China allowed the publication of the first report on human rights by a non-governmental organization (NGO) after the protection of human rights was enshrined in the Constitution.
Titled "China's Human Rights in Action" and written by the China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS), the report discusses achievements China has made in protecting human rights.
It records China's enshrinement of human rights in its Constitution last March, Premier Wen Jiabao's commitment to retrieve defaulted payment for rural workers, official measures to protect AIDS patients' rights and interests, and the nationwide crackdown on human rights infringement by government officials.
But the report is not only laudatory. It also discusses human rights violations, such as in the case of Sun Zhigang, who was beaten to death while detained at the Guangzhou Police Holding Center for having no ID on him in March, 2003.
By addressing China's human rights problems, the report both alerts China's government and judicial organs, and helps citizens become aware of their newly sanctified human rights, said scholars with the CSHRS.
The China Society for Human Rights Studies, the country's largest NGO on human rights protection, was listed in the World Directory of Human Rights Research and Training Institutions by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in December, 1996.
(Xinhua News Agency July 1, 2005)
