China participates in 21 international conventions on human rights: white paper

China has participated in 21 international conventions on human rights, including the " International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights," says a white paper on China's human rights progress in 2004 issued by the Information Office of the State Council on Wednesday.

The document says that in 2004, China conscientiously wrote its Fourth and Fifth Combined Report on the "Implementation of Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment," giving an account of the implementation of the convention in China, including the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Macao Special Administrative Region, from 1999 to 2004.

It also conscientiously wrote its first reports on the implementation of the "International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights" and the "Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography."

The white paper says that China has been elected a member of the United Nations Committee on the Status of Women from 2005 to 2008, and Chinese specialists have been elected into the 2005-2008 United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Meanwhile, China has been actively involved in the formulation of legal instruments concerning international human rights. In 2004, the Chinese government sent delegations to participate in drafting legal documents such as the "Legally Binding Normative Instrument for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances" and "Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities."