The right to development and the relationship between national stability and the protection of human rights emerged as key themes of the 2026 China-Europe Seminar on Human Rights held in Paris on Thursday, where scholars and experts from China and Europe called for a more inclusive and development-oriented understanding of human rights amid growing uncertainty.
The seminar was launched in 2015 at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. For a whole decade, it has brought together academics, diplomats and policy experts to discuss the challenges facing global human rights governance in an increasingly multipolar world.
Hussein Askary, vice-chairman of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden, said the right to development should be understood as a fundamental human right.
"Human beings must, first of all, have enough food, clothing, housing, healthcare and education. These are the basic rights people should enjoy," Askary said.
He argued that human rights should not be reduced to abstract political concepts detached from material conditions.
