Senior UN official hails China's human rights progress

International human rights are hailing the progress China has been making on the issue at the annual Beijing Forum on Human Rights.

Ibrahim Salama is with the United Nationss Human Rights office.

"China has so diverse cultures, but also it's the country that has an amazing development potential, and achieved a lot in terms of economic and social and cultural rights. So we all look at China with great admiration, but also with great expectation."

Professor Thio Li-ann is a senior advisor to the Singaporean government.

"The western world gets the impression through the media that China is a bad human rights violator. But I don't think it's totally accurate. So to me it seems that the Chinese government is very committed to the welfare of the people."

The two-day forum in Beijing has attracted more than 100 officials and human rights experts from around 30 different countries and regions.

The annual event was first held in 2008.