Xinhua Headlines: China achieves enormous progress in enhancing human rights

This photo taken on June 11, 2026 shows a scene at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Forum on Global Human Rights Governance in Beijing, capital of China. The 2026 Forum on Global Human Rights Governance kicked off here on Thursday, focusing on joint development and shared human rights. (Xinhua/Cai Yang)

BEIJING, June 11 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday released a national action plan to enhance human rights over the next five years at the ongoing 2026 Forum on Global Human Rights Governance, where attendees from home and abroad hailed China's progress in this field.

The National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2026-2030) aims to ensure that the principal position of the people is respected and the people's fundamental interests are safeguarded.

It will also promote social fairness and justice and ensure that the fruits of modernization benefit all people fairly.

The action plan lays out main objectives and tasks for the period, including promoting the all-round protection of economic, social and cultural rights through high-quality development, improving the mechanisms for safeguarding citizens' civil and political rights, and strengthening the protection of environmental rights.

China will also ensure equal protection of the rights and interests of all groups, guiding the healthy development of emerging human rights fields, continuing to raise awareness of human rights, and promoting global human rights governance, according to the plan.

The 2026 Forum on Global Human Rights Governance kicked off in Beijing on Thursday, focusing on joint development and shared human rights.

Guests attending the forum agreed that as China advances modernization, it has consistently enhanced human rights protection and made historic progress in promoting human rights.

This photo taken on June 11, 2026 shows attendees during the opening ceremony of the 2026 Forum on Global Human Rights Governance in Beijing, capital of China. The 2026 Forum on Global Human Rights Governance kicked off here on Thursday, focusing on joint development and shared human rights. (Xinhua/Cai Yang)

Grigory Lukiyantsev, special representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law of the Russian Federation, said that China has made tremendous progress in protecting human rights.

"It's really an example that others can learn from," Lukiyantsev said.

A recent report assessing the implementation of China's fourth National Human Rights Action Plan (2021-2025) found that China had strengthened human rights protection on all fronts and accomplished all 181 tasks outlined in the five-year plan.

Over the past five years, the country advanced human rights through development, completing the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and eliminating absolute poverty.

China now has the world's largest education, social security and healthcare systems. Meanwhile, solid progress has been made toward common prosperity for all, laying a stronger material foundation for the continued advancement of human rights in China.

At the same time, China has worked to develop whole-process people's democracy, strengthening legal protection for human rights and improving the system of institutions through which the people run the country.

It has also enhanced the protection of the rights and interests of all groups, ensuring that people from various sectors participate in economic and social development, exercise their democratic rights, and benefit from the outcomes of modernization on an equal basis. In particular, the rights of women, children, the elderly and people with disabilities have been better safeguarded.

Few countries in the world have formulated and implemented five consecutive national human rights action plans, said Chang Jian, director of the human-rights research center at Nankai University in north China's Tianjin Municipality, adding that China's action plans are notable for their comprehensive coverage and coordinated approach.

China's human rights action plans are very broad, covering almost all aspects of human rights, said Jaber Alsalaj, senior advisor with the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.

He noted China's use of latest technologies, including artificial intelligence, to promote the development of human rights, describing these efforts as being brilliant.

Participants at the forum also called for all countries to work together to advance the development of human rights civilization and build a community with a shared future for humanity.

"We look forward to a more balanced, cooperative and equitable international order, in which the right to development is regarded as a shared right of all humanity, not a privilege monopolized by a few nations," said Abdul Latif Rashid, former president of the Republic of Iraq.

The two-day forum is themed "Joint Development, Shared Human Rights: The 40th Anniversary of the Adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development and a New Vision for Global Human Rights Governance." It has attracted over 400 participants from more than 100 countries and international organizations, including the United Nations.