The government on June 8 released a white paper upholding China’s unique pattern of protecting human rights and elaborating the progress in 2014.
“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,” says the white paper published by the State Council Information Office under the title “Progress in China’s Human Rights in 2014.”
In 2014, China 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), done in December 2014, showed that most of the targets set in the plan had been reached, and a larger part of the quantitative indexes had been half or even more achieved.
China’s legal reform gained momentum last year as the Communist Party of China (CPC) leadership adopted a comprehensive plan to promote the rule of law at a key meeting in 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.
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 about 14,000 words, details the progress the country has made in protecting the people’s rights to development, democracy, impartial trial and clean environment, as well as the rights of women, children, senior citizens, ethnic minorities and the disabled.