ADDIS ABABA, Aug. 23 — The First China-Africa Human Rights Seminar was held on Friday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, under the theme “Building the China-Africa Community with a Shared Future and Working Together to Realize the Right to Development.”
The event brought together more than 200 policymakers, scholars, diplomats, and media representatives from China and Africa to explore ways to advance human rights, particularly the right to development.
In his address at the event, Jiang Jianguo, executive vice president of the China Society for Human Rights Studies, noted that development is the eternal theme of human society and also the top priority for the Communist Party of China ingovernance.
He said the historic achievements made in China’s human rights cause demonstrate that ensuring and improving people’s livelihoods, and promoting and protecting human rights during the process of development, form the foundation for advancing modernization and the right path to a happy life for humanity.
The people of China and Africa, both cherishing peace and development, have always stood together through thick and thin to achieve human dignity and value, said Jiang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and vice director of the Committee for Ethnic and Religious Affairs of the CPPCC National Committee.
Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia Chen Hai, while addressing the event, emphasized the great potential for deepening human rights cooperation between China and Africa.
He said China is the world’s largest developing country, and Africa is the continent with the largest number of developing countries. The two sides share similar ideas and demands, and have a profound understanding of each other.
For his part, Fekadu Tsega, director general of the Policy Studies Institute of Ethiopia, highlighted that this seminar is conducive to promoting the building of the China-Africa community with a shared future and facilitating the realization of the right to development, describing the event as a landmark platform for shaping the future of human rights governance and strengthening cooperation between Africa and China.
Liberian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeddi Mowbray Armah said Liberia is committed to South-South cooperation, to strengthening Africa‘s strategic voice in shaping its future, and to establishing a China-Africa community with a shared future that is characterized not only by trade and investment, but also by inclusiveness, empowerment, and peace.
At the seminar’s closing ceremony, the Addis Ababa Consensus on the China-Africa Right to Development was released, following three sub-forums on poverty reduction, sustainable development, and international solidarity and cooperation. (Xinhua)
