Human rights cause should shun political manipulation

Editor's Note: The following are excerpts from Foreign Minister Qin Gang's address at the High-level Segment of the 52nd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council last week:

Seventy-five years ago, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was born from the ashes of World War II. The Declaration, affirming the respect for and protection of basic human rights, is a milestone in the international human rights cause. Thirty years ago, the Vienna Declaration and Program of Action established the equal status of all human rights. The vision of promoting human rights through development and cooperation has become more and more widely appreciated.

There is no one-size-fits-all model for the protection of human rights. As such, China proposes that the international community should commit to a path of human rights development that suits the realities of each country. The right of all countries to independently choose their own human rights development path should be respected.

Countries should comprehensively promote and protect all human rights. Human rights are indivisible. 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. More attention should be paid to the human rights challenges facing developing countries and their human rights needs. Measures of unilateral coercion violate international law and the basic human rights of the people of the countries concerned, and should be lifted immediately and unconditionally.

The world should commit to international fairness and justice. The advancement of the international human rights cause needs solidarity and cooperation, not division or confrontation. Human rights should not be used as a pretext for meddling in other countries' internal affairs or holding back other countries' development. The acts by some to politicize, weaponize and instrumentalize human rights issues should be opposed.

The UN Human Rights Council should be a stage for constructive dialogue and cooperation, rather than an arena for political manipulation and bloc confrontation. The human rights treaty bodies and the special procedures should operate within their mandates and build bridges of communication with member states. Only by following the principles of impartiality, objectivity, non-selectivity and non-politicization can the UN human rights system function well and bring continued positive energy to the international human rights cause.