Mr. Chairman,

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the United Nations (UN) and a year of UN reform as well. The documents adopted at the UN Summit not long ago decided to set up the Human Rights Council and defined the basic functions of the Council, which marks a major step of the reform of UN human rights mechanism and will surely have a far-reaching influence on the future work of the organization. At present the General Assembly is conducting negotiations on specific issues related with the establishment of the Human Rights Council. I believe that with the leadership of Mr. Chairman and the support of the two co-chairs, by equal consultations among all parties concerned and seeking common ground while putting aside differences the negotiations will undoubtedly achieve full success. Now I would like to make three points on how to build the Human Rights Council.

Firstly, the Human Rights Council should attach importance to and solve the long-term problem of "credit crisis" "of the Commission on Human Rights. When deliberating the violations of human rights, including large scale and systematic violations of human rights, the Council should develop fair, objective and transparent deliberation standards and procedures and avoid politicalization, double standards and selectiveness. Only in this way can the Council properly address the human rights issues concerned and the authoritativeness of the Council be effectively maintained.

Secondly, the Human Rights Council should have adequate representation. The documents of the UN Summit stress that the UN human rights mechanism must be strengthened. To that end adequate representation of the Human Rights Council should be guaranteed. Since the founding of the United Nations, with the increase of the number of member states, the Commission on Human Rights has raised the number of members from the original 18 to 43 in 1979 and then to 53 in 1990. Facts show that the increase of members of the Commission has played an important role in enabling more countries to understand and participate in the international human rights undertaking, helping different countries strengthen human rights capacity building and promoting regional and international cooperation. Today the UN has had 191 member states, to which the composition of the Human Rights Council should refer. Under the current situation, the members of the Council can be roughly the same as that of the Commission on Human Rights and elected by simple majority of the General Assembly according to the principle of equitable geographical distribution.

Thirdly, the Human Rights Council should become the venue for dialogue, exchanges and cooperation. To promote and protect human rights through international cooperation is one of the major contents of the UN Charter. History has demonstrated that with different history, culture, social systems and development levels countries in the world will have varied ways, channels and progress to realize their human rights aspirations. When fulfilling its functions, the Human Rights Council should recognize the "diversity of the world", respect the right of countries to independently choosing social system and development road and develop appropriate working methods and mechanism to promote dialogue and exchanges and jointly explore the effective ways of enhancing and protecting human rights.

Mr. Chairman,

The Chinese delegation has carefully read the report submitted by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Madame Arbour to this session of the General Assembly. We appreciate that the report, with reference to the Action Plan on human rights, raised a number of highly valuable suggestions and opinions on the reform of UN human rights mechanism. The documents of the UN Summit make it clear that to strengthen the work of the Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the next five years the regular budget of the Office will be doubled, which is very encouraging. We hope that the Office will take this opportunity to strengthen cooperation with member states in constantly improving its performance and better fulfill its functions.

In August this year, as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Madame Arbour paid the first visit to China attending the 13th Asia and Pacific Human Rights Seminar and the celebrations on the 10th anniversary of the Beijing World Conference on Women. She signed a new memorandum of understanding on human rights cooperation with the Chinese government and met with representatives of Chinese non-governmental organizations, making her visit a full success. We expect to further strengthen bilateral cooperation in such fields as human rights education, capacity building and improvement of rule of law.

Mr. Chairman,

China once suffered years of bullying and humiliation by imperialist powers and deeply understands that peace is hard-win, development is of overriding importance and human rights are valuable. Today "to protect and guarantee human rights" has become the important principle enshrined in the Chinese Constitution. Following the vision of "people-orientation and governing for the benefit of the people", the Chinese government has adopted a series of effective measures to improve the legal system, enhance democracy and develop the economy and comprehensively improved the human rights enjoyed by the people. China has made world-acclaimed achievements in eradicating poverty, providing compulsory education, strengthening healthcare of women and children and protecting the rights and interest of the disadvantaged groups including the disabled and the senior citizens. Of course, like all the other countries in the world, China's human rights are not perfect. As a developing country, we still have a long way to go to fully realize human rights and basic freedom. The Chinese government will continue making efforts to promote the comprehensive and coordinated rural and urban, regional and socioeconomic development, build a harmonious society with democracy and rule of law, fairness and justice, integrity and friendliness, dynamism, stability and order and harmony between humanity and nature, enable all the Chinese people to benefit from the results of reform and development and constantly push for progress of China's human rights undertaking.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.