China's new human rights report highlights development, rule of law

Students draw pictures on a 50-meter-long canvas to welcome the coming Children's Day in Cuitingyuan Primary School in Hefei, East China's Anhui province, May 28, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

BEIJING - The Chinese government released a white paper on Monday highlighting the progress of human rights protection in the legal system as well as economic and social development.

"The tremendous achievements China has made in its human rights endeavors fully demonstrate that it is taking the correct path of human rights development that suits its national conditions," the white paper, published by the State Council Information Office under the title "Progress in China's Human Rights in 2014", said.

China's legal reform gained momentum when the Communist Party of China (CPC) leadership adopted a comprehensive plan to promote rule of law at a key meeting last October.

"The fundamental purposes of the blueprint are to protect civic rights, to defend human dignity and to put basic human rights into practice," the report notes.

Unlike previous reports, this year's white paper has a single chapter about protecting people's right to impartial trials.

Zhu Liyu, deputy director of the Center for Human Rights Studies of the People's University of China, told Xinhua legal reform has been one of the most notable progresses for human rights protection in China in the past two years.

A number of new measures were made to improve the transparency and efficiency of judicial departments, empower them to better supervise administrative power and protect civic rights, which are of profound significance, Zhu said.

"In the cases that a person's rights are violated by administrative power, the judicial system will be the last resort. Without the legal system, it is impossible to actually protect human rights," he said.

In 2014, China also made notable progress in realizing its development targets. By the end of the year, among all the 29 countable or measurable indicators for economic and social development set forth in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), 12 had been over-fulfilled, three had been nearly fulfilled and 11 had made smooth progress, accounting for 90 percent of the total.

The mid-stage assessment of China's National Human Rights Action Plan (2012-2015), conducted in December 2014, showed most of the targets set had been reached and a larger part of the quantitative indices had been by achieved half or more.

The white paper is China's 12th report on human rights since the government began releasing such reports in 1991.

The report, with nine chapters and 14,000 words, details the progress the country made in protecting people's right to development, democracy, impartial trials and a clean environment, as well as the rights of women, children, senior citizens, ethnic minorities and the disabled.