INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DAY 2004

I am happy to participate in this function to celebrate the Human Rights Day. It is said that, “the history of human rights is the history of human struggles’. The twentieth century would be remembered as a century of war and violence marked by struggles for human rights. There is an awakening amongst the ordinary and deprived people, women and excluded groups, and other sections of society exploited for decades and are demanding their rights as human beings. Over 100 Nobel Prize winners who had assembled in Stockholm recently, issued an appeal in which they have emphasized that the most profound danger to world peace would arise from the rightful demands of the world’s poor and unorganised majority.

As observed by the Human Development Report 2000, which specially focused on Human Rights and Human Development, “The rights perspective helps shift the priority to the most deprived and excluded, especially to deprivation because of discrimination”. This has become the fundamental strategy of the Punjab State Human Rights Commission of our since its inception in 1997. Not only does the Commission investigate numerous complaints of violations of human rights and suggest corrective measures for their protection, it also accords top priority to preventive measures to safeguard human rights of our people. Here I would like to quote what the previous Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, Justice J.S. Verma had once observed, “Not only must the violation of human rights be taken care of, prevention of such violation was equally if not more important”. The Punjab State Human Rights Commission has taken suo-motu actions in investigating complaints on human rights violations and recommended actions to remedy the situation.

It is said, “Of the many human rights failures today, those in economic, social and cultural areas are particularly widespread across the world’s nations and peoples”. We are well aware that the weaker sections of society suffer the most due to such failures, which are root cause of serious social and economic problems faced by any society. The most likely way to solve such problems and ensure civilized existence of our people is to guarantee human rights of the weaker sections of society in totality. May I again quote Justice J.S. Verma’s observation that “Denial of empowerment to sections of society is a denial of basic human rights”.

Punjab State Human Rights Commission has tilted its policies and actions in this regard in a meaningful manner. Its stress on public health care and adequate nutrition for poor people, and its insistence that State Government adopt policies which can empower weaker sections of society, clearly depict its efforts to look at human rights’ issue in a complete manner.

Earlier I had referred to the observation we should shift our focus to the deprived and excluded. Women in our state and indeed in the country constitute the largest deprived and excluded group. It becomes imperative to remember that women’s rights are also human rights. Women are now becoming aware and are beginning launch movements to realize their human rights. PSHRC totally understands that violence and discrimination suffered by women strikes at the very root of our root of our human rights. It also insists upon the society to accept rights of women just as much as we accept the human rights in general. The Commission has made several recommendations in many such cases to protect the rights of this weaker section of the society. PSHRC plans to do much for work for the upliftment of women in tandem with the NGOs and other such organizations. Along with the landmark Supreme Court judgment on this matter, the efforts of the Commission will go a long way in tackling the menace faced by women at work places.

The Commission has been cautious in warding off the attack on human rights of the deprived people and also those of the minorities.

As the society changes and the effect of modern influences bring about considerable changes in economic and ecological spheres, human rights of people have to face new challenges. For example environmental degradation constitutes a grave threat to the basic and fundamental right to life and the right to health and clean environment. As such problems are increasing by leaps and bounds, we have to be on our guard. Punjab State Human Rights Commission has been very vigilant and has made significant recommendations to this effect.

Disasters, both natural and man-made, endanger the lives of the people and their human rights. India is particularly vulnerable to man made disasters and natural calamities like floods, cyclones, heat and cold waves and now earthquakes. Our first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, in a letter to the Chief Ministers referred to these disasters and wrote, “Indeed every calamity is a challenge tour nationhood…. And a nation is ultimately judged by the way this challenge is accepted. ”The Human Development Report 2000 very aptly observed that protection against calamities is an important human right.

The scope of human rights has been expanded which now encapsulates to right to health, right to clean air and right to education. A historic step has been taken to make the right to education a fundamental rights. The recent judicial intervention to identify the poor so that surplus food grains reach them through various schemes is yet another example of justification of the human rights of the economically deprived sections of our society by our law courts. These positive developments are encouraging for the long-suffering people.

One of the central components of implementing the social, economic and cultural rights is to promote human rights education. Vienna Declaration has stated that Human Rights Education is “essential for the promotion and achievement of stable and harmonious relations among communities and for fostering mutual understanding, tolerance and peace.” Besides incorporating in its scope the issues of “human rights humanitarian law, democracy and the rule of law”, the Declaration insists that the human rights education should include `peace, development and social justice’.

Punjab State Human Rights Commission has been sensitizing the people as well as those in authority that we must inculcate the values as well as the practice of human rights in society. We must build up a human rights conscience in every individual and in society as a whole in order to realize the noble objectives enshrined in our constitution to secure to all our citizens “Justice, social, economic and political; Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; and equality of Status and Opportunity”. The large number of cases of human rights violations that are pouring in before the Commission is an indication of the increasing consciousness of the people about their human rights and their hope that the Punjab State Human Rights Commission can meet out justice to them.

On this occasion I extend my greetings to honourable Chairman, fellow Members and all the staff working in it for its remarkable and path breaking work and wish them all success.

In the end may I quote what Shri K.R. Narayanan, previous President of India had once mentioned in one of his speeches, “…I recall two personal memories I have on the importance of human rights. In the early 1940’s I was a student at the University in Thiruvananthapuram. I used to stay in a Hostel behind one of the major jails of the city. Studying far into the night burning midnight electricity I used to hear almost every night after midnight a piercing cry breaking out from the jail into the hushed silence of the summer night. That memory of the agonized cry from the jail had every since emphasized for me the importance of the protection of life and liberty of the individual enshrined in our Constitution as a fundamental human rights. Another memory of mine relates to the realm of social rights. In 1945 on the eve of my sailing of U.K. for higher studies, I had the good fortune to meet Mahatma Gandhi in Bombay. He was generous enough to give me time to ask some questions. One of the questions I asked him was what a student who goes abroad should say to people about caste and untouchability in India. His answer was “abroad you would say that it is an internal problem of ours and we are determined to resolve it ourselves.” I had followed that advice because I was convinced that Gandhiji was determined to solve the problem on our own. When this question came up in South Africa at the Conference on racial discrimination Gandhiji’s words come back to me and it struck me that it was necessary for following that advice to see in the country determined and sincere efforts to solve the problem ourselves.” In the Punjab State Human Rights Commission It is our honest endeavour to ensure that human rights in political, social and economics terms are ensured to the people in practice in our country.