by Xinhua writer Ding Yi
BEIJING, July 29 (Xinhua) -- The U.N. General Assembly has recognized access to safe, clean water and sanitation as an essential human rights, interpreting the concept of "human rights" from a broader mind and a more human angle.
Different countries and people may have contrary understandings about "human rights," but in the eyes of some Western countries those rights seem to involve equality only in social and political spheres.
Actually, though, as early as in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights approved by the U.N. in 1948, "the food adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family" had already been included in the category of "human rights."
As some 60 years have passed, the U.N. human rights resolution approved Wednesday stepped forward on the basis of the universal declaration, putting more emphasis on the basic issue of people's livelihoods.
Indeed, if one's survival and development rights can't be guaranteed, how can people talk about one's social and political rights?
According to U.N. data, almost 900 million people around the world don't have access to clean water. More than 2.6 billion people lack access to basic sanitation. The problem, which looms large in numerous developing countries, poses a deadly threat to many people's lives.
However, while most developing countries supported Wednesday's resolution, 41 nations, including the United States and Great Britain among others, abstained from voting.
Perhaps those living in the developed world can't understand the suffering of those struggling against death in the developing countries. Perhaps they can't understand the urgency of the issue.
It is just like a Chinese saying: "The well-fed don't know how the starving suffer."
As the developed nations pour vast amounts of money into political campaigns and the promotion of their own human rights, what if they also provide more to help promote the survival rights of the people in underdeveloped countries?
Developed and developing countries have major differences and they naturally have different priorities on human rights issues. The world's human rights undertaking needs dialogue and communications between the developed and developing worlds.
Wednesday's U.N. resolution indicates the developed countries had better broaden their horizons concerning human rights and listen to the voices of the developing nations that constitute the majority of the international community.
The resolution indicates, too, that the developed countries need to understand the urgent demands of the developing nations and avoid empty sermonizing.
In other words, when it comes to human rights, it's better to be more open-minded, not narrow-minded. It's better to listen more and not be selfish and it's better, too, to be more understanding, not indifferent to the troubles of the less developed nations.
