NEW YORK - The Chinese people are enjoying better human rights and making positive contributions to the global human rights cause, said the Chinese UN ambassador on Thursday in a message for Human Rights Day, which falls on Dec 10.

The theme for this year's Human Rights Day is equality. The protection of human rights and the pursuit of equality is an ideal shared by all humanity. It is also one that is constantly pursued by the Chinese people, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations.

Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the Chinese people have made tremendous efforts in fighting for human rights, respecting human rights, protecting human rights and promoting human rights, he said.

"We are committed to people's democracy. The 1.4 billion Chinese people have truly become the masters of the country, society and their own lives. In the whole-process democracy, the Chinese people enjoy the most extensive, real and useful democracy.

"We believe that the greatest human right is a happy life for the people. We have brought a historic solution to absolute poverty and achieved the poverty reduction goal of the 2030 Agenda 10 years ahead of schedule.

"We put people and their lives top on our agenda, and have achieved strategic progress in epidemic prevention and control at home. In addition, we have provided more than 1.85 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to over 120 countries and international organizations, more than any other country in the world," said Zhang.

"We are proud that the Chinese people are enjoying better human rights and making positive contributions to the global human rights cause. The promotion and protection of human rights is a dynamic process. The world today faces numerous grave challenges. We must continue our unremitting efforts for the goal of equality," he added.

To realize equality, there is a need to ensure fair distribution of vaccines. To realize equality, there is a need to resolutely eliminate racism and racial discrimination. To realize equality, there is a need to respect the rights of people in all countries to independently choose their own development paths. Human rights are universal, but the paths toward them are diverse, and the best ones are the fitting ones. Countries should strengthen exchanges and mutual learning in order to find the human rights development path that best suits their own national conditions and people's needs. It has been proven time and again that democracy or human rights models imposed from the outside do not work. To realize equality, there is a need to reject politicization and double standards. Human rights and democracy are not the privilege of a few countries, still less a tool to be used to blow one's own trumpet, form closed blocs or provoke a new Cold War. Some countries are using human rights and democracy as a pretext to interfere in other countries' internal affairs, provoke confrontation and willfully impose unilateral sanctions. What they are doing brings the biggest damage to human rights and democracy, said Zhang.

"The pursuit of better human rights is an ongoing process and China will not stop its efforts in this regard. Let's join hands to make our world a better place and achieve human rights for all," he said.