Seeking Happiness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China
Actively leading the reform of international human rights governance. In addition to making progress in its own human rights protection, China also attaches importance to leading the reform of the international human rights governance system. In 1954, together with India and Burma, China proposed the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence: mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty, non-aggression, noninterference in each other's internal affairs, equality and cooperation for mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence, which embodies the acknowledgement and appreciation of national independence, and respect for the decision-making power of independent countries and their peoples. In 1955, encouraged by China, the final Communiqué of the Bandung Conference incorporated "respect for fundamental human rights" as the first point into the 10-point declaration on promotion of world peace and cooperation. The 10-point declaration passed at the Bandung Conference is a derivation and development of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. The Non-Aligned Movement that rose in the 1960s set the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence as its guideline. The declarations adopted at the 1970 and 1974 UN general assemblies accepted the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence. Over the six decades that have since passed, the influence of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence has expanded from Asia to the whole world. It has made a historic contribution to building a fairer and more reasonable international political and economic order and establishing a new type of international relations, and serves as a guide for the international governance of human rights.
Over the years, China has kept summing up its own experience in human rights protection, and provided the international community with Chinese wisdom and solutions. In 1993, China pushed for the adoption of the Bangkok Declaration among Asian countries. Holding the vice presidency of the Second World Conference on Human Rights, China participated in drafting the Vienna Declaration and Program of Action. The UNHRC passed the resolution "The Contribution of Development to the Enjoyment of All Human Rights" submitted by China, which introduced the concept of "promoting human rights through development" into international human rights for the first time. The idea of building a global community of shared future proposed by China has elicited a positive international response. The concept has been written into many resolutions of the UNHRC, the United Nations Security Council, and some other UN organizations. It plays an important role in advancing the international governance of human rights in a fairer, more reasonable and inclusive direction.
