China urges self-choice on human rights

China will keep following its own path of human rights development and opposes using human rights as a pretext for interference and containment, Foreign Minister Qin Gang said in a UN address on Monday.

China has found a path that meets the trend of the times and suits its national conditions, which is key to its historic achievements in human rights, Qin said in his address to the high-level segment of the 52nd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

"The right of all countries to independently choose their own path of human rights development should be respected," Qin said in his address delivered via a video link from Beijing, as he also dismissed attempts to "blindly copy" the model of others or impose one's own model on others.

Emphasizing that no country is qualified to act as "the judge on human rights", Qin said that countries should carry out exchanges and cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual respect, and oppose some countries' acts of politicizing and weaponizing human rights issues.

Scheduled to last for more than five weeks, the 52nd Session of the UNHRC opened on Monday as the world faces a number of major challenges, including the threat of recession, food and energy crises and climate change.

Qin said more attention should be paid to the human rights challenges and needs of developing countries and called for the immediate and unconditional lifting of "measures of unilateral coercion", which violate international law and the basic human rights of people of targeted countries.

Countries should commit to promoting and protecting all human rights, the foreign minister said. "Human rights are indivisible," Qin said. "The right to subsistence and the right to development are basic human rights of primary importance. Civil and political rights, and economic, social and cultural rights should be accorded equal attention and advanced in a holistic way."

Comprised of 47 member states elected by the UN General Assembly, the Human Rights Council holds at least three sessions every year.

China has urged the council to avoid becoming "an arena for political confrontation" where some countries make false accusations against China's policies in its Xinjiang and Tibet autonomous regions and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Reaffirming China's position on Monday, Qin said the council should facilitate constructive dialogue and cooperation and added that the UN human rights system should uphold impartiality, objectivity, non-selectivity and non-politicization.

China's stance was shared by other countries participating in the event.

Tran Luu Quang, deputy prime minister of Vietnam, said each country may adopt a different approach suitable to its particular circumstances, and it's vital to understand and respect particular details and seek commonalities, instead of politicization, imposition or interference.

The council must guard against the politicization of human rights, including as a tool for geopolitical rivalry, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said.

Finger-pointing and double standards would divide the council, and the organization should avoid the "us versus them" mentality, she said.

On Japan's decision to discharge nuclear wastewater into the sea, Qin said that countries should urge Tokyo to take the international community's concerns seriously and ask it to treat the wastewater in an open, transparent, science-based and safe manner.

Qin is also scheduled to attend the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in New Delhi, India, on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning announced on Tuesday.