On November 17, the Exhibition on Human Rights in China opened in Beijing. He Luli, Vice Chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and Luo Haocai, Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, jointly cut the ribbon to open the weeklong exhibition, which was jointly sponsored by the Information Office of the State Council, the China Society for Human Rights Studies and the China Foundation for Human Rights Development.

Leading officials from the Publicity Department and the International Liaison Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the NPC Commission of Legislative Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Justice and the State Ethnic Affairs Commission were also present at the opening ceremony.

The exhibition, the largest of its kind ever held in China, featured more than 700 pictures, 250 legal documents, 330 books and 24 diagrams. It fully displayed the Chinese people’s unremitting efforts for the realization of human rights, and demonstrated the tremendous progress made by China’s human rights cause since the founding of the People’s Republic 57 years ago, especially after the beginning of reform and opening up in the late 1970s.

The sub-themes of the exhibition included the promotion of people’s rights to subsistence and development as well as their political, economic, social and cultural rights, the legislation on human rights, the protection of the rights of women, children and ethnic minorities, and international exchanges on human rights.

Cai Wu, Minister of the Information Office of the State Council, delivered a speech at the opening ceremony. He said, “The Exhibition on Human Rights in China fully reflects the state leadership’s adherence to the people-oriented scientific outlook on development and its proposition to build a harmonious society and a harmonious world.”

“We hope the exhibition will give people a more comprehensive and objective understanding of human rights in China, a clearer picture of how human rights have developed in the Chinese context and more confidence in China’s commitment to human rights as it builds a socialist harmonious society,” he concluded.