The former Prime Minister of Peru said that the single Western human rights standard is not universal, and China’s practice of people’s livelihood and human rights has reference significance

China News Service, Lima, September 15 (Reporter Chen Xinyi) On September 15, local time, the third China-Latin America Human Rights Roundtable was held in Lima, Peru. Eduardo Arana Issa, former Prime Minister of Peru and former Minister of Justice and Human Rights, pointed out in an exclusive interview with a reporter from China News Service during the meeting that the single Western human rights standard that has long been admired is not universal. Although human rights have universal value, there is no unified implementation model that applies to the world. Countries need to advance the cause of human rights based on their own national conditions. China's human rights practice focusing on people's livelihood has important reference significance.

Arana said that in the early days, global human rights development generally followed a single Western standard and believed that all countries could apply the same model to carry out human rights construction. But reality has fully proved that this concept is divorced from reality. Countries around the world have huge differences in political, economic, and cultural conditions. Different nations and civilizations have exclusive customs and development concepts. Many local development logics are incompatible with Western human rights concepts. At the same time, the development levels of countries vary. Some countries have long been plagued by political instability, poverty, lack of education and medical resources, and weak economic development. They are simply unable to adopt a unified approach to address human rights development challenges.

"If we talk about human rights but fail to eliminate poverty and protect people's livelihood, the development of human rights will be empty," Arana said. He believes that the United Nations' inclusion of the right to development into the human rights system is a face-up to the differences in global human rights development. The core of judging the effectiveness of a country's human rights implementation lies not in the concept and form, but in whether the government can effectively meet the basic needs of the people and protect the people's basic public services and rights to survival and development.

Alana took the practices of China and Peru as examples and pointed out that the starting points and paths of human rights development in China and Peru are different, but they have both explored suitable development models based on their own national conditions. China has made solid progress in human rights construction, historically eradicated absolute poverty, stabilized economic development, and continued to improve people's livelihood security systems such as education, medical care, and employment, so that people can truly enjoy the fruits of development and realize human rights.

Alana emphasized that the political system is not the key to human rights protection, but the improvement of people's livelihood and pragmatic development are the core. The development of global human rights requires respect for the differences in civilization and development among countries. Peru and China have their own advantages in human rights practice and can learn from each other. The international community should abandon single standards, adhere to diversified development, seek common ground while reserving differences, and promote the steady development of the global human rights cause with localized practices. (over)