Sponsored by China Society for Human Rights Studies

São Paulo Consensus on China-Latin American and Caribbean States Human Rights Communication and Cooperation

2025-07-26 10:51:37Source: CSHRS

1. At present, the world is undergoing changes unseen in a century. Multiple risks are intertwined and overlapping, including surging geopolitical tensions, bloc confrontations, and the resurgent currents of unilateralism and protectionism — all of which pose new challenges to human rights protection and global human rights governance. On July 25, 2025, we, representatives from 20 countries, gathered in São Paulo, Brazil, for the Second China-Latin American and Caribbean States Roundtable on Human Rights. We held in-depth discussions on the theme of "China-Latin American and Caribbean States Community with a Shared Future and the Development of Human Rights" and reached broad consensus.

2. We reaffirm our fundamental understanding of human rights: human rights possess both universality and particularity. The advancement of human rights in each country must be grounded in its own history, culture, and stage of development, with a development path and protection model tailored to its national conditions. We uphold the integrated and coordinated promotion of civil and political rights together with economic, social and cultural rights, ensuring that all social groups enjoy human rights equitably. A peaceful and stable environment and appropriate economic and social conditions should be fostered to support human rights advancement, and all obstacles to the progress of the human rights should be eliminated.

3. We believe that scientific and technological progress and the application of new technologies, should consistently serve to enhance human well-being, dignity and freedom. Digital technology and artificial intelligence present both opportunities and challenges to the protection of human rights. Scientific and technological achievements should benefit the general public rather than being concentrated in the hands of a few, so as to avoid creating new forms of social inequalities and injustices. We should carry out society-wide digital capacity building and enhance the digital literacy of the population. We should advocate the establishment of international ethical norms for the application of artificial intelligence, promote the use of digital and intelligent technologies for good, and ensure that artificial intelligence is used to better safeguard human rights rather than result in human rights crises.

4. We believe that a sound ecological environment is the most inclusive people’s well-being. Climate change, environmental pollution, and related issues directly affect every individual's right to subsistence and the right to development, as well as the realization of other fundamental human rights. We must promote high-quality economic development, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and expand and deepen green industries to benefit present and future generations. We must strengthen collaborative governance to effectively address the impacts of climate change on the poor and vulnerable, and ensure that the outcomes of environment governance benefit all people. We should face up to the dual needs of Global South countries for economic development and environmental protection, and respect their rights to formulate climate response and green development plans based on their respective development stages and capacities.

5. We believe that we should strengthen unity and cooperation, and emphasize cooperation for development, promoting human rights through development, so as to promote the building of a China–Latin American and Caribbean States (China-LAC) community with a shared future. In the process of China-LAC economic and industrial cooperation, full consideration should be given to human rights protection needs, and the rights and interests of laborers should be protected in accordance with the law. We should promote more cooperation outcomes between China and LAC in areas such as poverty reduction, green development, scientific and technological innovation. We should vigorously promote exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and LAC civilizations, leverage the role of academia as a bridge for communication, and encourage and facilitate high-level exchanges and cooperation among universities, think tanks, and academic groups from both sides.

6. We should practice true multilateralism, jointly uphold global fairness and justice, support the active participation of Global South countries in global human rights governance, and advocate that all countries adhere to the shared values of peace, development, fairness, justice, democracy, and freedom for all mankind. We should promote a more fair, just, reasonable, and inclusive global human rights governance, and jointly build a community with a shared future for mankind. We oppose the politicization of human rights issues, oppose the abuse of human rights topics to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries; we support the core platform status of the United Nations in global governance and multilateral cooperation, and support the United Nations Human Rights Council to play its role more fairly and justly.

7. We commend the “China-Latin American and Caribbean States Roundtable on Human Rights” for its efforts in promoting cooperation on human rights and advancing exchanges and mutual learning between Chinese and LAC civilizations. We advocate for the establishment of long-term mechanism platforms to promote human rights communication and cooperation between the two sides, such as the "China-Latin American and Caribbean States on Human Rights Research and Cooperation Network," to actively promote collaborative research on human rights. We warmly welcome more representatives from various countries and regions to participate in this Roundtable and help deepen the growing consensus on human rights between China and LAC.

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