Intro of Humanm Rights

8/2/2019 Intro of Humanm Rights

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What are human rights?

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex,

national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our

human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible.

Universal human rights are often expressed and guaranteed by law, in the forms of treaties, customary

international law , general principles and other sources of international law. International human rights

law lays down obligations of Governments to act in certain ways or to refrain from certain acts, in order

to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups.

Universal and inalienable

The principle of universality of human rights is the cornerstone of international human rights law. This

principle, as first emphasized in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in 1948, has been reiterated

in numerous international human rights conventions, declarations, and resolutions. The 1993 Vienna

World Conference on Human Rights, for example, noted that it is the duty of States to promote and

protect all human rights and fundamental freedoms, regardless of their political, economic and cultural

systems.

All States have ratified at least one, and 80% of States have ratified four or more, of the core human

rights treaties, reflecting consent of States which creates legal obligations for them and giving concrete

expression to universality. Some fundamental human rights norms enjoy universal protection by

customary international law across all boundaries and civilizations.

Human rights are inalienable. They should not be taken away, except in specific situations and according

to due process. For example, the right to liberty may be restricted if a person is found guilty of a crime

by a court of law.

Interdependent and indivisible

All human rights are indivisible, whether they are civil and political rights, such as the right to life,

equality before the law and freedom of expression; economic, social and cultural rights, such as the


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rights to work, social security and education , or collective rights, such as the rights to development and

self-determination, are indivisible, interrelated and interdependent. The improvement of one right

facilitates advancement of the others. Likewise, the deprivation of one right adversely affects the

others.

Equal and non-discriminatory

Non-discrimination is a cross-cutting principle in international human rights law. The principle is present

in all the major human rights treaties and provides the central theme of some of international human

rights conventions such as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial

Discrimination and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The principle applies to everyone in relation to all human rights and freedoms and it prohibits

discrimination on the basis of a list of non-exhaustive categories such as sex, race, colour and so on. The

principle of non-discrimination is complemented by the principle of equality, as stated in Article 1 of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Both Rights and Obligations

Human rights entail both rights and obligations. States assume obligations and duties under

international law to respect, to protect and to fulfil human rights. The obligation to respect means that

States must refrain from interfering with or curtailing the enjoyment of human rights. The obligation to

protect requires States to protect individuals and groups against human rights abuses. The obligation to

fulfil means that States must take positive action to facilitate the enjoyment of basic human rights. At

the individual level, while we are entitled our human rights, we should also respect the human rights of

others.

.1 Civil and Political Rights

These rights are familiar from historic bills of rights such as the French Declaration of the Rights of Man

and the Citizen (1789) and the U.S. Bill of Rights (1791, with subsequent amendments). Contemporary

sources include the first 21 Articles of the Universal Declaration, and such treaties as the European

Convention, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the American Convention on Human

Rights, and the African Charter on Human and People's Rights. Some representative formulations follow:


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Everyone has the right to freedom of thought and expression. This right includes freedom to seek,

receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing, in

print, in the form of art, or through any other medium of one's choice. (American Convention on Human

Rights, Article 13.1)

Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and to freedom of association with others,including the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests (European

Convention, Article 11).

Every citizen shall have the right to participate freely in the government of his country, either directly or

through freely chosen representatives in accordance with the provisions of the law. 2. Every citizen shall

have the right of equal access to the public service of his country. 3. Every individual shall have the right

of access to public property and services in strict equality of all persons before the law (African Charter,

Article 13).

These rights fit the general idea of human rights suggested above (see 1. The General Idea of Human

Rights). First, they are political norms that primarily impose responsibilities on governments and

international organizations. Second, they are minimal norms in that they protect against the worst

things that happen in political society rather than setting out standards of excellence in government.

