Building a brighter future for the world

The cause of human rights across the worlds is facing traditional and non-traditional threats, especially in the political, economic, scientific and technological fields.

The trade war the United States launched against China more than one year ago has dealt a blow to the global economy. Similarly, the US has taken many unilateral actions detrimental to the international community, among which its withdrawal from the United Nations Human Rights Council in June 2018 has undermined the cause of human rights.

Given that world peace, development and human rights depend on the constructive participation and contribution of all countries, it is all the more important that all the countries engage in international governance based on the existing rules.

In the 70 years since the founding of New China, especially during the 40 years of reform and opening-up, Beijing has vigorously protected and promoted human rights within the country. It has been actively participating in UN human rights affairs, too, on the basis of equality and mutual respect, extensively carrying out international exchanges and cooperation, and actively offering Chinese wisdom and Chinese solutions to address the problems facing international human rights governance.

As the world's largest developing country, a founding member of the UN and a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China has been elected many a time as a member of the UN Human Rights Council. It was elected to the council for the fourth time on Oct 28, 2016, with as many as 180 votes. This reflects the recognition China has received from other countries for its work to develop human rights around the world and the expectations the international community has of its role in developing global human rights governance.

On March 11, 2018, the first session of the 13th National People's Congress, China's top legislature, approved an amendment to the country's Constitution and added "promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind" to the preamble of the Constitution.

This is a development on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence advocated by China in the 1950s. As such, it has become China's constitutional principle and goal to build a community with a shared future for mankind.

China's proposal has evoked positive response from the UN. In recent years, the UN Security Council and other international committees have adopted resolutions emphasizing the building of a community with a shared future for mankind. At its 37th session on March 23, 2018, the UN Human Rights Council for the first time included into its resolution China's proposal to build a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind.

Economic development is the key to solving almost all the global, regional and national problems. Through active exploration, and reform and opening-up, China has blazed a development path that suits its national conditions, which has helped it to solve Chinese people's food and clothing problems, and embark on the path to building a well-off society and achieving greater prosperity.

Even on the international level, China has closely integrated development with human rights, promoting development and human rights through cooperation, so as to help build a community with a shared future for mankind. China has worked with other countries to push the UN to adopt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and advocated that the agenda be implemented through North-South and South-South cooperation.

At the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, in September 2016, China pushed for the formulation of a collective action plan to implement the 2030 Agenda.

In a letter on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Dec 10, 2018, President Xi Jinping emphasized that the Chinese people are willing to work with all the people of the world by adhering to such common values as peace, development, justice, democracy and liberty, maintaining human dignity and rights, promoting fairer, reasonable and inclusive global human rights governance, and building a community with a shared future for mankind to build a brighter future for the world.

The author is executive director of the human rights research center, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.