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China recognizes and respects the purposes and principles of the
Charter of the United Nations related to the protection and promotion
of human rights. It appreciates and supports the efforts of the
UN in promoting universal respect for human rights and fundamental
freedoms, and takes an active part in UN activities in the human
rights field. China advocates mutual respect for state sovereignty
and maintains that priority should be given to the safeguarding
of the right of the people of the developing countries to subsistence
and development, thus creating the necessary conditions for people
all over the world to enjoy various human rights. China is opposed
to interfering in other countries' internal affairs on the pretext
of human rights and has made unremitting efforts to eliminate various
abnormal phenomena and strengthen international cooperation in the
field of human rights.
In April 1955, Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai signed the "Draft Final
Communique of the Asian-African Conference" (also known as the "Bandung
Declaration") at the Asian and African Conference held in Bandung,
Indonesia. The communique declared that the conference fully supports
the fundamental principles concerning human rights laid down in
the UN Charter, and made the "respect for fundamental human rights
and for the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United
Nations" the first of the ten principles of peaceful coexistence.
In May of the same year, Zhou Enlai, speaking at an enlarged session
of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, said
that "the ten principles contained in the Bandung Declaration also
include respect for fundamental human rights and for the purposes
and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.... All these
are the principles that have been consistently advocated by the
Chinese people and adhered to by China."
In his speech during the general debate at the 41st session of
the United Nations General Assembly held in 1986, the Chinese foreign
minister, when mentioning the 20th anniversary of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, pointed out that "the two
covenants have played a positive role in realizing the purposes
and principles of the UN Charter concerning respect for human rights.
The Chinese government has consistently supported these purposes
and principles." In September 1988, the Chinese foreign minister
pointed out in his speech at the 43rd session of the United Nations
General Assembly that the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights"
is "the first international instrument which systematically sets
forth the specific contents regarding respect for and protection
of fundamental human rights. Despite its historical limitations,
the Declaration has exerted a farreaching influence on the development
of the post-war international human rights activities and played
a positive role in this regard."
China has taken an active part in the UN activities in the sphere
of human rights. Since resuming its lawful seat in the United Nations
in 1971, China has sent its delegation to attend every session of
the UN Economic and Social Council and of the UN General Assembly,
and has taken an active part in deliberation of human rights issues
and stated its views on the issue of human rights, making its contributions
to enriching the connotation of the concept of human rights. Chinese
delegations attended as observers the UN Human Rights Commission's
sessions in 1979, 1980 and 1981. China was elected a member of the
Human Rights Commission at the first regular session of the UN Economic
and Social Council and has been a member ever since. Since 1984
the human rights affairs experts recommended by China to the Human
Rights Commission have been continually elected members and alternate
members of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and
Protection of Minorities. The Chinese members have played an important
role in the sub-commission. They have become members of the Working
Group on Indigenous Populations and the Working Group on Communications
affiliated to the sub-commission.
China has taken an active part in drafting and formulating international
legal instruments on human rights within the UN, and has sent delegates
to participate in working groups charged with drafting these instruments,
including the UN Convention on the Rights of Children, the International
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers
and Their Families, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Declaration on
the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of
Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights
and Fundamental Freedoms, and the Declaration on the Protection
of Rights of Persons Belonging to National, Ethnic, Religious and
Linguistic Minorities. The meetings of these working groups paid
much attention to the suggestions and amendments put forward by
China. Since 1981 China has participated in every session of the
governmental experts group organized by the UN Commission on Human
Rights to draft the Declaration on the Right to Development and
made positive suggestions until the Declaration on the Right to
Development was passed by the 41st session of the UN General Assembly
in 1986. China energetically supported the Commission on Human Rights
in conducting worldwide consultation on the implementation of the
right to development and supported the proposal that the right to
development be discussed as an independent agenda item in the Human
Rights Commission. China has always been a cosponsor country of
the Human Rights Commission's resolution on the right to development.
Since 1980 the Chinese government has successively signed, ratified
and acceded to seven UN human rights conventions, namely the Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, the International
Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crimes of Apartheid,
the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women, the International Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention Relating to the
Status of Refugees, the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees,
and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment. The Chinese government has always submitted
reports on the implementation of the related conventions, and seriously
and earnestly performed the obligations it has undertaken.
China has always upheld justice and made unremitting efforts to
safeguard the right of third world countries to national self-determination
and to stop massive infringements on human rights. As is well known,
China has for many years made unremitting efforts to seek a just
and reasonable resolution of a series of major human rights issues,
including the questions of Cambodia, Afghanistan, the occupied Palestinian
and Arab territories, South Africa and Namibia, and Panama.
China pays close attention to the issue of the right to development.
