The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour will visit China in August to attend the 13th workshop on human rights in the Asia-Pacific region, sources with the Foreign Ministry said Monday.  

Assistant Foreign Minister Shen Guofang told a press conference after the China-Australia Human Rights Dialogue yesterday that during the upcoming workshop, China and the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR) will renew the "Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation," which was originally signed in 2000.

Besides Arbour, many other officials with the institutes from the UN mechanism will also be invited to visit China, Shen said.

"China values the important role played by the UNOHCHR in human rights protection," Shen said, noting that the Chinese government has made sound cooperation with UNOHCHR in a series of projects of cooperation in human rights, with frequent exchanges maintained between the two sides.

(Xinhua News Agency June 28, 2005)