Beijing's action plan lacks detail on enforcing people's political and civil rights, experts say

China's first human rights action plan lacks concrete enforcement details, particularly in areas of political and civil rights, analysts say.

Joshua Rosenzweig, senior manager of research and Hong Kong operations for the Dui Hua Foundation, a US-based rights advocacy group, welcomed the plan as a step for the country to set up goals regarding rights improvement. However, he said more concrete targets were desired, particularly in areas of political and civil rights, such as torture, illegal detention and the rights of minorities to religion freedom.

He said the authorities might be using the plan to distract the public from contentious issues as pressure comes from the international community over the country's poor human rights records, particularly a review by the UN Human Rights Council in February.

Mr Rosenzweig said the plan showed that China had a particular understanding of what human rights were and which human rights were more important than others, putting economic rights before civil and political rights on the ground that the country has its own specific circumstances.

'That interpretation of human rights is not shared by all,' he said.

China has given much emphasis to economic rights, while remaining vague in political and civil rights

Mr Rosenzweig noted that the government had stressed its efforts to fight torture and to protect freedom of religion, but it should also ask itself why previous measures had yielded little.