| Wednesday, November 10, 1999, updated at 16:49(GMT+8)
China China On State Sovereignty and Human Rights
Maintenance of state sovereignty and protection of human rights are not mutually exclusive, China stressed in United Nations on November 9.
Chinese Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Shen Guofang, made the remarks at the Third Committee (Social, humanitarian and Cultural) of the 54th session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Shen Guofang said the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations have rendered them equally status, namely, the human rights need to be promoted and protected, but at the same time, state sovereignty must be respected.
Respect for state sovereignty is the prerequisite for the existence and development of human rights, and human rights in reality are not an abstract concept which relies on the society for necessary conditions for its enjoyment and on the power of the state for protection, Shen said.
There is no human rights to talk about for a country that has lost its sovereignty, and when a country is conquered, the home of its people will inevitably be ruined, Shen said.
"I believe that countries and people who suffered under foreign aggression during the two World Wars and those who lost their state sovereignty and home at disintegration of their country must have an acute feeling about this," he continued.
"Ant act of interfering in other country's internal affairs by using or threatening to use force in order to change that country's social system or value, be it under the name of protecting human rights or stopping humanitarian crisis, are grave violations of the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and basic norms of international law," he pointed out.
The consequence of such act is inevitably blatant violation of the most fundamental human rights, such as the right to life and the right to existence, Shen added. (Xinhua)Printer-friendly Version In This Section
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