China embarks on mapping out 2nd action plan on human rights

China will publish a second action plan on human rights, Minister of the State Council Information Office (SCIO) said on Wednesday.

At a conference convened by the SCIO to discuss the formulation of the second action plan on human rights, Wang Chen, minister of the SCIO, said that the new National Human Rights Action Plan of China will guide China's human rights work in the next four years from 2012 to 2015.

Wang added that the new plan will attach more importance to improving people's livelihoods.

The new plan will cover economic, social and culture rights as well as civil and political rights. It will also make commitments to improving the rights of ethnic groups, women, children, senior citizens and disabled people, Wang said.

China published the first Action Plan in April 2009, the first of its kind that the country has made, and an action which made China one of the 26 countries that have responded to the United Nations' call to establish a national human rights plan since 1993.

In the assessment report of the first action plan published in July, the SCIO said that China had fulfilled its commitments in the plan, "making new efforts for the healthy development of international human rights endeavors."

The new Action Plan will be formulated through discussions with more than 56 organizations, including government departments and non-governmental organizations.