International Human Rights Day

A Online Guest Lecture was organized by School of Law, IMS Unison University, on the occasion of Human Rights Day, on the theme “Concept of Human Rights: Norms and Practices”. This theme was chosen after much deliberation on the changing dynamics of the relationship between the norms and the practices of human rights in the present times. The event was organized under the acumen ship of Prof. Gautam Sinha, Honorable Vice Chancellor, IMS Unison University, Dehradun. The event was organized and executed under the able convenorship of Prof. (Dr.) R. N. Sharma, Dean, School of Law, IMS Unison University. After the address of the Vice Chancellor and Dean School of Law, a short audio visual presentation was made and played by the final year students of School of Law, which informed the participants regarding the evolution, development and the current status of human rights.

We were very fortunate to have with us, Prof (Dr.) B.L. Sharma, Former Vice Chancellor of Deen Dayal Upadhyay Shekhawati University, Sarguja University, Rajasthan University and Bhavnagar University, as our Guest Speaker. He initiated the session by focusing on the concept of Human Rights. According to him, norms include a comprehensive set of rights founded on jurisprudential norms. He very eloquently explained the equation between the right holder i.e. the Individual and the right obligator i.e. the State and explained that the said Rights and resulting Obligations should be of legal nature and not of spiritual, ethical or moral nature. After explaining the concept of human rights norms, he elaborately talked about the reasons why human rights cannot be a static set of norms but has to be dynamic at all times. The changing needs of the changing world is the major reason why we can never consider a specific set of rights to be the human rights engraved in stone.

He illustrated how various documents does not represent the entire range of human rights that needs to be enforced for the proper protection of rights of the people. According to him, Universal Declaration of Human Rights which was adopted as a tool or a means and method to protect and promote human rights, also does not embody a comprehensive list of human rights. there are various provisions in the text of the document which require revisiting and re-evaluation. He then praised the Protection of Human Rights Act 1993 regarding the definition of Human Rights included in it as being the best in the current times, because it incorporates in it, the basic norms of Human Rights i.e. Life, Liberty, Equality and Dignity.

The Guest Speaker then discussed the prevalent trend of having separate set of human rights for different categories of persons. He talked about how these separate rights evolved not because of the different categories to which these people belong to but because of the different social situations these people are subjected to. It is their varied social narratives that makes it important for the human rights regime to take special consideration to their specific needs.  

Further, the Guest Speaker raised concerns regarding the rampant human rights violations that have been witnessed by the world in the current times. He discussed how the lack of proper understanding of the human rights norms has given rise to the gap between the norms and the practices. It is of paramount importance that the human race understands all the elements and the norms of human rights before effectively implementing them. On this note the Guest Speaker concluded his address. After which the vote of thanks was given by Ms. Ayushi Bisht.

The Moderators of the event were Ms. Sakshee Sharma and Ms. Ayushi Bisht, Assistant Professor, School of Law.