New Delhi, 29 March 2006
The Chairperson NHRC Justice A.S.Anand has said that heightened consciousness about the rights of human beings to live with dignity has changed the whole approach of governance. It has graduated from compassion to rights, from lament to tangible social action, to redressal at Government levels. Justice Anand said this while inaugurating a National Seminar on Human Rights: Policy Issues for India in New Delhi on 29th March 2006.
He said that over the years, human rights have expanded not only vertically but also horizontally by making Human Rights as the basis for good governance. It is the belief of the National Human Rights Commission that unless human rights are made the focal point by the State, good governance would remain a distant dream and developmental goals, which reflect broad societal aspirations and priorities would refer.
The Chairperson said that lack of sensitivity and absence of honesty of purpose on the part of those responsible for implementation of socio-welfare schemes, contributes in small measure to frustrate the aspiration of the society. Systemic denial of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, like right to food, health care, education, etc. for long periods of time, are often caustic factors of conflict and terrorism, he said.
Justice Anand hoped that important issue with a view to end inequality and promote human dignity, aiming at convergence of human development and human rights in action, would receive the desired importance during the day long seminar. It would be in the fitness of things that definite recommendations emerge from discussions that can give us a firm basis to proceed to concrete action, he said.
The 3-day seminar has been organized by the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla in collaboration with National Human Rights Commission. Shri V.K. Sibal, Member, Punjab State Human Rights Commission delivered the key-note address while Professor Bhalchandra Mungekar, Chairman, IIAS gave the welcome address.
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