Premier Zhu Rongji said Monday he hoped China could ratify the United Nations pact on economic, social and cultural rights in the near future, as lawmakers prepared to review the covenant.
"I hope the covenant on economic rights can be ratified soon," Zhu told visiting French President Jacques Chirac, according to members of Chirac's delegation.
Zhu made the comment as members of the standing committee of China's parliament, the National People's Congress (NPC), convened for a nine-day session with the UN rights covenant on the agenda.
The pact, signed by the Chinese government three years ago, was "up for deliberation and ratification," the official Xinhua news agency said.
The members of the standing committee were slated to review a total of 12 draft laws on issues ranging from Internet security to marriage and foreign investment, the agency said.
China signed the covenant on economic, social and cultural rights in September 1997, and the UN pact on civil and political rights one year later.
The two texts are meant to provide a legal framework for the UN Charter of Human Rights adopted in 1948.
Western countries have routinely urged China to ratify the two pacts.
Chirac brought it up over the weekend during private talks with Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin in the eastern city of Yangzhou.
According to members of his delegation, he raised the issue again in talks on Monday with Premier Zhu, saying the European Union "regrets" the Chinese signatures on the UN pacts have not been translated into concrete measures.
"We are aware of the criticism made against China," Zhu told his French guest according to members of Chirac's delegation. "We accept this criticism, in the hope that we can quickly improve our work."
The text on economic rights, which guarantees unprecedented trade union rights in China, has already been examined once by parliament's standing committee, which believed that it was not, as yet, compatible with national legislation.
The pact on political rights has never been screened by parliament, and according to Monday's Xinhua report, it is "currently under scrutiny by Chinese government departments concerned."
"As this covenant has an impact on several important aspects of the social and economic life of our country, studies and further examination will be necessary to place our national situation in line with it," a senior civil servant said in June.
In Monday's meeting with Chirac, Zhu said he hoped the government could submit the political rights covenant for ratification by parliament, but was not reported by members of Chirac's delegation as giving a timeframe -- BEIJING (AFP)
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