Rights of the disabled continue to strengthen

China has constantly strengthened protection of the rights of people with disabilities and gradually improved their legal protection, experts said during an online human rights seminar on Tuesday.

Organized by the China Society for Human Rights Studies, the seminar, with the theme "Legal Development and Disability Rights", was a side event of the 47th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Feng Guo, head of the School of Law at Wuhan University, said that in the course of socialist rule of law and human rights under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the protection of the rights of people with disabilities has been continuously improved.

These advances have helped more than 80 million people with disabilities get out of poverty, enjoy moderately prosperous lives and withstand the test of the COVID-19 epidemic. The progress offered an effective solution for building a community with a shared future for mankind and realizing integrated development of people with disabilities, Feng said.

Chen Bo, an assistant professor in the School of Law at Macau University of Science and Technology, said China's judicial system has improved to promote equal protection for people with disabilities.

Chen said, however, that the legal standard for discrimination against people with disabilities needs to be improved.

Forty-four countries in the Asia-Pacific region have joined the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Some countries have given a precise definition of disability, including China in its Law on the Protection of Persons with Disabilities, said Cai Cai, chief of the gender equality and social inclusion section at the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific's social development division.

By April, China had more than 90 laws and over 50 administrative regulations on the protection of the rights and interests of the disabled, according to a white paper released by the State Council Information Office on June 24.