KARACHI, Feb 11: Speakers at a workshop on “Human rights and the media” here on Monday underlined the need for redefining human rights and other related issues keeping in view local conditions, and urged the media and civil society to change their attitude by playing their due role for improvement of human rights.

The workshop was organized by the Fazaldad Human Rights Institute (FHRI) in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO) in a local hotel.

Speaking at the opening session, the Resident Representative of the Friedrich Nauman Foundation, Dr Arno Keller, said in post-Sept 11 events incidents of human rights violations had, reportedly, gone up worldwide, in the garb of “War against Terror.”

“Like Israelis, who used discrimination against, and mass killing of, their race by Nazis during and before World War II, as an excuse for perpetuating human rights violations against Palestinians, the so-called developed world is denying basic human rights to inhabitants of the developing world,” he said.

He accused industrialized Western countries of violation of human rights and causing degradation of the environment, and observed that human rights were associated with human beings regardless of their race, ethnicity, culture, language, religion and political affiliations. Human rights had wrongly been labelled a Western issue in this part of the world to exploit and deny basic and fundamental rights in local societies, he added.

Praising the creators of the Pakistan constitution and Principles of Policy, he said both these documents guaranteed basic human rights to each and every citizen of the country. He called for educating the masses about their basic human rights and issues through the media and urged civil society to play its due role in this regard.

Justice Shaiq Usmani expressed the opinion that though Islam is the first religion which guaranteed fundamental human rights of each and every human being in the world, but Muslim emperors didn’t hesitate in committing violations of basic human rights. In the present world, even most literate, developed and so-called civilized nations and countries are violating the human rights of their people, he maintained.

Citing examples from the Pakistan constitution, he said some 20 clauses of it provided protection of human rights. There was only the need for struggle by the media, civil society and NGOs for the enforcement of rule of law.

Holding the quota system “illegal” as, according to him, it went contrary to the assurances in the constitution and Principles of Policy, he said the High Courts could be approached for the redressal of grievances by filing simple petitions.

The Managing Director of the Social Policy and Development Centre, Dr Qaiser Bengali, held rule of law, democracy, awareness and economic power as some of the vital elements for the protection of human rights in any society.

“In a country where the constitution is lying in abeyance and a military dictator is ruling the country, people should struggle for the restoration of democracy, supremacy of law and economic development to safeguard their fundamental rights,” he said.

He was of the view that laws regarding human rights needed power for their implementation and that power could only be acquired through democracy and economic revolution.

He strongly criticized the Essential Services Act and called on the media and civil society to direct their attention to ways and means for effecting supremacy of law and democracy.

Former federal minister Javed Jabbar said the protection of fundamental human rights had nothing to do with education, rule of law, civilization, awareness and powerful media.

“The popularity graph of former US president Clinton went up during his media trial period, related to his illicit relations with Monica,” he claimed and said in the same US society, a woman was subjected to domestic violence every five seconds despite having awareness and more than 95 per cent literacy rate.

Mr Jabbar observed that issues of human rights were being transformed with the passage of time and it would need decades to have a comprehensive set of some basic human rights.

“Human Rights and human responsibilities go side by side, and one cannot deny his responsibilities,” he observed saying responsible citizens would chose responsible leaders to rule them.

He was of the view that the media, owing to its limitations, could not completely take the responsibility of creating awareness in the people of their rights. There was the need for the participation of all sections of society to initiate a joint struggle for the improvement of human rights in the country.

Pakistan has a good record for protecting the rights of minorities and women’s rights, he said.

Criticizing the credibility of data, presented by both the media and government agencies about conditions of local people, he urged government officials to take adequate steps to improve the credibility of their data.

He urged the government to give independence of expression to state- controlled radio and TV to criticize it and its officials. This would not only improve the state of human rights but would also ensure fear of accountability among the highups, he said.

The Chairman of the FHRI, Naeem Sarfraz, and the National Project Coordinator of the ILO, Ms Ayesha Aftab, also spoke.

The one-day workshop was part of a series of a five-day activity of the FHRI for bringing the media and the NGOs close to each other.—PPI