Recently, the 42nd  conference of the UN Human Rights Council was held in Geneva. Professor Chang Jian, director of the Center for Human Rights Studies of Nankai University and Executive Director of theChina Society for Human Rights Studies, went to Geneva to participate to a series of important UN Human Rights meetings and many side events, as one of the delegators from the China Society for Human Rights Studies. He also delivered speeches at two side events organized by the China Society for Human Rights Studies.

On September 9th, the China Society for Human Rights Studies held a side event at the United Nations Palais des Nations on the theme 70 Years of Development of Human Rights in China. At the side meeting, Professor Chang Jian made a speech on the theme Promoting Human Rights through Development and Realizing People’s All-round Development— Developmentalism view of Human Rights and Its Practice in China. He started from some significant changes in the protection of human rights during the recent 70 years, since the founding of the PRC, such as the scale of poverty, the life expectancy, the right of education and the human development index. These changes brought out the main meanings of “promoting human rights through development” as well as the related policy implements and achievements. He summarized the human rights development path with Chinese characteristics, such as the developmentalism of human rights. He believes that the developmentalism of human rights has enhanced the economic, political, social and cultural development and further promoted the all-round development of human beings as well as the overall human rights protection. People’s right of development also constrains the economic, political, social and cultural development in the right direction, in line with human rights requirements.On September 9th, Professor Chang Jian spoke at the interactive dialogue meeting of the UN Human Rights Council on the theme “Safety of Drinking Water and Health Facilities”. He said that water is the source of life, and the safety of drinking water, as a long-term concern of the UN Human Rights Council, is closely related to people's health. In order to provide adequate, clean and affordable drinking water for rural residents, China has successively formulated the quinquennial special plan in three stages in order to improve the quality of rural drinking water. From 2005 to 2015, the problem of the safety of drinking water for 520 million rural residents and more than 47 million rural schools was solved. Since 2016, the implementation of rural drinking water safety consolidating and upgrading projects have been completed. By the end of 2018, the accumulated investment in various regions has reached 115.5 billion yuan, benefiting 164 million people. The evaluation results in 2017 show that 99.5% of the probability of water supply and 90.9% of the water source are qualified.

On September 16th, the China Society for Human Rights Studies held a side event on the theme“De-extremization and Human Rights Protection in Xinjiang” at the Palais des Nations, introducing Xinjiang’s measures and experience in fighting against extremism and in promoting the fruitfulness of human rights protection. Professor Chang Jian made a speech entitled Eradicating the Soil of Violent Extremism ——International Consensus and China's Exploration.He reviewed the UN's understanding of the background and the contributing factors of violent extremism. From the relevant resolutions and documents of the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council, he summarized eight specific requirements on how to eliminate the driving factors and spread of violent extremism. Combined with Xinjiang’s real situation, he expounded the causes and the spread of violent extremism in Xinjiang, the way of dissemination, as well as the main ideas and practices of Xinjiang in the process of counter-terrorism and de-extremization.It is reported that the Human Rights Research Center of Nankai University is one of the first National Human Rights Education and training bases of the country. It is also a key-research base of humanities and social sciences and it is a major center of research, education, practice and exchanges of human rights in China. The Center has sent researchers to attend relevant UN human rights conferences and various side events held by China at the United Nations for many times, which has made great contributions to the understanding of China's development on human rights and to the related international communication and cooperation. Through the Center, the voice of Nankai has been continuously made on the international stage.