Xinhua releases report on Belt and Road cooperation from human rights perspective

The China Foundation for Human Rights Development and New China Research (NCR), Xinhua's think tank, issued a report on Thursday titled "For a Better World – Looking at the Past Decade of Jointly Pursuing the Belt and Road Initiative from a Human Rights Perspective."

The report explores the relationship between the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the development of human rights in the world.

Citing a large number of cases and data, the report demonstrates the positive role of the BRI in helping local people better realize their right to survival and development and achieve broader human rights protection in the past decade and summarizes the inspiration of the BRI for global human rights governance.

According to the report, cooperation under the BRI proposed by China conforms to the historical trend of economic globalization, the requirements of the times for the transformation of the global governance system and the strong desire of people in partner countries to live a better life. It is an initiative for common development and promoting and protecting human rights.

It also said that jointly pursuing the BRI provides a practical model for promoting development through cooperation and advancing human rights through development, actively assisting underdeveloped countries in overcoming development bottlenecks such as infrastructure deficits, fostering the economic and social development of co-building nations, ensuring and improving people's livelihoods in the process of development, continually strengthening the foundation of human rights development, and thereby better protecting and promoting human rights.

Over the past decade, the BRI has become a very popular international public good, a global cooperation platform and a path to happiness, aiding partner countries in promoting human rights protection and achieving a better life, the report said.

The report focuses on improving people's access to basic life necessities and healthcare, promoting the right to work, raising the income levels of residents, improving living conditions, enhancing education standards, supporting cultural development, respecting religious customs, protecting the ecological environment, and promoting rights and interests of special groups.

Dozens of cases were highlighted in the report to show how Belt and Road cooperation has brought tangible benefits to partner countries and local people.

Actual achievements and the idea of putting people first, promoting cooperative development, embracing openness and inclusivity, and upholding fairness and justice in the framework of the BRI have contributed to China's efforts in advancing the global human rights cause and offered Chinese wisdom for improving global human rights governance.

The full text of the report has been released globally in both Chinese and English through relevant websites, journals, social media and other platforms.

The NCR is the only media-based think tank among China's national high-end think tanks. Its primary focus is on research, resulting in the production of a series of influential studies.

(Cover: Students from Ngamprah No.3 Junior High School take photos of the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway Electric Multiple Unit train on the platform of Padalarang Station in Padalarang, Indonesia, October 24, 2023. /Xinhua)