2019 South-South Human Rights Forum: Promoting cultural diversity, human rights

"Cultural diversity and the development of global human rights" -- That's the theme of the second South-South Human Rights Forum, which kicked off in Beijing on Tuesday. The forum gathers 300 scholars and officials from over 80 developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Aiming to build an exchange platform for the joint development of different civilizations. It's the top priority for those at the second South-South Human Rights Forum in Beijing. Participants all agree that seeking coexistence through differences is the basis for mutual learning and dialogue among civilizations. They say differences should not be grounds for confrontation.

LIONEL VAIRON Senior fellow, The Charhar Institute "It's extremely important to tell other countries and cultural areas that China also has its own philosophy in terms of human rights. It doesn't mean that China does not recognize universal human rights as we are trying to say that there are some basic universal values in terms of human rights. But also that China has its own philosophy in that respect due to its thousands of years of development."

Participants say human rights are the foundation and cornerstone of all civilizations. They strongly criticized what they call the U.S's double standards on human rights. They say western society today doesn't respect cultural diversity or the rights of other countries to independently choose the path of human rights development.

J.C. KARERWA NDENZAKO Burundi Presidential Office Spokesperson "We have realized, through time, that some countries, especially countries of the West, are using human rights as a motif to get to the way of communities of developing countries. Human rights in China and human rights in Africa, we don't have any lessons to learn from the West in terms of the human rights, if yes, it can be in terms of sharing, they can have a lesson to teach but they can also have a lesson to learn from human rights in our countries."

Experts also shared their thoughts on topics such as "building a community with a shared future for mankind and global human rights governance". They also discussed the "Belt and Road Initiative promotes the realization of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development".

LIU YANG Beijing "Earlier this year, China published a white paper on 70 years of progress on human rights. The white paper noted that China had opened a new path of human rights protection based on its national conditions and increased the diversity of human civilization. During the forum, participants widely praised China's contributions to global poverty reduction and efforts on climate change.