国内英语新闻:2019 South-South Human Rights Forum builds consensus among developing countries

BEIJING, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- The 2019 South-South Human Rights Forum was held in Beijing from Tuesday to Wednesday. Attendees from home and overseas carried out in-depth exchanges and reached consensus based on the forum's theme "Diversity of Civilizations and Global Development of Human Rights."

Primary topics covered by the forum included "Building a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind and Global Human Rights Governance," "The Right to Development: The Belt and Road Initiative Promotes the Realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development" and "The Practice and Experience of Human Rights Protection in the Countries of Global South."

The 2019 South-South Human Rights Forum was acclaimed by attendees as an important platform to promote the development and human rights progress of developing countries.

Highlighting problems facing developing countries such as warfare, diseases, hunger and environmental degradation, the attendees criticized Western countries for their obsession with civil and political rights, and for their disregard of economic, social and cultural rights as well as the solving of pressing problems faced by developing countries.

They widely applauded China for its proposal of building a community with a shared future for mankind, which offers a feasible Chinese solution to pressing problems the world now faces and is also a public goods China offers to the world in a new era.

Attendees raised strong criticisms on the United States and the West adopting a double standard concerning human rights issues. As the attendees pointed out, colonialism brought human rights disasters to many countries in history. However, there still exists a sense of cultural superiority in the West today, while the diversity of civilizations and the right of other countries to independently choose human rights development path are not respected.

The forum was organized by the State Council Information Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. More than 300 officials, experts, scholars and diplomats from over 80 countries, regions and international organizations attended the forum.