China debut's 2-year human rights action plan

China recently issued a two-year human rights action plan. This is a monumental step for the Communist government of China, as well as for its citizens. China is a country known for denying basic rights to its citizens and also repressing some of their freedoms.

The human rights action plan promises to raise China's living standards, and "gives priority to the protection of the people's rights to subsistence and development." Another important issue is the fact that the plan calls for the creation of a state-level office to deal with issues and complaints, and allows the people of China to directly send their complaints via e-mail, letter or fax to the Chinese government.

Many Human rights groups and citizens are praising China's new plan, however Si-si Liu, a Hong-Kong based researcher for Amnesty International, says the plan has serious flaws. "It fails to address key areas where there are serious, ongoing violations of human rights," such as the "re-education through labor" system, in which the government sends people to prisonlike camps for up to four years without a trial, Liu said. "We urge China to do more," she said.

Positive and negative criticism of the plan is a great sign that many groups and individuals are committed to facilitating change within China. However the bottom line is that China's historically strict and powerful government needs to take decisive action with regards to the plan and be fully committed to progress if there will ever be change within China.

-Jacob Gluckman