China Wednesday called for exchanges and cooperation in the field of human rights, voicing its hope that all countries will, through dialogue and exchanges on an equal footing, properly handle divergent views on the human rights issues.

The statement came as Zhang Yishan, the deputy Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations, took the floor at a meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

"It is generally held that under the current circumstances, we shall still face with many serious challenges and daunting tasks in fully safeguarding human rights and basic freedom," he said. "Only when all countries seize the opportunity and cooperate together, can we jointly promote a healthy development of the world cause for human rights."

"First, the strengthening of exchanges of cooperation in the field of human rights helps promote mutual understanding and good neighborliness among States," he said.

After the human society has withstood several thousand years of vicissitudes, there have formed diverse national characteristics and cultural traditions, thus bringing about diversity in world civilization, he said.

"Due to different historical conditions, social systems, levels of development and concepts of values, it is only natural to have different views on the human rights issue," he said.

By respecting the universal principles of human rights, countries should be allowed, encouraged and welcomed to take effective measures to protect and promote human rights while taking into account their own national conditions, he said.

"It is therefore neither practical nor feasible to demand all countries adopt the same development model," he said.

"Secondly, the strengthening of exchanges and cooperation in the field of human rights helps enhance fairness and efficiency of the Commission on Human Rights," he said.

"Being an important UN agency for protecting and promoting human rights, the Commission on Human Rights should have become an important forum whereby all countries should gather together, pool their wisdom and make concrete contributions to the development of the world cause of human rights," he said.

"Regrettably, some countries have, over the past few years, disregarded the basic facts and politicized the human rights issue by adopting dual standards," he said, referring to the insistence by some countries on tabling in the commission session in Geneva draft resolutions on individual developing countries so as to turn the session into what he called "an arena for ideological struggle."

"This has not only given rise to seriously undermining the commission's fairness and efficiency, failing to solve problems, but also wasting a lot of precious resources," he said.

"Thirdly, the strengthening of exchanges and cooperation in the field of human rights is an effective tool to combat terrorism," he said.

Terrorism jeopardizes innocent people's life, dignity and safety, he said. "It also constitutes a blatant violation of democracy and human rights and a serious threat to peace, prosperity and development of all countries."

"Many countries, including China, have been victims of terrorism," he said. "The international community should, proceeding from the common interests of all peoples, take a unified position and resolutely combat all forms of terrorism."

"To fight against terrorism, we need to address both its symptoms and root causes," he said. "The long-term and effective way of eradicating terrorism is to help solve the increasingly serious problem of development, narrow the gap between the North and the South and between the rich and the poor and increase mutual understanding and dialogue among different countries and civilizations."

( July 26, 2002)