Weaponizing of human rights decried by world

This is an editorial from China Daily.

The 50th regular session of the United Nations Human Rights Council concluded on Friday in Geneva, with the majority of countries affirming what China has achieved in the improvement of its human rights and recognizing its contribution to the development of the global human rights cause.

Meanwhile, some countries are using human rights as a pretext to point an accusing finger at other countries, which was criticized by many countries at the session.

It is unacceptable for any country to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries in the name of human rights, and neither is it acceptable for any country to exploit human rights to fish for its own interests. 

People's well-being is the benchmark for whether a country's human rights conditions are good or not.

What China has achieved is too remarkable to be ignored by the international community. Chinese people's per capita income has increased from dozens of US dollars more than four decades ago to $12,000 today, and its people's life expectancy has increased from 35 years more than 70 years ago to today's 77.9 years. 

There is absolutely no reason for China to be attacked as far as its human rights conditions are concerned. Instead, China has set a good example on how a government can safeguard people's human rights by improving people's living standards. The country has also shown to the world how a government can leverage its institutional strength to provide as many opportunities as possible for its people to realize their aspirations for a happy life. 

The United States is the country which interferes the most in the internal affairs of other countries in the name of human rights. Yet it has an increasingly large human rights deficit domestically and internationally. These include its immigration policies that have infringed on the rights of immigrants, its increasingly serious gun violence, its poor response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and its unilateral sanctions against other countries which have led to humanitarian disasters.

Human rights issues should not be politicized and neither should they be abused by the US and others to try and gain an upper hand in geopolitical confrontations. 

No country should take it for granted that it can claim the moral high ground when it comes to human rights. For the development of global human rights, what is needed is cooperation among all countries to address the common challenges such as climate change, food crisis and poverty, among other things, to make the world a better place for all peoples. 

China on its part is willing to work with all other countries to uphold the shared values of humanity and to safeguard human dignity and rights.