Weaponizing human rights is irresponsible: China Daily editorial

The protection and promotion of human rights are things that all countries should cooperate on. But once again, as is so often the case, some countries sought to use them to smear others and create division at the general debate of the Third Committee of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday.

At the general debate, Sun Lei, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, called out the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Ireland, the Czech Republic and Lithuania for their representatives' groundless accusations against China's human rights situation.

At a gathering that is supposed to pool objective observations and opinions, these countries rehashed and manipulated the unfounded claims about China in an attempt to tarnish China's image, turning a blind eye to the steady progress the country has made in promoting human rights.

As Sun rightfully pointed out, China has continued to safeguard and improve people's well-being through development, eliminating absolute poverty nationwide. Hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of impoverishment, and a middle-income group of more than 400 million people has been established.

Take the development of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region for example. The region's gross domestic product increased 5.5 percent year-on-year in 2025 to exceed 2.1 trillion yuan ($313 billion). Tourism flourishes in the region, with the local cultures well preserved and people of all ethnic groups living in harmony and peace. But some countries, prompted by ideological bias or their perception of China as a "rival" whose development must be stifled, have ignored the reality of the great progress made in Xinjiang's human rights situation. Instead, they cling to the pretexts concocted long ago to justify their false narratives about China and baseless sanctions against Chinese entities.

The false narratives are aimed at weaponizing human rights to target China. In doing so these countries are throwing stones in glasshouses, since they all have domestic human rights issues that they want to sweep under the carpet.

Taking these facts into consideration, one can't help but wonder whether these countries really care about human rights, or if their primary concern is distorting human rights to help them dominate the international narrative and level unfounded accusations to besmirch the image of other countries and, for some, foment social unrest.

The protection and promotion of human rights should not be abused as a pretext for propping up Western hegemony.

Fully recognizing the importance of human rights for people's well-being and peace and stability, China has advanced its human rights cause through concrete actions, supports the human rights endeavors of the Global South and stands ready to work with other countries to contribute to global human rights progress.

The 63rd session of the UN Human Rights Council on Monday adopted by consensus the draft resolution titled "Promoting accessibility for the full enjoyment of all human rights by all" proposed by China on behalf of 47 countries.

Jia Guide, China's permanent representative to the UN Office at Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland, said during his introductory remarks that building an accessible environment provides important safeguards for people of all groups to participate equally and conveniently in social life and to fully enjoy their human rights.

Representatives of Cuba and Egypt, among others, spoke in support of the resolution, commending China for actively promoting the concept of "accessibility for all" and moving forward the accessibility cause.

In 2024, the UNHRC adopted, for the first time, a resolution under the same title proposed by China, marking the first thematic resolution on accessibility in UN history.

The fact that the UNHRC passed such a resolution for the second time shows the international community's recognition of China's endeavors to enhance human rights not only for its own people, but also for people around the world.

It's high time some countries stopped wielding the cudgel of alleged "human rights abuses" to denigrate others and present a veneer of moral superiority, and instead started dealing with their own human rights problems.