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

Passengers take selfies in a carriage of a high-speed electrical multiple unit (EMU) train running on the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway in Indonesia, Oct. 17, 2023. (Xinhua/Xu Qin)

BEIJING, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- 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.

By using a large number of cases and data, the report demonstrates the positive role of the BRI in helping local people better realize their rights 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.

The report says that 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 for promoting and protecting human rights.

It points out 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, says the report.

Kelvin Josephat Kituruka (front), a native of Mwanza who joined the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) as a quality engineer, helps local villagers with access to drinking water in Misungwi of Mwanza Region, Tanzania, June 13, 2023. (Xinhua/Wang Guansen)

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 typical cases were selected in the report to show that 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 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, mainly focusing on policy research, is the only media-based think tank among China's national high-end think tanks. It has produced a series of influential studies.