Third, they are international norms establishing standards for all countries and that have been

accepted by more than 150 of the world's countries. Finally, it is plausible to make claims of high priority

on their behalf, and to support these claims of importance with strong reasons. Consider the right to

freedom of movement. One approach to justifying this right and its high priority would argue the

indispensability of free movement to being able to find the necessities of life, to pursuing plans,

projects, and commitments, and to maintaining ties to family and friends. A related approach argues

that it is impossible to make use of other human rights if one cannot move freely. The right to political

participation is undermined if a person is not permitted to go to political rallies or to the polls.

Most civil and political rights are not absolutethey are in some cases overridden by other

considerations and rightly set aside in those cases. For example, some civil and political rights can be

restricted by public and private property rights, by restraining orders related to domestic violence, and

by legal punishments. Further, after a disaster such as a hurricane or earthquake free movement is often

appropriately suspended to keep out the curious, to permit access of emergency vehicles and

equipment, and to prevent looting. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights permits

rights to be suspended during times of public emergency which threatens the life of the nation (Article4). But it excludes some rights from suspension including the right to life, the prohibition of torture, the

prohibition of slavery, the prohibition of ex post facto criminal laws, and freedom of thought and

religion.

3.2 Minority and Group Rights


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Concern for the equal rights of disadvantaged groups is a longstanding concern of the human rights

movement. Human rights documents emphasize that all people, including women and members of

minority ethnic and religious groups, have the same basic rights and should be able to enjoy them

without discrimination. The right to freedom from discrimination figures prominently in the Universal

Declaration and subsequent treaties. The Civil and Political Covenant, for example, commits

participating states to respect and protect their people's rights without distinction of any kind, such as

race, color, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or social

status (on minority and group rights see Nickel 2006, ch. 10).

Some standard individual rights are especially important to ethnic and religious minorities, including

rights to freedom of association, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, and freedom from

discrimination. Human rights documents also include rights that refer to minorities explicitly and give

them special protections. For example, the Civil and Political Covenant in Article 27 says that persons

belonging to ethnic, religious, or linguistic minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with

other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or

to use their own language.

Since 1964 the United Nations has mainly dealt with the rights of women and minorities through

specialized treaties such as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial

Discrimination (1965); the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

(1979); the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), and the Convention on the Rights of Persons

with Disabilities (2007). See also the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007). Specialized

treaties allow international norms to address unique problems of particular groups such as assistanceand care during pregnancy and childbearing in the case of women, custody issues in the case of children,

and the loss of historic territories by indigenous peoples.

Minority groups are often targets of violence. Human rights norms call upon governments to refrain

from such violence and to provide protections against it. This work is partly done by the right to life,

which is a standard individual right. It is also done by the right against genocide which protects groups

from attempts to destroy or decimate them. The Genocide Convention was one of the first human rights

treaties after World War II. In Article 2 it gives the following definition of genocide:

genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a

national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious

bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life


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calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to

prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

The right against genocide seems to be a group right. It is held by both individuals and groups and

provides protection to groups as groups. It is largely negative in the sense that it requires governments

and other agencies to refrain from destroying groups; but it also requires that legal and otherprotections against genocide be created at the national level.

Can a group right fit the general idea of human rights proposed earlier? Perhaps it can if we broaden the

conception of who can hold human rights to include ethnic and religious groups. This can be made more

palatable, perhaps, by recognizing that the beneficiaries of the right against genocide are individual

humans who enjoy greater security against attempts to destroy the group to which they belong

(Kymlicka 1989).

Human Rights in Pakistan

-- By (Major) Sangeeta Tomar

Pakistan and India inherited a powerful and pervasive bureaucratic tradition from the colonial rulers.

The military played a crucial role in government in Pakistan, due to several factors such as the country's

strategic geographical location and the potential for international border disputes and separatist

movements inherent in the manner in which the sub-continent was partitioned in 1947 Military leaders

have created their own international support networks and since 1958, in alliance with the established

bureaucracy and they have controlled Pakistan's political and economic decision- making An

examination of the course of Pakistan's history from General Ayub Khan through decades of martial law

and periods of party-based government demonstrates how the military interventions have repeatedly

subverted and arrested the evolution of the democratic process Despite the fact that there has been no

direct intervention by the military by imposing martial law, it continues to dominate decision-making in

the critical areas of foreign policy and defence. In addition it has become a powerful economic force

and, with a stranglehold on successive bankrupt civil governments, continues to drain the public

exchequer.

