To celebrate World Human Rights Day-2020, Right to Peace (R2P) organized a webinar on December 8, 2020, titled “Human Rights for Peace”, based on this year’s theme- “Recover Better- Stand Up for Human Rights”.Right to Peace (R2P) convened the discussion in cooperation with Human Rights Disability and Development Foundation (HDDF), Human Rights Development Centre (HRDC), and Voluntary Association for Family Welfare and Social Development.
The Honorary Chief Patron of Right to Peace, Dr. Saber Ahmed Chowdhury gave the welcome speech in the webinar. The respective guest speakers from different organizations were Mohammad Rajib Sheikh, Chairman, Human Rights Disability and Development Foundation (HDDF); Mahbul Haque, Secretary-General, Human Rights Development Centre (HRDC) and Rucita Bhowmik, Program Officer, Voluntary Association for Family Welfare and Social Development. The program was moderated by Sadia Tamanna, the Vice President of Right to Peace.
In his Opening Statement, Dr. Saber Ahmed Chowdhury welcomed the respective guest speakers from different organizations and talked about the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights. He not only praised NGOs’ hard work in promoting Human Rights but also expected proper Governmental support to upholdit. Admiring the contributions of human rights organizations, Mr. Chowdhury suggested for them to implya holistic approach engaging from the individual to the organizational level. He also stressed the importance of working together.
Moderator Sadia Tamanna put forth two key issues to the panelists that came from the audience -respective organizations’ process of work, the obstacles they face, and their planto continue protecting and promoting human rights, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Respective speakers shared their valuable experiences and opinions in this regard. In his valuable speech, Chairman of Human Rights Disability and Development Foundation (HDDF), Mohammad Rajib Sheikh stated that the most disadvantaged people in society are the disabled people. As his organization collected funds to help those disadvantaged people, many without the special disability card were unable to receive help. He also addressed the lack of accessibility and reasonable accommodation that was highly needed for disabled people, especially in this COVID-19 situation.
In his response to a question about the expectations of the society about its role for the betterment of the disabled people, Rajib Sheikh said, “We expect the government to make sure ‘3’ important factors- the recognition of a disabled person as a human being, equal rights and equal civilian rights for them”. He also emphasized the ‘Safeguarding’ policy which would ensure the security of women and children.
On the other hand, Mahbul Haque talked about Universal Human Rights. He discussed about building awareness of people about their human rights and expected that proper governmental action would be taken for the violation of those rights.Mahbul Haque said, “We have to know about three things: when human rights are being violated, how much human rights are being violated, and how we can protect human rights.” He introduced three levels through which human rights can be promoted and protected: individual-level, educational institution level, and cultural level.
“There are many policies out there but there is little implementation of them”- said Rucita Bhowmik in her answer about the plan to upholdhuman rights. She talked about the necessity of youth development to ensure the prosperity of a country. She also expressed concern abouttheconcerning issues of violence against women and children and the increasing rate in this COVID-19 situation. And she gave importance to the knowledge of human rights by saying “Though Government has to take proper measures, we, people, have to be aware of our human rights.”
All the volunteers of R2P and members from other organizations and people from different parts of the country have joined the webinar session. At the end of the event, the respective speakers answered the questions of the audience and inspired them to play an important role to ensure human rights.
Right to Peace (R2P) is an organization of youth with the vision of promoting and protecting human rights. With the aim of a socially aware and developed society, R2P organized a campaign for dengue awareness in March 2020 and distributed clothes. For the lower-income people who had been suffering from the COVID-19 crisis, R2P initiated a ‘Ramadan Peace Campaign’ and collected funds and bought groceries for the people in need. It also organized two online sessions titled ‘Mental Peace Awareness for Youth’ and ‘Dialogue for Peace’.
Recently, Right to Peace initiateda month-long ‘Tree Plantation Campaign’ and got a good response from the volunteers all over the country. Now, they are conductingthe second ‘Cloth Distribution Campaign’ to make sure all people can keep themselves warm in winter.
