Jiang Zhenghua (Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China):

The progress of a nation's human rights cause depends on a harmonious and orderly domestic social environment. The progress of the international human rights cause cannot be realized without the harmonious coexistence of all nations. We should respect each nation's right to choose its own social system and way of development independently, respect the diversity of the world and world civilizations, enhance dialogues and exchanges between different civilizations, promote the democratization of international relations in the spirit of equality and opening, and make efforts to diminish mutual suspicion and misgivings, so as to seek common development by agreeing to differ, and concertedly build a harmonious world that accommodates all kinds of civilizations and honors everyone's human rights.

Cai Wu (Minister of the Informa-tion Office of the State Council, China): Confronted with the opportunities and challenges of multi-polarization and globalization, the Chinese Government has set the goal of building a well-off society of a higher standard in a comprehensive way to the benefit of well over 1 billion people in the first two decades of this century, in the effort to further develop the economy, improve democracy, advance science and education, enrich culture, foster social harmony and upgrade the texture of life for the people. It advocates adhering to the guidance of a scientific concept of development in overall economic and social development and calls for building a harmonious society that features democracy, the rule of law, equity, justice, credibility, caring, vitality, stability, orderliness and harmonious coexistence between man and nature. This is not only a grand blueprint for the future development of Chinese society but also presents promising prospects for the country's human rights cause. In the Chinese people's practice of building a harmonious society, China's human rights cause is bound to see more rapid and healthier progress, and the human rights cause in itself is an essential component of a harmonious society.

To accomplish universal human rights of all mankind, it is necessary for all nations to make joint efforts in building a harmonious world with lasting peace and common prosperity. With their social systems, levels of development and historical and cultural backgrounds varying, different nations certainly have different modes of human rights development. We should respect such diversity of civilizations and development modes, promote international exchanges and cooperation in the field of human rights on a fully equal footing and on the basis of mutual respect, agreeing to differ and learning from others' strong points to make up for one's weaknesses, and jointly promote the construction of a harmonious world that features peaceful coexistence between countries, concord between people, and harmony between man and nature.

Zhou Jue (Chairman of the China Society for Human Rights Studies): The Chinese Government stands for "upholding multilateralism to achieve common security, promoting cooperation for mutual benefit to realize common prosperity, and encouraging tolerance to build a harmonious world." This approach forms an inevitable extension and development of what China has always been doing by pursuing a foreign policy of peace and following a path of peaceful development. We believe it is of important practical significance to the ongoing endeavor to develop a more just and rational international political and economic order, to promote harmony the world over, and to develop the international human rights cause.

Respect for and protection of human rights on the one hand and the building of a harmonious world on the other are locked up as the prerequisite and objective of each other, in a relationship of mutual dependence for mutual development. Respecting and protecting human rights can help mitigate international contradictions and problems, thus promoting the building of a harmonious world. Realization of individual human rights is inseparable from the harmony of society and the world. Facts of both today and the past prove that in a chaotic society, in a world devoid of peace, human rights can in no way be effectively guaranteed for the broad masses of the people. A harmonious world therefore represents a right to which citizens of all countries are rightfully entitled.

Inonge Limbambala (Second Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Zambia): Poverty still continues to wreak havoc among more than a billion of the world's population-meaning around a sixth of the world's inhabitants are living in extreme poverty. The ever-widening gap between the rich and the poor directly contradicts the notion that all human beings are born equal in dignity and rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights treaties hold out the promise of life with dignity, where every person enjoys an adequate standard of living and access to those essentials that give practical meaning to such a life, including food, water, shelter, education, work and health care.