China has made gratifying progress in improving human rights and ruling the country by law through Chinese Government's constant efforts, said Luo Haocai, President of China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS), in Sydney on Wednesday.

In a meeting with Australian Human Rights Commission, Luo said China has established the socialist legal system with Chinese characteristics, as China's top legislator Wu Bangguo declared earlier this year. That marks a significant fulfillment of China's efforts in materializing rule of law, with Chinese people's legal awareness improving greatly and China as a nation being transformed to a legal society step by step all these years.

Luo also said that the CSHRS is ready to make further exchange and cooperation with Australian human rights and legal institutions, which is mutually beneficial.

Padma Raman, Executive Director of Australian Human Rights Commission, said that the annually human rights dialogue between Australia and China is an important part of bilateral relations. The Australian side learns a lot from their Chinese counterparts through the cooperative mechanism and appreciates the projects established by Chinese government to boost human rights protection.

Raman also said that the CSHRS has been always quite active in human rights studies and devoted to strengthening the human rights awareness among the public through publications and conventions.

The CSHRS delegation headed by Luo began a 3-day visit to Australia on Wednesday, during which they will hold exchanges and forums with Australian officials and scholars over human rights issues.

Founded in January 1993, the CSHRS is the largest non-governmental organization in the field of human rights in China. It is a member of the United Nations Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations (CONGO), which enjoys a special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

(Xinhua News Agency June 8, 2011)