10 April, 2017- Mr. Kees van Baar, Human Rights Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, visited the institute for Human Rights, accompanied by Mr. Maurits oskam, Second Secretary of the Political Department of Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in China, and Ms. Esther van damme, Head of the China Team of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He delivered an excellent speech to the first-year master's students at the Institute for Human Rights of CUPL. Prof. Ban Wenzhan, Vice President of the institute, and Ms. Sun Meng, Party branch secretary, on behalf of our teachers and students expressed warm welcome and thanks to the ambassador and his team!
To start with, Mr. Ambassador first stated the importance of "human rights" in the Netherlands foreign policy, saying "human rights is the cornerstone of Netherlands foreign policy." He emphasized that human rights is the rights of everyone, and it is particularly important to respect the rights of different people in view of their different beliefs and styles of life. People should respect their basic human rights even they don’t agree with them. Then he introduced issues such as the abolition of the death penalty, the rights of the LGBT group, the rights of women and the relations between business and human rights, especially about the company's human rights obligations and the impact of human rights on consumers. Mr. Ambassador noted that respecting and safeguarding human rights is a universal value that it requires the awareness of human rights through human rights education.
During the lecture, the ambassadors enthusiastically answered questions raised by teachers and students on the abolition of the death penalty, the rights of minorities, the rights of refugees and the condition of Netherlands to accept the United Nations universal periodic review. He also shared his opinion on the "most concerned about human rights" with students.
The lectures ended in a relaxed atmosphere. Teachers and students took a photo with the ambassador and his team.
Written by Liu Linyu