Social, Economic, and Political Turmoil

As per the Constitution of Pakistan fundamental rights, including equality of status, of opportunity and

before law, social, economic, and political justice, and freedom of thought, expression, belief, faith,

worship, and association, subject to the law and public morality, shall be guaranteed, the independence


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of the judiciary shall be fully secured. But in reality, in the absence of proper law-making Constitution all

legislative measures during 2000 came in the form of Ordinances. 65 of them were issued. However only

22 of these Ordinances were new measures, the other two thirds of the emergency legislation was in

the nature of amendment to or revision of the earlier status. Out of 65 Ordinances 53 were designed to

strengthen the State Apparatus, to raise its revenue-collecting capacity, and to make extra-

administrative adjustments.

However, in. all these eleven years the army never really relinquished power. It was always there in the

background looking over the shoulders of the civilian rulers. The army officers enjoyed all the perks and

privileges and the civilian rulers were subservient to them in a thousand ways. During these years of

civilian rule not a single government was able to complete its tenure. Seven governments changed

during this interregnum of a botched democracy.

Human Rights Situation

The main thrust of this article is to discuss the human rights problems plaguing the women, children,

and minorities of Pakistan. It is important to note that Pakistan is primarily an Islamic country and most

of the laws implemented were designed with the Islamic interests in mind. A believer in Islam is

expected to follow five pillars i.e. Belief (Imam); Prayer (Salaat/Namaaz); Fasting (Sauma/Roza); Welfare

due (Zakat) and Pilgrimage (haj) by actions. Belief with heart is one thing; and profession of Islam is

another. The non-Muslims minorities in Pakistan are neither the believers in Islam more are expected to

follow the five teaching-Pillars of Islam and are not treated equally with Islam. The Constitution of the

Islamic Republic of Pakistan, (1973) as amended from time to time shakes the very foundations of the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

The UDHR declares that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and the security of person. Although

Pakistan had agreed with the UDHR when it first was proposed stating, "Islam unequivocally endorsed

the freedom of conscience," this has not always been the case with Pakistan.

A. Laws Protecting Women's Rights in Pakistan

The rights afforded to women in the Islamic tradition emanate from its main sources, namely, the

Qur'an, Hadith, Jima and Qiyas. Yet, the body of principles informing Islamic law, collectively known as

the Sharia do not form a homogenous entity as these depend on interpretations of the sources,

particularly the Qur'an and Hadith, influenced by cultural and ethnic differences, historical contexts,

colonial pasts, the sect or school of jurisprudence that a particular community subscribes to, as well as

political and economic policy of Muslim States.


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Pakistan was carved out of the Indian subcontinent to provide a separate homeland for Indian Muslims

in August 1947. Pakistan came into existence in the name of Islam and Islam was therefore, integral to

statehood itself. In order to chart a course towards constitution- making stamped with an Islamic

identity, Pakistan's first constituent Assembly passed a resolution popularly known as the Objective

Resolution in March 1949. This resolution became the Preamble to all the constitutions of Pakistan and

was eventually made a substantive part of the constitution as a new provision, article 2-A of the 1973

constitution in 1985

Article 25 of the constitution of Pakistan outlining equality before law and equal protection of the law

appears to rest alongside the reality that the vast majority of women are placed among the weakest and

most disadvantaged groups within a community and hence in need of more than formal statements in

equality. It may also be argued that even the equal rights provisions in the constitution permit and

indeed, acknowledge women as a separate class and in need of protective/corrective regulations.

