SINGAPORE, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- China has effectively contained the spread of the COVID-19 and done its utmost to protect the lives of its people, which reflects efforts in safeguarding people's human rights, Singaporean scholar Koh Chin Yee said in a written interview with Xinhua on Monday.
Confronted with the COVID-19 pandemic, different countries and regions have adopted different methods to deal with the deadly virus, based on their national strength, cultural background and other factors, said Koh, president of Singapore's South Seas Society.
Noting the Chinese government's resolute efforts to lock down Wuhan and contain the virus' outbreak in Beijing and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region as well as its support for the fight against the epidemic in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, he said that all these have shown that China has taken decisive measures to control the epidemic in its infancy at all costs, putting people's lives and health as a priority.
In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly had promulgated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which lists the basic rights and freedoms that all people are entitled to enjoy. These rights and freedoms are not absolute, as they need to be adapted to different situations, he said.
Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provides that "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person." Thus, the right to life is an important component of human rights, Koh Chin Yee added. In his opinion, it's true more than ever during the pandemic.
During the pandemic, maintaining social distancing and self-isolation are some of the measures proven to be effective at present. They demand people to temporarily sacrifice their freedom of movement in order to protect the more basic rights to life and health, he said, adding that the "small sacrifices" are made to "protect the lives and health of the group."
Therefore, China's way of saving people's lives threatened by the virus is a kind of protection of human rights, Koh said.
Deeming China's effective control of the epidemic vitally significant to the world, he noted that first of all, China has gained important experience that can be shared with other countries and regions.
Secondly, as a populous country, China, by successfully containing the virus, has provided valuable medical resources to other countries and regions, he said.
Thirdly, being the world's second largest economy, China has been able to resume its production and consequently made important contributions to the recovery of the global supply chains and value chains, especially the global supply of anti-epidemic materials. Enditem
