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Boutros Boutros Ghali, president of the Egyptian National Council of Human Rights and former UN secretary general, comments on the human rights situation in China and worldwide, in the Beijing-based magazine Human Rights. An excerpt follows:
It is obvious that the awareness of the culture of human rights is increasing throughout the world. Governments are on the path of establishing national commissions for the protection of human rights. Furthermore, there has been a rapid increase in the number of non-governmental organizations working in the field.
However, it is clear that respect for human rights has not yet reached the optimum level. There are many obstacles hindering the proper application of human rights' principles such as, poverty, war, political interests, and cultural diversity. Also, since the tragic events of September 11 in New York and Washington, in many countries security concerns have taken precedence over fundamental human rights.
There is no doubt that China is doing much to introduce economic, political and democratic reforms, including supporting and encouraging human rights throughout Chinese society.
For example, in 2004, human rights were considered important enough to be made a key aim of the central government, leading to changes to the Constitution.
The China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS) is already playing an important role, and will play an increasingly important role in the economic and social development of China.
We decided to link our two organizations, the Egyptian Commission of Human Rights and the CSHRS. We are still at the beginning of this partnership, but I am sure that the political will exists in both Beijing and Cairo to promote relations between our two institutions.
(China Daily February 7, 2005)
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