China will hold a major human rights exhibition from Nov. 17 to 26 in Beijing to showcase its efforts and determination to protect human rights, sources with the Information Office of the State Council said on Thursday.

More than 700 pictures, 250 legal documents and over 300 books - mostly in Chinese - will be on display at the exhibition, which is said to be the largest ever exhibition held on human rights in China, at the Museum of Culture Palace of the Nationalities, according to the office.

Organizers said they hoped the exhibition would give people a clearer picture of human rights conditions in China.

"It is everyone's responsibility to respect, protect and develop human rights," said Dong Yunhu, vice chairman of the China Society for Human Rights Studies.

"I believe the exhibition will help promote human rights in China and boost exchanges between China and the outside world," said Dong.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It is also 15 years since China issued its White Paper on Human Rights in China.

Dong was also keen to emphasize how and why the Chinese concept of human rights is different from the West.

"China's concept of human rights places more weight on the collective, to be specific, the state sovereignty, rights of subsistence and development of Chinese people as a whole. The western one, however, gives priority to the rights of the individual," he said.

"The differences largely stem from different historical backgrounds," Dong said, explaining that the western human rights concept developed in the wake of calls to confront monarchy, religious authority and feudal hierarchy after the Renaissance. "Therefore individual rights and political rights came at the top of the human rights agenda," he added.

"China's recent history, however, involves cruel imperial invasion," Dong said. "Imperialism once caused a humanitarian crisis in China so human rights calls came along with the liberation of Chinese people and the founding of a people's republic.

"Without the collective rights of Chinese people as a whole, it is impossible to talk about an individual's rights," Dong said.

He also believes the influence of Confucianism has resulted in a different interpretation of human rights.

"Traditional Chinese culture emphasizes an individual's belonging to the society or a network made up of other people. Thus, human rights in China is based on a balanced protection of the individual and the collective," Dong said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 17, 2006)