On Thursday, December 11, 2025, Beijing hosted the 2025 China-Germany Human Rights Development Forum, bringing together around 30 experts and scholars from China and Germany both online and in person. Under the theme 'Synergy Between International Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid', participants explored ways to foster sustainable, rights-based growth around the world.
Experts from both sides stressed that strengthening development cooperation and humanitarian assistance demands genuine multilateralism. By tackling immediate symptoms and addressing root causes, they argued, the global community can empower local stakeholders, reduce crises and improve human rights governance.
Li Hongkui, vice chairman and secretary-general of the China Foundation for Human Rights Development, pointed to the UN's 2025 Sustainable Development Goals Report, which reveals that nearly 800 million people still live in extreme poverty and billions lack access to safe drinking water and sanitation. 'With such daunting challenges, major economies like China and Germany must shoulder greater responsibility,' he said.
Former German Justice Minister Herta Däubler-Gmelin highlighted that humanitarian aid and development cooperation are the two pillars uniting the world. She noted that development assistance boosts resilience in recipient countries and that China and Germany – and by extension China and the EU – have strong potential for partnership, driven by rich histories, innovation capacities and growing global responsibilities.
Since launching their human rights dialogue in 1999, the China Foundation for Human Rights Development and Germany's Friedrich Ebert Foundation have built a long-term partnership. To date, they have organized 12 China-Germany human rights seminars and eight development forums, fostering deeper people-to-people exchanges and mutual understanding.
As global crises multiply – from climate shocks to protracted conflicts – experts at the forum agreed that such collaborative platforms are essential to chart a course toward sustainable, rights-based development.
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China and Germany hold human rights development forum in Beijing
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