Latest action plan represents major advances

Editor's note: China issued The 3rd National Human Rights Action Plan (2016-20) last week. Since the United Nations called for countries to formulate plans, 37 countries have produced 49 plans. Since its first plan in 2009, China has raised public awareness of human rights protection. Following are excerpts of two experts' comments on the plan, compiled by Li Yang.

Chang Jian, deputy-director of the Human Rights Research Center in Nankai University in Tianjin

The third action plan sets human rights objectives to achieve by 2020. It is of great importance to usher China into a new phase in improving its human rights conditions.

Compared with the previous two plans, the new one puts more stress on equality and forming synergies, under a legal framework.

In the coming five years, authorities will pay special attention to bridging the gap in public services among different groups, dealing with general inequality and protecting the rights and interests of the disadvantaged, especially those in poverty-stricken regions.

Synergy refers to the coordination of multiple actors in human rights protection, such as government, enterprises, social organizations and media.

The new plan says China should lift 30 million people out of poverty through developing local industries, 10 million through creating jobs, and 10 million by relocating homes. The plan clarifies the government's responsibility in caring for 20 million poverty-stricken people, who have completely or partially lost the ability to work.

The plan also contains detailed rules on institution-building to protect people's judicial rights, rights to know, rights of participation, expression rights, property rights and supervision rights.

The new plan has more detailed requirements for human rights education, a compulsory course in the schools of the Party, government, judicial departments, public security forces, and civil education. Human rights will also be merged into school curricula.

Human rights protection will become an important factor in investments. China will have five new human rights education and training centers by 2020.

The plan also says that China will more actively take part in international human rights work, cooperation and assistance. China will build its human rights development strategy according to its practical national conditions, and will by no means copy other countries' human rights development models.

Chen Xulong, director of International Strategy Institute of China Institute of International Studies

This five-year action plan of human rights closely corresponds with the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20). Human rights is closely related to social and economic development.

The new plan lays out five principles of human rights development: by law, coordination, pragmatics, equality and synergy, which correspond with the five development principles proposed by President Xi Jinping. The advancement of human rights is an integral part of China's national renewal.

The plan stresses protecting legal rights and interests of underage people, the disabled and the poverty-stricken, and carrying out human rights education to raise society's awareness. The new action plan also says China will actively participate in international human rights affairs, and undertake major-country responsibilities.

It is the first time that the citizen's property rights protection and human rights research appear in the action plan as key tasks.

The new action plan lays out many new quantitative indexes. It becomes easier to measure the progress of its implementation as well as to evaluate its effects. Women, for example, should account for more than 30 percent of village committees, and more than 10 percent of village committee heads, and more than 50 percent of urban resident committees, by 2020.

China will strengthen its human rights dialogue, exchange and communication with international organizations and countries, and pay more attention to uniting and cooperating with developing countries.

(China Daily 10/03/2016 page2)