Human Rights and Social Development in the Chinese White Papers on Human Rights

In 1991, the Information Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China launched a Chinese national version of human rights issuing the first White Paper on Human Rights. Since 1991, the Chinese Government has issued several specific White Papers (the latest one in October 2016) describing the overall approach to human rights and two National Human Rights Action Plans (2009, 2012). The paper presents the Chinese official stance on human rights emerging from an in-depth analysis of the Chinese White Papers on Human Rights in the period 1991-2018.