HR promotion is a collective responsibility: Kamran Michael

Lahore : Federal Minister for Human Rights Senator Kamran Michael said on Wednesday that though promotion of human rights and creation of its awareness was the responsibility of the government,
it was collective cause of the entire society.

Addressing a seminar on “Human Rights Education and Sensitization” organized by Ministry of Human Rights at a local hotel, the minister was of the view that implementation on human rights promoted tolerance, love, humane, brotherhood and most of all justice in the society.

He added  that everyone spoke of his/her rights but human rights taught us as to how one could ensure the rights to others and that phenomenon promoted love, tolerance and peace in the society.

Kamran Michael said that government was taking steps at all level to ensure effective and true implementation of the rights of human beings including children, women and minorities. This would definitely help eliminate terrorism, extremism, injustice and imbalances in the society, he asserted.

The Federal Minister announced that HR Ministry would celebrate Neighbour Day at national level every year, besides making the HR Helpline 1099 more meaningful through effective awareness campaign at grassroot level, so that people could contact the ministry without any fear to report any sort of HR violation around them.

He also mentioned that human rights committees were being reactivated at district and local level, which would play their crucial role in educating the common citizens about their basic rights. The government, he mentioned, was also focused on effective legislation to protect human rights in every nook and corner of the country.

Kamran Michael said that GSP-Plus (Generalized System of Preferences) awarded by European Union (EU) would help expand trade and exports of Pakistan, and HR Ministry was making all out efforts to ensure implementation of labour law as per international standards because the
EU made the GSP-Plus status to Pakistan conditional with ILO (International Labour Organization) parameters.
Earlier, the minister also condemned in strongest term the recent barbaric attack in Turkey, and killing of renowned Pakistani Qawwal Amjad Sabri in Karachi a few days back. He prayed for the martyrs and expressed sympathies with bereaved families.

He termed these incidents as sheer violation of human rights and underlined the need for collective and hectic efforts to give an end to such horrible incidents forever.

Earlier, Federal Secretary for HR Ministry Nadeem Ashraf and Provincial Secretary for HR and Minority Affairs Department Asim Iqbal highlighted the importance of human rights as well as initiatives taken by the respective governments in this regard.

Punjab Child Protection and Welfare Bureau Chairperson Saba Sadiq shared with the participants, various initiatives of the bureau to eliminate child labour especially at brick kilns and bonded labour in the province.

Provincial Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW) Chairperson Fauzia Waqar spelt out objectives of the commission and termed the passage of women protection bill by the Punjab Assembly as landmark achievement of the present government.

Prof. Dr. Mughees ud Din Sheikh, Additional IG (Special Branch) Punjab Faisal Shahkar, MPAs Shahzad Munshi and Kanji Raam also spoke on the subject.