Should rights be considered fundamental if all nations accept them?

China has this week released its second national plan for human rights protection. This plan addresses human rights protection from 2012 to 2015. It includes pledges to tackle recent concerns in China such as increasing problems with environmental pollution. Interestingly unlike most documents about human rights it does the plan includes sections how China proposes to go about implementing these rights. Many in the west may be skeptical about how much such a plan really means, asking whether it is actually likely to implement rights such as a right to a fair trial or whether China will really guarantee “rights and humane treatment of the inmates… of prisons”. Similarly members of religious minorities may feel that the Chinese state is unlikely to go about “Protecting citizens… from discrimination due to religious belief.” None the less the very fact that countries like China agree that there are human rights helps those who believe that there are indeed fundamental human rights.

Debatabase debate: This House believes in fundamental human rights http://idebate.org/debatabase/debates/peace-security-human-rights/house-believes-fundamental-human-rights

If you are interested in reading more about the national plan for human rights protection then please read the article in the Global Times (for anyone who does not know it is usually considered to be a party mouthpiece) http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/714335.shtml and they also have a link through to an English translation of the plan http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/714148.shtml