The Information Office of the State Council, or China’s cabinet, published the National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2009-2010) Monday. Following is the full text:
National Human Rights Action Plan of China (2009-2010)
Information Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China
Contents
Introduction
I. Guarantee of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
(1) Right to work
(2) Right to basic living conditions
(3) Right to social security
(4) Right to health
(5) Right to education
(6) Cultural rights
(7) Environmental rights
(8) Safeguarding farmers’ rights and interests
(9) Guarantee of human rights in the reconstruction of areas hit by the devastating earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan Province
II. Guarantee of Civil and Political Rights
(4) Freedom of religious belief
(7) The right to be heard
(8) The right to oversee
III. Guarantee of the Rights and Interests of Ethnic Minorities, Women, Children, Elderly People and the Disabled
(1) The rights of ethnic minorities
(2) Women’s rights
(4) Senior citizens’ rights
(5) The rights of the disabled
The “National Human Rights Action Plan of China 2009-2010” emphasizes economic and social rights instead, such as a “right of urban and rural residents to a basic standard of living.”
In some cases, the plan is quite specific about promises that may depend more on the health of the Chinese economy and even the global economy than on the efforts of human rights activists.
There is a promise, for example, that unemployment will remain below 5 percent in 2009 and 2010 for urban residents who remain in the communities in which they are registered to live and do not try to migrate in search of better jobs.
The plan does call for China to go considerably further in areas where it has already begun making changes, such as in releasing more information about government decision-making and to extend to the countryside policies that so far have mainly benefited cities.
