Much room for improvement in human rights, China says

BEIJING, China - China said Sunday it had much work to do to improve its human rights record, but a government report gave Beijing passing marks for advancing civil liberties, living standards and Internet freedoms.

"China is a developing country with a population of 1.3 billion," said the official report entitled, "Progress in China's Human Rights in 2009".

"Due to its inadequate and unbalanced development, there is still much room for improvement in its human rights conditions."

The report laid out government efforts to raise living standards, improve health care and education, ensure equal rights for ethnic minorities and the handicapped, increase employment and respect civil liberties.

"With their right to freedom of speech on the Internet protected by the law, Chinese citizens can voice their opinions in a wide variety of ways," the report said.

Efforts to use the Internet has opened channels for the public to criticize government work while raising the level of transparency, it added.

International human rights groups have long criticized China for curbing political rights and the basic freedoms of speech, press and religion, while Beijing's efforts to censor the Internet have been widely lambasted by the global online community.

But the report praised international efforts to advance human rights, especially the United Nations promotion of civil, political and economic rights.

"The full realization of human rights is an important goal for China," the paper said.

"Working closely with other countries, China will, as always, spare no efforts and contribute its due share to ensure the continuous progress of China's human rights, as well as the healthy development of human rights in the rest of the world."

The 12,000-word document was China's ninth "white paper" on human rights since 1991, it said, but the first since the government issued its "National Human Rights Action Plan of China" last year.


(2010-09-26/montrealgazette.com)