Geneva - The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, is to travel to China tomorrow on a two-day mission to include the signing of a co-operation accord on human rights, her spokesman announced yesterday. Mrs Robinson, who will arrive in Beijing on Monday, will also meet Chinese President Jiang Zemin, the spokesman, Mr Jose Luis Diaz, said.
"The main objective of her visit is to sign a memorandum of understanding on technical co-operation in the area of human rights between the office of the High Commissioner and China," he said.
Meanwhile, a leading Chinese official says China has eradicated absolute poverty and now has the lowest poverty rate in the developing world, the official Xinhua news agency reported yesterday. But the official from the State Council, or cabinet, set the poverty benchmark at an annual income of just 635 yuan ($77), Xinhua said. This is far below the World Bank standard of $1 a day.