Scholars hail China's remarkable progress in human rights protection

GUANGZHOU, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- China has made remarkable progress in human rights protection and will make further contributions to humanity's development, scholars said at a seminar held Tuesday.

Chinese people's basic human rights are better protected and they are feeling a greater sense of gain, happiness and safety, scholars said at the seminar on human rights held in south China's Guangzhou city.

"China has lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty, making a huge contribution to the undertaking of human rights protection in the world," said Xia Changyong, an official with the State Council's poverty alleviation office.

He added that reducing and alleviating poverty continues to be a top priority in China's efforts to protect human rights.

China aims to eradicate poverty by 2020 by lifting the remaining 55 million rural poor out of poverty.

Zhou Wei, a professor at Sichuan University, noted that China's booming sharing economy has brought about challenges of how to better protect workers' rights.

"China has vowed to make sure workers enjoy better employment rights. This will help provide participants in the sharing economy with the decency and respect they deserve," Zhou said.

A white paper issued by China's State Council Information Office on Friday lauded "remarkable progress" in the law-based protection of human rights over the past five years.

Human rights protection in China has made much headway and China is contributing to the diversity of human civilizations and providing Chinese wisdom and solutions to promote social progress, it said. Enditem