Efforts to respect and protect

According to an Assessment Report on the National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2009-2010) released by the Information office of the State Council, by the end of 2010 all targets and tasks set by the action plan had been accomplished as scheduled and all measures stipulated in the action plan had been put into practice, with all the goals achieved and tasks fulfilled in due time. Of these, 35 percent of the binding targets and more than 50 percent of the targets concerning people's livelihoods had been met ahead of time or exceeded, thus realizing the comprehensive implementation of the action plan and signaling that China's human rights cause had entered a new phrase.

Under the CPC leadership, China's human rights cause has made historic progress and outstanding achievements. Since reform and opening-up, human rights development has turned people-oriented, comprehensive, coordinative and sustainable, and entered the best period in history. This trend continues to further improve.

Certainly, we should also clearly understand that the development of human rights still requires great efforts and responsibility. There are still many deficiencies and gaps.

For example, we should further intensify citizens' human rights consciousness and enhance the capability and level of human rights security. The theoretical system for human rights law is not mature enough and people's rights and obligations in human rights law are not in complete conformity. In all, imbalance still exists in human rights law.

The escalation of human rights security in a country has to rely on the construction of its legal system first. China has been pursuing a balanced human rights law which should represent the orientation of our efforts, and will continue to self-reflect and seek a solution to the imbalance. Seeking a balance will continue to be one of the basic principles guiding the development of China's legal system on human rights.

It requires advancing the innovation of human rights theory and practice as well as improving the existing human rights security system to realize the mission of respecting and safeguarding human rights. The development of the legal system should be further connected with human rights security. We have to train, establish and intensify a mentality to create balance, analyze the reason for imbalance with more sobriety, face comments on China's human rights issues with more confidence, advance system reform with rationality, rectify the imbalance in the human rights law with more consciousness, protect the just rights and interests of citizens as well as provide better legal security with more determination.

In the coming years, we should exert ourselves to accomplish the following tasks: first, intensify research on human rights. Based on the Blue Book of China's Human Rights, we need to do more investigation and understand human rights conditions in China, and experience and observe people's human rights needs.

Second, we should advocate human rights education. Human rights education is the important foundation for China's human rights consciousness and legislation. We need to carry out human rights education in educational institutions like schools and popularize human rights consciousness with the help of media.

Next, we should participate in human rights works of the government. We need to be actively involved in the enactment, implementation, supervision and assessment of the country's human rights campaign plans and carry out the constitutional principles of respecting and safeguarding human rights.

Last, we should strengthen our international communication on human rights. By organizing and attending human rights forums and symposiums, we can strengthen mutual visits with international human rights organizations and other countries to publicize our concepts as well as intensify mutual understanding and cooperation.

As President Hu Jintao said in his speech at the meeting commemorating the 90th anniversary of CPC, "the development of practice, cognition of the truth, and innovation of theories know no boundary". Let's make every effort to realize the improvement and innovation of China's human rights theories, advance development and breakthrough of human rights practice and safeguard Chinese people's rights.

The author is president of the China Society for Human Rights Studies.

(China Daily 09/01/2011 page8)