Speech at the Opening Ceremony of the “2015 Beijing Forum on Human Rights”
Luo Haocai
(President of China Society for Human Rights Studies)
September 16, 2015
Respected Minister Liu Qibao, President Huang Mengfu,
Distinguished guests and dear friends,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning.
We have the most beautiful season autumn in Beijing. I am glad to meet you in Beijing in the beautiful autumn to inaugurate the 2015 Beijing Forum on Human Rights.
Since its establishment in 2008, the Beijing Forum on Human Rights has been developed to be a pivotal stage for the Chinese people to make friends and expand multilateral ties worldwide and also a vital platform for the world people to communicate with each other. These achievements could not have been made without the support of the Communist Party of China and the Chinese government, without the concerted efforts of all colleagues or without the vigorous backup of the Chinese and foreign friends. I’m sincerely grateful for it.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the Global War against Fascism, as well as the 70th anniversary of founding of the United Nations. All countries in the world held diverse commemorative activities. On September 3, 2015, China held the grand military parade to engrave on our mind the history, cherish the memory of our revolutionary martyrs and further promote peace.
The 2015 Beijing Forum on Human Rights is themed on “Peace and Development,” focusing on the victory of the Global War against Fascism and progress of human rights. General Secretary Xi Jinping of the Communist Party of China Central Committee sent a congratulatory letter to the forum. Since the setup of the China Society for Human Rights Studies, there have been three letters sent by the General Secretary, which encouraged the society a lot. We will make persistent efforts and strive to do a good job.
I want to talk about the theme of the forum.
Firstly, remembering the history, cherishing peace and safeguarding the fundamental human rights.
Fascism threatened the mankind. The Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the Global War against Fascism stood as a brave struggle of the countries and people loving peace and upholding justice. As an indispensable part of the Global War against Fascism, the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, at the expense of 35 million Chinese being dead or wounded, significantly contributed to safeguard world peace and promote the reconstruction of a post-war international order. To prevent aggression and safeguard world peace and security after the war, the world people got together and jointly established the international organization called the United Nations. The founding of the United Nations signaled the new international order after the war.
Since its founding, the United Nations has placed equal importance to such three tenets as peace, development and human rights. The preface of the Charter of the United Nations declared the basic human rights, dignity and worth of the human beings and established the respect and incentives of the human rights and the basic freedom of the mankind as the fundamental purposes. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights promulgated in 1948 was one of the fundamental laws of the United Nations. Human rights have become the value system universally accepted by the world people, the important parameters to measure social development of human beings and the symbol of human progress and civilization.
Secondly, ruling the country by law, including human rights into the Constitution and enhancing respect for human rights.
The populist ideas had been prevailing in China since ancient times. After its introduction to modern China, the concept of human rights was rapidly accepted by the Chinese people. In a sense, the process of the Chinese people withstanding foreign invasion and fighting for national independence and self-improvement was part of history in which people pursued and embraced human rights.
Human rights and rule by law are inseparable. The realization of human rights is ultimately guaranteed by rule of law while the overall realization of human rights is the final objective of the pursuit of rule by law. In 2004, the clause that “the country shall respect and guarantee human rights” was written into the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China, which was the milestone in history of safeguarding China’s human rights. In October 2014, the Fourth Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee passed the Decision of the CPC Central Committee on the Important Issues to Promote Rule by Law. Rule by law is the essential requirement and vital guarantee to persist in and develop socialism with Chinese characteristics and the inevitable requirement to modernize the state governance system and capacity, providing fundamental institutional guarantee for the development of China’s human rights.
Thirdly, keeping a foothold of ourselves, seeking mutual development and coordinating and promoting all sorts of human rights.
China always holds that the rights to subsistence and development compose the primary human rights. It is a summary of the miserable historical lessons of the Chinese nation, a clear awareness of China’s development stage and environment for a fairly long time, and also an objective cognition of the human rights development rules.
The Declaration on the Right to Development of the United Nations explicitly makes the right to development an inalienable human right. All the people worldwide have the right to participate in, promote and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development. All the countries should take necessary measures to materialize the right to development and ensure equal opportunities of everyone in basic resources, education, healthcare services, food, housing, employment and fair income distribution.
At present China’s persistence in development is the key to all the problems. The vital strategic judgment firmly places the right to development in a focal position, attaches top priorities to the rights relating to people’s livelihood, protects the most relevant, direct and realistic interests of the people, takes people’s livelihood as first, important and essential, completes the social security system, eliminates poverty and stimulates development. Based on people’s livelihood as top priorities, vigorous efforts should be made to promote the comprehensive, coordinated and sustainable development of various human rights in economy, politics, culture, society and ecological environment. China has found its own path in human rights protection and development and has formed its own idea and discourse system of human rights.
Adhering to the principles of mutual respect and two-way learning for many years, China persists in enhancing exchanges and cooperation with other countries in human rights. China’s progress in human rights is part of the development of human rights of the whole world and make valuable contribution to it. The realization of human rights worldwide has a long way to go. I believe that China will make more friends on that way.
I wish the forum a complete success. Thank you.
Xi Jinping’s Congratulatory Letter to the “2015 Beijing Forum on Human Rights”
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression as well as the World Anti-Fascist War, the Beijing Forum on Human Rights this year is themed with “Peace and Development: Victory of World Anti-Fascist War and Human Rights Advancement,” which helps all parties deeply reflect on the guarantee of rights to peace and development of mankind. On behalf of the Chinese government and people and in my own name, I would like to extend a sincere congratulation to the opening of the Forum.
Seventy years ago, in order to safeguard the peace, justice and dignity of mankind, all countries and people loving peace and freedom in the world won the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War after tenacious struggle at the cost of the loss of tens of millions of lives. During the war, the Chinese people resisted Japanese militarists’ brutal aggression for 14 years, making huge sacrifices and remarkable contributions to the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War. The Chinese people, having gone through much suffering in modern times, know very well the great significance of human value, basic human rights and human dignity to social development and progress and especially cherish the hard-won peaceful development environment, and will unswervingly follow the path of peaceful development and steadfastly advance the human rights cause in both China and the world.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government always respect and ensure human rights. For a long time, China, by connecting the universality principle of human rights with China’s reality, has constantly advanced social and economic development, improved people’s welfare, promoted social fairness and justice, strengthened legal guarantee of human rights and strived for a comprehensive and coordinated development of economic, social and cultural rights as well as civil and political rights. This has significantly elevated the guarantee level of people’s existence and development rights and paved a path for human rights development compatible to China’s national conditions.
Attaining people’s full enjoyment of human rights is a shared goal of the humanity. There is no best but better human rights guarantee. The international community should actively push forward the global human rights cause, and, particularly, pay attention to existence and development rights of people in developing countries. The Chinese people are striving for the Chinese Dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, which will guarantee Chinese people’s human rights at a higher level and promote their comprehensive development.
China advocates that we should enhance exchanges and mutual learning between different civilizations and push exchanges and cooperation among all countries, thus ensuring a better development of the human rights cause in all countries. I hope that participants from around the world pool their ideas through active discussion and contribute to promote a healthy development of the human rights cause around the world.
I wish the 2015 Beijing Forum on Human Rights a great success!
Xi Jinping
President of the People’s Republic of China
September 16, 2015