China believes that as history develops, the concept and connotation
of human rights also develop constantly. The Declaration on the
Right to Development provides that human rights refer to both individual
rights and collective rights. This means a breakthrough in the traditional
concept of human rights and represents a result won through many
years of struggle by the newly-emerging independent countries and
the international community, a result of great significance. In
the world today the gap between the rich and the poor becomes wider
and wider. Social and economic growth in many developing countries
is slow, and one-third of the population in developing countries
still live below the poverty line. To the people in the developing
countries, the most urgent human rights are still the right to subsistence
and the right to economic, social and cultural development. Therefore,
attention should first be given to the right to development. China
appeals to the international community to attach importance and
give attention to the developing countries' right to development
and adopt positive and effective measures to eliminate injustice
and unreasonable practice in the world economic order. An earnest
effort must be made to improve the international economic environment,
alleviate and gradually eliminate factors disadvantageous to developing
countries and establish a new international economic order. Factors
which have a negative influence on the right to development, such
as racism, colonialism, hegemonism and foreign aggression, occupation
and interference must be eliminated. A favorable international environment
must be created for the realization of the right to development.
Over a long period in the UN activities in the human rights field,
China has firmly opposed to any country making use of the issue
of human rights to sell its own values, ideology, political standards
and mode of development, and to any country interfering in the internal
affairs of other countries on the pretext of human rights, the internal
affairs of developing countries in particular, and so hurting the
sovereignty and dignity of many developing countries. Together with
other developing countries, China has waged a resolute struggle
against all such acts of interference, and upheld justice by speaking
out from a sense of fairness. China has always maintained that human
rights are essentially matters within the domestic jurisdiction
of a country. Respect for each country's sovereignty and non-interference
in internal affairs are universally recognized principles of international
law, which are applicable to all fields of international relations,
and of course applicable to the field of human rights as well. Section
7 of Article 2 of the Charter of the United Nations stipulates that
"Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United
Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the
domestic jurisdiction of any state...." The Declaration on the Inadmissibility
of Intervention in the Domestic Affairs of States and the Protection
of Their Independence and Sovereignty, the Declaration on Principles
of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation
Among States in Accordance With the Charter of the United Nations,
and the Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention and Interference
in the Internal Affairs of States, which were all adopted by the
United Nations, contain the following explicit provisions: "No State
or group of States has the right to intervene, directly or indirectly,
for any reason whatsoever, in the internal or external affairs of
any other State," and every state has the duty "to refrain from
the exploitation and the distortion of human rights issues as a
means of interference in the internal affairs of States, of exerting
pressure on other States or creating distrust and disorder within
and among States or groups of States." These provisions of international
instruments reflect the will of the overwhelming majority of countries
to safeguard the fundamental principles of international law and
maintain a normal relationship between states. They are basic principles
that must be followed in international human rights activities.
The argument that the principle of non-interference in internal
affairs does not apply to the issue of human rights is, in essence,
a demand that sovereign states give up their state sovereignty in
the field of human rights, a demand that is contrary to international
law. Using the human rights issue for the political purpose of imposing
the ideology of one country on another is no longer a question of
human rights, but a manifestation of power politics in the form
of interference in the internal affairs of other countries. Such
abnormal practice in international human rights activities must
be eliminated.
China is in favor of strengthening international cooperation in
the realm of human rights on the basis of mutual understanding and
seeking a common ground while reserving differences. However, no
country in its effort to realize and protect human rights can take
a route that is divorced from its history and its economic, political
and cultural realities. A human rights system must be ratified and
protected by each sovereign state through its domestic legislation.
As pointed out in a resolution of the UN General Assembly at its
45th session: "Each State has the right freely to choose and develop
its political, social, economic and cultural systems." It is also
noted in the resolution of the 46th conference on human rights that
no single mode of development is applicable to all cultures and
peoples. It is neither proper nor feasible for any country to judge
other countries by the yardstick of its own mode or to impose its
own mode on others. Therefore, the purpose of international protection
of human rights and related activities should be to promote normal
cooperation in the international field of human rights and international
harmony, mutual understanding and mutual respect. Consideration
should be given to the differing views on human rights held by countries
with different political, economic and social systems, as well as
different historical, religious and cultural backgrounds. International
human rights activities should be carried on in the spirit of seeking
common ground while reserving differences, mutual respect, and the
promotion of understanding and cooperation.
China has always held that to effect international protection of
human rights, the international community should interfere with
and stop acts that endanger world peace and security, such as gross
human rights violations caused by colonialism, racism, foreign aggression
and occupation, as well as apartheid, racial discrimination, genocide,
slave trade and serious violation of human rights by international
terrorist organizations. These are important aspects of international
cooperation in the realm of human rights and an arduous task facing
current international human rights protection activities.
There is now a change over the world pattern from the old to the
new, and the world is more turbulent than before. Hegemonism and
power politics continue to exist and endanger world peace and development.
Interference in other countries' internal affairs and the pushing
of power politics on the pretext of human rights are obstructing
the realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms. In face
of such a world situation, China is ready to work with the international
community in a continued and unremitting effort to build a just
and reasonable new order of international relations and to realize
the purpose of the United Nations to uphold and promote human rights
and fundamental freedoms.
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