Interestingly, Islamic law recognizes a wide range of economic rights for women, in effect, transcends

the public/private dichotomy. This includes the right to earn, acquire, access and dispose of their

property, both movable and immovable. As adult Muslim may not be coerced into dealing with her

possessions by anyone, including close male relatives such as her father, brother, husband and son. But

these rights appear to have remained for the large part in the domain of theory; reality being at variance

with this formal equality.

In the rural areas of Pakistan, in particular, a clear violation of the rights to inheritance takes place

where agricultural land is often not given to daughters and kept in the family. Dowry is considered as an

appropriate share of daughters in parental property and women rarely have access to or control over

property in their names. Where women do inherit property, the same is mostly taken over and

controlled by male heirs through general powers of attorney, gift deeds or relinquishment deeds in

favour of the male heirs

The laws protecting women's rights in Pakistan work on paper, but the laws are not being enforced to

protect women in the way that they were written. The estimated percentage of women who encounterdomestic violence ranges from about 70 to 90 percent according to the Human Rights Commission of

Pakistan (HRCP). Rafiq Zakaria in his book The Trial of Benazir, writes, "the husband has an edge over the

wife in family affairs but from this we cannot conclude that a man is superior to a woman in every

respect". There is no basis for this either in Qur'an or the Sunnah. This is socially tolerated due to the

Islamic tradition of the country, in which the men of Pakistan are dominant over the women. It was also


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estimated by the HRCP that about eight women are raped nationwide every twenty-four hours in

Pakistan, and at least half of them are minors.

In addition, the women who file charges endanger themselves to Hudood adultery charges. If the

woman cannot prove that she did not consent to the secular activity she could be flogged. or publicly

stoned due to the Hudood ordinances. The Preamble to the Hudood Ordinances declare that the object

is to modify existing criminal law and bring it into conformity with the injunctions of Islam as set out in

the Qur'an and Sunna. The Ordinances divide punishment into two categories: hadd and tazir.

Females and non-Muslim men cannot testify on behalf of the woman, which makes the lack of consent

very hard to prove. An incident in April of 1998 involved two Afghan women who reported being raped

after being kidnapped from a bus leaving a refugee camp. The driver was detained, but paid a bribe to

the police which set him free. The Pakistan Commissiorate of Afghan Refugees, which was responsiblefor the incident, investigated the accusation, and detained the driver again. A law was passed that

invoked the death penalty for people convicted of gang rape, but due to the fact that gang rape is one of

the tools used for social control by criminals, landlords, and the police, complaints aren't frequently

responded to by police. There also have been many women forced by the police to perform sexual

favors in order to be released from custody, while' others held by police are just raped (Islam, Gender &

Social Change)

Honor killings are another major human rights atrocity that Pakistan does not seem to be concerned

about. A Pakistani woman named Samia Sarwar was shot to death in her attorney's office. Her family

had hired a hit man to kill her because she was seeking a divorce from her husband. These cases are

most often provoked by the belief that the wife had been unfaithful, and the husband or the rest of the

family sees the behavior as being dishonorable. Since the women in Pakistan are subservient to the

men, they are indicators of the power of the man they are with, and when the woman is believed to

have disobeyed, the man's honor is damaged. The wife is usually killed in these attacks, but if she does

survive, she could badly battered, burned by fire, or disfigured by acid attacks. There have been

countless instances of these "honor killings" similar to the two-hundred and fifty women in the city of

Lahore who were bumped to death in their homes in 1997 of which only six cases had an arrest. As in

the case of Samia, her murderers have yet to be brought to justice although the evidence against them

would have surely brought a conviction in almost any fair court of law. The laws are very lenient on

those who are arrested for such acts. And there are numerous loopholes in the laws that make

prosecution of the defenders even mote difficult.

It appears from above discussion that despite formal provision for complete equality between men and

women under these laws, yet it is difficult to ignore the fact hat the vast majority of Muslims have come


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to accept rights as hierarchical, with adult. male Muslims possessing the most rights and women and

non-Muslim the least.

