opposite to the purposes of the UN Charter.
The UN Charter states and attaches importance to promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms by international cooperation. It is stipulated under Article 1, paragraph 3, of the Charter that, "to achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion". In accordance with this purpose of the UN Charter, the UN hopes that international human rights promotion and protection activities should be carried out by "international cooperation". In the specific implementation, this principle has been repeatedly affirmed in Articles 3, 55 and 56 of the Charter, taking into account that international human rights activities involve exchanges and communication between countries and between member states and the United Nations organizations. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Declaration on the Right to Development and other important international documents on international human rights, the international community has reaffirmed the principle of international cooperation in protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms and realizing economic, social and cultural rights. International cooperation in the field of human rights was therefore the responsibility of countries. The spirit of this principle has also been fully reflected in numerous resolutions adopted by different UN bodies. On October 24, 1970, the General Assembly adopted the Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations under the Resolution 2526 (XXV), which specified the obligations of States to cooperate with each other in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations. In August 1993, the World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna adopted by consensus the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action declaring that "strengthening international cooperation in the field of human rights is essential for the full realization of the purposes of the United Nations of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. ”
III. Dialectical Relationship between UN Technical Assistance and Capacity Building in Human Rights.
UN Human Rights Council will carry out relevant activities by means of providing technical assistance and for the purpose of enhancing capacity building. Technical assistance is to assess, supplement and improve the human rights protection capacity of Member States. The deficiency of national capacity building is the precondition for technical assistance. Technical assistance for human rights does not mean merely criticizing member states, nor publicly condemning their human rights situation. On the contrary, technical assistance for human rights is aimed at bridging gaps and broadening knowledge, and capacity-building is the sole objective of technical assistance.
China and other developing countries generally believe that in strengthening win-win cooperation in human rights by technical assistance and capacity building, some important principles should be taken into account: First, strictly abide by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, in particular respect for sovereignty and oppose politicizing human rights issues. Second, consultations in an equal position are required to identify areas of cooperation, project planning and specific implementation based on the requirements and priorities of the parties concerned. Third, promote all human rights in a balanced manner, paying particular attention to the demands of developing countries for the realization of the right to development and continuous progress in human rights; Fourth, fully implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and fundamentally guarantee the human rights of all people while providing technical assistance and capacity building; Fifth, all countries should uphold international fairness and justice, fully recognize the difficulties and efforts of developing countries in achieving economic development and maintaining social stability, and actively create conditions for the development of human rights in these countries.
IV. Dialogue and cooperation in human rights should be constructive and based on universality, indivisibility, non-selectivity, non-politicization, equality and mutual respect.
At the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council, China actively advocates the principle of promoting win-win cooperation in human rights, actively promotes fair and equal treatment of all human rights, and promotes mutually beneficial cooperation in them, which is China's important contribution to global human rights governance.
Over the years, China has combined the principle of universality of human rights with China's actual conditions, adhered to a people-centered development philosophy, and upheld the rights to subsistence and development as the primary human rights; constantly promoted economic and social development, improved people's well-being, promoted social fairness and justice, strengthened legal protection of human rights, striven to promote the comprehensive and coordinated development of economic, social and cultural rights as well as civil and political rights, and significantly improved the protection of human rights. While making historic achievements in its own human rights cause, China has taken an active part in global human rights governance and made its own contributions and proposals to the development of the world human rights cause, winning the support and recognition of the international community, especially developing countries.
On March 23, 2018, the UN Human Rights Council overwhelmingly adopted the resolution on Promoting Win-Win Cooperation in Human Rights proposed by China, which states that "recognizing that in an increasingly interconnected world, win-win cooperation among all relevant stakeholders can play an important role in promoting and protecting all human rights”, “recognizing the importance of technical assistance and capacity building on the basis of consultation with and consent of the states concerned in promoting win-win cooperation in human rights" and "reaffirming the important role of technical assistance and capacity building in promoting and protecting human rights; and calls upon countries to strengthen technical assistance and capacity-building for human rights by win-win cooperation on the request of the states concerned and in accordance with the priorities identified by them; welcome any North-South, South-South and tripartite cooperation in this regard".
The resolution sponsored by the Chinese Government recognizes the important role of win-win cooperation in the promotion and protection of human rights, reaffirms that all human rights are universal, indivisible, interconnected, interdependent and mutually reinforcing, and stresses the need to treat all human rights in an impartial and equal manner. In addition, the resolution also calls on all countries to pursue multilateralism and jointly promote win-win cooperation in the field of human rights, fully reflects the common aspiration of the international community and strongly promotes the healthy development of the global human rights cause. This resolution is in line with the trend of the times and will help increase the voice of developing countries in international human rights. In this resolution the UN incorporates the major vision of building international relations featuring mutual respect, fairness, justice and win-win cooperation and a community with a shared future for mankind into the resolution, which demonstrates China's feelings for the world and its responsibility as a great power, and is a positive contribution made by China's wisdom and solutions to global human rights governance.