Photo exhibition on Xinjiang launched in Geneva during UN Human Rights Council session

More than 100 pictures and videos presenting a beautiful, open, and richly-endowed Xinjiang were on display Monday here inside the Palais Des Nations during the 43rd regular session of the UN Human Rights Council.

The exhibition -- "Home: Glimpse of People from Various Ethnic Groups in Xinjiang" -- has three divisions with respective themes of peace and stability, cultural prosperity, and religious harmony.

"The photos on display serve as a window on the reality in Xinjiang where people of different ethnic groups, thanks to social stability, are able to share the fruits of development and enjoy their life and work," said Chen Xu, China's permanent representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

For the Chinese envoy, today's Xinjiang is at its golden time with the most rapid and stable development in history.

"The right of people of various ethnic groups to use their own spoken and written languages is protected under the law, and their right to freedom of religious belief is guaranteed. This year, all rural residents there living below the poverty line will be lifted out of poverty, and absolute poverty will be eradicated. Xinjiang will become an all-round moderately prosperous society as the rest of China," Chen said in his opening remarks.

"Living a happy life is a primary human right. I am sure this exhibition will present you a true Xinjiang," he noted.

Tang Xianwen, deputy secretary-general of the China Society for Human Rights Studies, said in the opening speech that the international community has paid close attention to the development of Xinjiang in the previous year, and more than 70 delegations have paid their visits to Xinjiang, some of whom are principal officials of their countries' permanent missions to Geneva.

The delegations were impressed by the region's social stability, economic prosperity, improvement of people's well-being, full protection of human rights, harmony among different religions, as well as achievements in cultural heritage protection and ecological construction, Tang said.

Diplomats of Laos, Pakistan, Belarus, Cuba, Venezuela, Myanmar and other countries in Geneva attended the opening ceremony and toured the photo exhibition.

Maria Fernanda, a Nicaraguan diplomat, said after visiting the photo exhibition that she had never been to Xinjiang, but those photos deepened her understanding of Xinjiang. The welcoming people of all ethnic groups impressed her very much and such information reflected through the photos will also inspire the world.

The photo exhibition, jointly sponsored by the Permanent Mission of China to UN at Geneva and the China Society for Human Rights Studies, is expected to last until the end of this week.