B. Treatment of Children

The treatment of children in Pakistan is also in the forefront of the human rights battle. Children are

often kidnapped by invading groups, or are sold into slavery by their parents for money or land.

Child Labour

There is also the complicated issue of the correctional system for juveniles. The children are often

incorporated with the general population of prisons, and are abused in prison by guards and other

inmates. They also can spend a long period of time in prison waiting for a trial, which possibly could

seriously hand the child emotionally and physically. There was an instance involving a young boy named

Mohammed Saleem who was arrested for involvement in the murder of three policemen. He was tried

in a regular court, and sentenced to death. He was finally acquitted and released due to the fact that

there was no evidence relating him to the crime. He spent about six months in jail, but he was also

deprived of his rights while in custody. He was beaten by the police, never informed about why he was

arrested, and with restricted access to council, was tried, and sentenced to death. The province he was

in had laws stating that no one under the age of 16 could be sentenced to death, while the boy himself

was only 13 to 14. years old. All of these conditions violated the UN Convention on the Rights of the

Child. The police also have been brutal to other children, including Ghulam Jilani, who died of head

injuries hours after being arrested on theft charges. The police had said that the boy attempted suicide

by hanging himself.

C. The State of Intolerance

Another controversial human rights issue in Pakistan deals with so-called Blasphemy Laws. The

punishment for "defiling the name of the Prophet Mohammed" is death, If desecrating the Koran" is

punishable by life in prison, and "insulting another person's religious beliefs" receives up to ten years in

prison. These blasphemy laws are being used "as tools of religious persecution."

The freedom to express opinions continued to be challenged through the year 2000, with any opinion

contrary to the beliefs held by orthodox religious groups drawing fervent protests from them. The

freedom to think and the encouragement to express new ideas thus remained severely restricted. Fears

of an onslaught from religious elements also meant that in practice certain topics, especially those

linked to religious belief or the possibility of separating state from religion, continued to lie beyond the


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realm of most debate. Thus, the liberty of thought, conscience, and religion remained strictly limited.

The impact such restrictions on thought are having within a society that has become increasingly closed

from year to year stifling innovative or independent thinking, are perhaps best exhibited in the growing

uniformity of discussion and the declining standards of debate, whether within institutes of higher

learning or on the broader national platform. Examples of the growing lack of tolerance continued to

come in through the year:.. The most serious indication of the increasingly intolerant environment came

in the death of at least ten members of the Ahmadi community, who were killed as a direct

consequence of the views they held. In March, a senior judge of the Lahore High Court, while

commenting in response to a newspaper query, held that in his view the suggested changes in the

blasphemy law were being considered because of the efforts by western governments to act against

Islam. The judge, who had in 1999 advocated Ahmadis beaten up if found propagating their religion in

any way, also appeared unrepentant about these comments.

1. Laws on Blasphemy

With pressure from human rights groups, both local and international, growing, the federal government

announced on April 18 that as a step towards improving its record on human rights, it was planning

measures to avoid the misuse of law. It was stated that as part of this process, in all cases involving

blasphemy, the case would be referred to the concerned Deputy Commissioner (DC). It would be

referred to police only if the DC was satisfied the case warranted police intervention and an FIR (First

Information Report) would be registered only after this. The innocuous move aimed at curbing the

registration of false blasphemy cases brought swift and fierce attack from religious groups, which

threatened countrywide protests unless the minor change in procedure concerning blasphemy laws was

taken back. Despite government efforts to reassure religious leaders, the threats continued and on May

l6General Pervez Musharraf announced a restoration of the previous procedure. The failure of the

government to implement even this change, offering some protection against the misuse of the law,

indicated the extent of religious intolerance in society and the vulnerability of governments to pressure

from religious forces.

