Progress in helping ethnic minorities

The issue of human rights should be a point of meeting and collaborating among different civilizations rather than a spot for wrangles and tussles. This is the impression people gathered from the Second Beijing Forum on Human Rights, held on Monday. Officials and experts from 26 countries attended the forum in the nation's capital.

The main theme of the forum was "Harmonious Development and Human Rights", a combination of "harmony", a Confucian idea, and "human rights", a concept originally from the West.

Luo Haocai, vice-chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and president of China Society for Human Rights Studies, addressed the forum. He stressed that people should think of a wider picture for the concept of humans rights, provide protection to a grander range of rights, and attach more importance to the rights of subsistence, development and environment.