Protecting The Protectors: Activists want their rights safeguarded

HYDERABAD:  

The Sindh Human Rights Defenders (SHRD), a coalition of rights activists and advocacy-based non-profit organisations, has called for legislating the Sindh Human Rights Defenders Act. The law will provide legal status to activists to carry on their rights-based works. At a press conference on Wednesday, Prof Mushtaq Mirani, Barrister Ali Palh and others deplored the government’s aversion to giving a legal role to activists as per the UN Convention. SHRD was formed in May, 2015, to strive for the rights and protection of human rights activists, journalists and lawyers. Palh said that the district-based chapters in all 29 districts of Sindh will be formed during SHRD’s convention in October. Each chapter will comprise a focal person and a committee of activists. “The state should recognise the role of human rights defenders,” said Palh.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2016.