Forum highlights nation's contribution to human rights

China and South-South cooperation have made significant, substantial contribution to the development of global human rights undertakings in recent years, said an official from Guyana at the two-day South-South Human Rights Forum in Beijing that concluded on Friday.

Delegates and scholars from more than 70 countries and organizations attended the forum, which discussed the promotion of human rights in developing countries and the world. South-South cooperation has been initiated, organized and managed by developing countries with the aim of promoting shared development at bilateral, multilateral, regional and interregional levels.

Wang Xigen, executive dean of the Institute of Human Rights at Wuhan University, said the right to development is an original contribution by countries of the South to human rights and is the great achievement of South-South cooperation in human rights. He emphasized that South-South cooperation is one of the fundamental ways that developing countries can realize the right to development.

China promotes the right to development in developing countries through South-South cooperation, Wang said, adding that it has accumulated a great wealth of experiences in ideas, models and paths which can be shared with the world, by implementing the principle of "pursuing peaceful development and working to build a community with a shared future for mankind".

Yonette Decina Cummings-Edward, chancellor of the Judiciary (Acting), Supreme Court of Judicature of Guyana, said the important role of China and South-South cooperation in international development could not be understated. Stressing that sovereignty and equality of states represent the basic constitutional doctrine of the law, Cummings-Edward said China's policies on development assistance include the important principles of equality and mutual benefit.

"Their (China's) work in development has seen great gains in the economic sphere, yielding results in social and cultural rights. The vast change in global development paradigm should be promoted and applauded," she said. "Support for their work can go a far way in ensuring sustainability. Developed countries and international organizations can provide structured support, which will boost South-South cooperation and its work with partners."

Mutinta Stella Mushabati, director of the National Public Health Agency of Zambia, said the Chinese government has taken remarkable actions to encourage the observance of human rights through the concept of corporate social responsibility. For example, she said, China amended the Company Law in 2005, mandating corporations to take up social responsibility. "Although this is a domestic law, its impact has been positively felt by China's cooperating partners as it has become a nature of Chinese corporations to carry out social corporate responsibility."

She also said that considering the role China plays in South-South cooperation, it should make more efforts to promote respect for human rights, in order to build a cooperation platform for the protection and promotion of human rights.

And Zhang Wei, executive vice-dean at China University of Political Science and Law, said: "China will work hard to promote the global human rights agenda based on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals for developing and developed countries in the next phase of South-South cooperation."