DM Monitoring
GENEVA: An inspirational short video was shown Friday at the ongoing 46th session of the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council.
The video tells the story of a woman who has helped more than 200 impoverished households get rid of poverty by developing traditional embroidery in northwest China’s Qinghai Province.
“This story is not only an epitome of China’s poverty reduction undertaking, but also a vivid demonstration of China’s efforts in protecting human rights for ethnic minorities and women,” said Su Guoxia, director-general of the general affairs department of China’s national administration for rural vitalization.
Addressing the UN Human Rights Council, Su stressed that the Chinese government is committed to a people-centered approach and puts people’s rights to subsistence and development first in the protection and promotion of human rights through poverty reduction. According to the official, by the end of 2020, China has accomplished its poverty alleviation target as scheduled, lifting the entire rural poor population out of poverty under the current standard and eradicating absolute poverty and regional poverty.
“All of these have greatly increased people’s sense of fulfillment, happiness and security and made new contributions to accelerating the world’s poverty reduction process as well as advancing the international cause of human rights,” she said. She told the council that in this process, China has pursued inclusive development and protected the rights of vulnerable groups like women, children, the elderly, the disabled and people from ethnic groups. “Poor people of these specific groups are the key targets of assistance. We carried out specific plans and stepped up efforts to lift them out of poverty,” she said. “We encourage the areas where ethnic minorities live in compact communities to fully leverage their resource advantages to develop distinctive livestock and aquaculture farming as well as to promote cultural and tourist industries, thus exploring new ways to increase income and promoting the inheritance and protection of ethnic cultures,” she added.
“Just yesterday, the Chinese government held a national conference to solemnly declare that we have won the battle against poverty, indicating that China, the largest developing country with a population of 1.4 billion, had made a historic achievement in eradicating absolute poverty,” the official said.
At Friday’s discussion, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)’s representative appreciated the constructive cooperation in poverty alleviation between China and ASEAN countries, while officials from Venezuela, Egypt, Laos and a number of other countries highly valued China’s achievements and welcomed China to share its experiences with developing countries. In Geneva, China’s achievements in eradicating absolute poverty have been widely praised as an example for other countries.
Guy Ryder, director-general of the International Labour Organization, told media in a recent interview that it is globally recognized that China’s performance over the last four decades in lifting hundreds of millions people out of poverty is “an unparalleled success.”