2. Freedom of Religion

A considerable increase in violence against religious minorities was recorded during the year, with Hindu

communities in Balochistan facing some of the worst threats in their history. Though only Ahrnadis are

restricted under the law from practicing their religion, due to increased social intolerance, members of

all minority religious communities faced discrimination and harassment. In many cases, even

administrative efforts failed to rescue them from the wrath of communities within which they lived. In

other episodes the administration failed to make even an attempt to offer protection. In repeated

episodes, the places of worship of minorities were attacked. Frequently, the attacks appeared to have

been orchestrated by local clerics and extremists, who incited people to violence in previously peaceful

settlements. The fact that hundreds were forced during the year to flee their homes after facing


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persecution because of their religious beliefs alone reflected the state of religious tolerance in society.

There have been numerous other cases recently concerning the blasphemy laws, showing that freedom

of speech and expression of ideas are not complete in Pakistan.

D. CONCLUSION

The vacuum created by the military regime's strategy of discrediting and sidelining political parties and

their leaders was ideally suited to the orthodox clergy, and its militant formations took little time to

move into the space left behind as political parties were pushed away. In a series of alarming actions,

the clergy struck out fiercely against minority groups, especially the Ahmadi community, and non-

governmental organisations {NGOs), particularly those that tried to promote he rights of women. The

outpourings of vicious hatred from these clergymen, in direct violation of law, not surprisingly resulted

in numerous incidents of violence, harassment, and even cold- blooded murder. The fact the authorities

stood by as silent spectators indicated clearly that they were in fact colluding with the extremists against

those peacefully, and lawfully, practicing their beliefs or undertaking development work aimed at

uplifting communities.

The heightened violence and intolerance within society was also exhibited by the numerous cases of

blasphemy registered against individuals. In repeated instances this appeared to stem from disputes of

various kinds. The orthodox clergy took a minor administrative adjustment proposed by the government

in investigating cases of blasphemy, aimed at attempting to check precisely such misuse of the law, back

within weeks following pressure exerted.

Pakistan is a troubled country that is in the need of serious civil and human rights reform. The

government needs to take stronger measures to ensure the safety of women in public and in their own

homes. The government of Pakistan also needs to abide by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

that it had agreed to long ago. Women in Pakistan also must be treated as equals to men, and not as

being subservient. The police and the courts also need to be reformed to protect the rights of the

victims, and not let the guilty get away repeatedly. The children of Pakistan must also be protected for

they are the future of the country. They cannot be sentenced to death unless they are of age. and have

committed a legitimate capitol offense. In addition, the freedom of speech and religion must be

protected. The persecution of people for what they say and believe must stop. When these problemsare corrected, the country of Pakistan will surely be a better place to live for all, and will most likely

prosper in the years following the change.

SPEECH OF THE SENIOR VICE CHAIRPERSON


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ON

HUMAN RIGHTS DAY 2010

ATTHE INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON

RIGHT TO HEALTH DEVELOPMENT

Dear ladies & Gentlemen,

Human rights, which inhere in every human being by virtue of his birth as a member of the human

family are demands to protect our only common identity as human beings. These rights flow from the

common humanity and inherent dignity of every human being. No compromise with violations of the

same is permissible in any civilized society. These rights, which are non-negotiable, non-alienable,

indivisible and recognize an essential worth of a human being, are ethical norms for the treatment of

individuals. Human Rights are, thus, certain rights which have come to be recognized as basic conditions

of civilized living for full development of a human being. These are not the gifts conferred by the State

nor owe their existence to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 or even the Constitution of

Pakistan. They only confirm their existence and guarantee their protection.

The aim of human rights is empowerment of people through human development. These rights are

inter-dependent and inter-related and have a direct relationship with human development. Universality

of human rights demands eradication of global inequities and to achieve this end the importance of

Right to Development cannot, but, be emphasized. The wide global disparities in different parts of the

world are shown to be linked with varying levels of human development. Global disparities must be

minimized to ensure that the minimum needs of everyone throughout the world are met. Strategies

must be developed to achieve this result. It is only when the potential of all human beings is fully

realized that we can talk of true human development.

