César Martins, vice rector of São Paulo State University, speaks at the Second China-Latin American and Caribbean States Roundtable on Human Rights in Sao Paulo, Brazil, July 25, 2025. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

The Second China-Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) States Roundtable on Human Rights, held in São Paulo, Brazil, on July 25, gathered more than 130 guests from China and LAC countries to discuss human rights protection in the digital and intelligent age, environment, climate and human rights, and China-LAC states' contributions to global human rights governance.

Jointly hosted by the China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS), Renmin University of China and São Paulo State University, the meeting was themed "China-LAC States Community with a Shared Future and the Development of Human Rights."

Wang Yanwen, deputy secretary-general of CSHRS, said China upholds the people-centered human rights philosophy and regards the right to subsistence and the right to development as fundamental human rights of primary importance. By advancing the comprehensive development of all kinds of human rights, it has made historic achievements in its human rights cause.

Human rights should be closely related to the daily life of ordinary people, said Victoria Analia Donda Perez, president of Citizenship and Human Rights Commission of the MERCOSUR Parliament. She lauded China's development path that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of extreme poverty, calling the achievement a powerful defense of human rights and dignity.

She also added that a community with a shared future for mankind, proposed by China, offers a new perspective for global governance with human rights as the core.

Gustavo Adolfo Pacheco Villar, president of the Andean Parliament, said LAC countries have abundant natural resources and social diversity. He hoped that each person in the region would enjoy equality, justice and human rights protection in the process of transforming these resources and characteristics into power and opportunities for regional development. Human rights should be respected while empowering the Global South, and everyone needs to make an effort.

According to Mo Jihong, director of the Institute of Law and member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China and LAC countries share many cooperative advantages in terms of global human rights governance, including similar human rights views and good bilateral relationships. Extensive bilateral cooperation in human rights governance would set a good example for building a community with a shared future for mankind, and promote global human rights governance.

China and LAC countries have carried out wide cooperation in human rights protection in the digital age and environment protection under mechanisms like the China-CELAC Forum and the Belt and Road Initiative.

Together, they have also built digital infrastructure. Over 8,000 kilometers of optical fiber laid in the Amazon rainforest connect 3.7 million local residents to the Internet. China has also developed remote sensing satellites with Brazil and Venezuela respectively, and the observed data is used in environment protection and disaster prevention and mitigation.

Wang said we should uphold human rights values to promote digital technologies for good, and adhere to environmental governance and green development to strive for people's happiness. Cooperation should be strengthened on human rights research, steering global human rights governance towards a fairer, more just, reasonable and inclusive direction.

The roundtable released the São Paulo Consensus on China-Latin American and Caribbean States Human Rights Communication and Cooperation, and launched the "China-Latin American and Caribbean States on Human Rights Research and Cooperation Network."