Human Rights Day: ‘Awareness first step in giving people rights’
The seminar, which was held at Alhamra, had been arranged by the Human Rights, Minorities Affairs and Women Development department.
Sociologist Rahila Rahat stressed the need to ‘localise’ global human rights laws and concepts before implementing them in the country, “We need to change this cut-and-paste culture.”
Shamsa Ali, member of the Supreme Court Bar Association executive committee, spoke about how decades of military rule had ‘degraded the concept of human rights.
“They played a major role… whether the dictator came with enlightened moderation or hypocritical Islamisation,” she said.
MPA Khalil Tahir Sindhu said, “Article 25 of the constitution guarantees the human rights of every citizen, without discrimination.
Violations of these rights cannot be linked to religion alone. It is only when the State fulfills its responsibilities that the condition of human rights improves,” said the MPA.
Kamran Michael, minister for human rights, briefed the participants about the steps taken by the Punjab government to ensure that everyone, including minorities, gets their rights.
“We will become the voice of women against domestic violence and other injustices.” He said that the Human Rights department had signed a memorandum of understanding with Lahore universities under which students would be educated about human rights.
Guru Dev, a representative of the Hindu community, asked the minister to take steps through which Hindu marriages could be registered and land could be allotted to the members of the minority “the way it is allotted to others”.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 11th, 2010.
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