“National Reading Project” Entered Human Rights Action Plan for the First Time
| Recently, the Information Office of the State Council issued “National Human Rights Action Plan (2016-2020)”, putting therein for the first time “all-roundly implement national reading project”. The Action Plan proposes to implement “Cultural Reform and Development Plan of the State during the ‘13th Five-Year Plan’ Period”, perfect public cultural service system, cultural industry system and cultural market system, and improve the citizens’ basic cultural rights protection level. The Action Plan expounds the following 6 issues: accelerate pushing making of public library law, cultural industry promotion law, public cultural service guarantee law, and film industry promotion law; revise cultural relics protection law, copyright law, and mating administrative regulations; push standardization and equalization of basic public cultural services, perfect network of public cultural facilities, strengthen construction of grassroots cultural service capacities, and continue pushing free access to public cultural facilities; construct excellent traditional Chinese culture inheritance system; all-roundly implement national reading project; strengthen construction of the Internet and cyber culture, implement web contents construction, support acceleration of the digital transformation of traditional publication resources, improve knowledge service capacities, and encourage creating excellent original online works. The Action Plan also stresses in the chapter entitled “Disability Rights” that cultural and recreational equipment for the disabled should be increased in public cultural places; public libraries with conditions should prepare reading areas or reading rooms for the blind; publication of reading materials for the blind and the disabled should be encouraged; “National Action Plan on Sign Language and Braille Standardization (2015-2020)” should be implemented. |