Scholars, officials gather in Beijing for human rights forum

Hundreds of officials and scholars from across the world met in Beijing on Tuesday for the 2018 Beijing Forum on Human Rights.

The two-day forum, held at the Capital Hotel, was organized by the China Society for Human Rights Studies and the China Foundation for Human Rights Development.

More than 200 participants are in attendance, including senior human rights officials, scholars and foreign diplomats from almost 50 countries or regions.

The theme of the forum is “Poverty Elimination: Seeking Common Development to Build a Community of Shared Future for Human Beings”.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up, a period that has seen almost 800 million rural poor lifted out of extreme poverty.

China’s achievements in poverty reduction have contributed more than 70 percent to the world’s total reduction, officials said.

China has vowed to eliminate extreme poverty domestically by 2020. By the end of last year, China still had more than 30 million registered poor.