In 1948 when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted as a common standard of

achievement of all peoples and nations there were reservations by many State Governments. Virtually

all States shielded behind Article 2(7) of the UN Charter in arguing that human rights matter were

strictly an internal matter of the States concerned. This view today, mercifully, receives very little

credence from the International community which accepts universality of human rights all over.


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Due to reservations of State governments, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was not presented

to the General Assembly as a treaty for ratification which would be binding upon the signatory nations,

but an instrument to be endorsed as a statement of goals and aspirations a vision of the world as the

International community wanted it to become. The Declaration was adopted by an affirmative vote of48 member States and 8 abstentions. A UN Commission on Human Rights was set up. The Commissions

mandate was confined to the drafting of new treaties and other legal instruments. That Commission has

now been replaced by an elected Human Rights Council in May, 2006.

The Right to health has been enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights under Article 25

statingEveryone has a right to standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself

and his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and the right to security in the event

of sickness and disability. Healthcare is hence not merely a goal towards which a nation aspires but

rather it is an obligation of the State to the individual. It is a human right that needs to be protected and

assured.

The right to life includes the right to live with human dignity and all that goes with it, namely, the bare

necessaries of life such as adequate nutrition, clothing and shelter and facilities for reading, writing and

expressing oneself in diverse forms, freely moving about and mixing and commingling with fellow

human beings.

It needs to be realized that for any country to find its due place among the civilized nations the three

most important factors are: eradication of poverty, health care and education. Unfortunately, even after

more than half a century of independence, our country is only at the fringe on all the three counts. The

situation seems to be even more paradoxical when we have almost the largest force of technical

personnel in the world. Pakistani doctors have to their credit remarkable achievements as faculty

teachers and practitioners in some of the most advanced countries. They have helped set up hospitals

and health care in the developing countries and yet we find that health care facilities for our own

countrymen are far from satisfactory. This is a common lament which you and I as citizens of this

country share, for surely there is something fundamentally wrong with our national priorities. Doctors

blame infrastructure infrastructure cries for resources and the general helplessness percolates to theaverage citizen. It is in this context that I view the relevance and importance of holding this Conference.

Thoughtful and considered development of the infrastructure both at the stage of planning, designing

and implementing, keeping in view the needs of the health and medical care sector would go a long way

to use even the available resources in a more judicious manner to provide health and medical care to

the citizens of this country. Should the hospitals be not planned in a manner that all the felt needs of

providing quality heath care is achieved?


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The Millennium Development Goal lists specific targets to be achieved by year 2015: improvement of

reproductive health of women, reduction in IMR and MMR. To ensure that this resolve does not remain

just a rhetoric, the need is to bring in convergence of not only efforts of the Government but also active

role of Private sector, Civil societies.

It is necessary that Right to Health Care is not considered merely a welfare measure but is treated as a

basic human right to be guaranteed to every citizen. It would be, therefore, appropriate to have a

paradigm shift from welfare to a rights perspective in health care, as that would go a long way in

ensuring proper formulation and implementation of the policies by the Government, which both under

the International Instruments and Constitution of Pakistan , places an obligation on it to protect and

promote human rights of the citizens for their full development. Human development does not only

mean economic development but development of the personality of an individual so as to enable living

of life with dignity. Making human rights as the focal point is sine-qua non of good governance.

I would, therefore, like to emphasize to this august gathering of medical experts, planners and designers

of health care facilities that now the time has come to shift agenda from welfare approach to the

rights based approach in delivery of services for all the three essential components of health care

Accessibility; Availability and Affordability and if I may add proper and planned utility of the

infrastructure.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I hope that this international conference will deliver, discuss and advocate for

the adoption of a rights-based approach to strengthen public health infrastructure and all other steps

needed to realize the right to health care for everyone. Let Health for All not remainonly a distant

dream but become a reality.

Intro of Humanm Rights

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Transcript of Intro of Humanm Rights