NHRC has done commendable job in protecting, promoting human rights: President Murmu
Dec 10, 2022
New Delhi [India], December 10 : The National Human Rights Commission has done a commendable job in protecting as well as promoting human rights, said President Droupadi Murmu in New Delhi on Saturday.
President Murmu was addressing the Human Rights Day celebrations organised by the National Human Rights Commission, in New Delhi.
Speaking on the occasion, the President of India said that it is an important occasion for the whole of humankind, as it was on this day in 1948 that the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). She also noted that the text of the UDHR has been translated into more than 500 languages, which makes it the most translated document in history.
Speaking about the human rights violations that keep taking place in many parts of the world she said, "We wonder if the declaration has been read at all in some of those languages. The fact remains that human rights are a work in progress around the world."
Praising the efforts of the National Human Rights Commission, The President said, "In India, we can take solace in the fact that the National Human Rights Commission has been making the best possible efforts to spread awareness about them. Now in its 30th year, the NHRC has done a commendable job of protecting as well as promoting human rights. It also participates in various global forums for human rights. India is proud of the fact that its work has been appreciated internationally."
Murmu said that developing sensitivity and sympathy is the key to promoting human rights. It is essentially an exercise of the faculty of imagination. "If we can imagine ourselves in the place of those treated as less than human, it would open our eyes and compel us to do the needful. There is a so-called 'golden rule', which says 'treat others as you would like them to treat you'. That sums up the human rights discourse beautifully", she added.
The President noted that today is the beginning of the worldwide, year-long celebrations of the 75 years of the UDHR. And the United Nations has chosen 'Dignity, Freedom and Justice for All' as the theme of the year 2022. She said that over the past few years, the world has suffered from a high number of natural disasters caused by unusual weather patterns. Climate change is knocking on the doors. People in poorer nations are going to pay a heavier price for the degradation of our environment. the environmental dimension of justice must be considered as the need of the hour.
She said that the challenge of climate change is so enormous that it forces us to redefine 'rights'. Five years ago, the High Court of Uttarakhand held that the Ganga and Yamuna rivers have the same legal rights as human beings. "India is a land of sacred geography, with countless holy lakes, rivers and mountains. To these landscapes, the flora and fauna add rich biodiversity. In old times, our sages and seers saw them all as part of a universal whole, along with us. So, just as the concept of human rights exhorts us to consider every human being as no different from us, we should treat the whole living world and its habitat with respect.", said India's President.
The President wondered what the animals and trees around would tell us if they could speak, what would our rivers say about human history and what would our cattle say on the topic of human rights. She said that we have trampled on their rights for long, and now the results are before us. She also added that we must learn - rather re-learn - to treat nature with dignity, which is not only a moral duty but also necessary for our own survival too.
