Commemoration of Human Rights Day -2023 

Chandigarh, December 10, 2023: The Centre for Human Rights and Duties, Panjab University, Chandigarh as part of commemoration of Human Rights Day -2023 organised series of activities. 

As part of the celebrations on the United Nation’s Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights declared theme for the Human Rights Day 2023 i.e. “Equality, Freedom and Justice for All” an Human Rights Outreach Program was organised on December 8, 2023 at Village Masol, situated in District SAS, the adopted village of the Centre wherein Legal Aid Camp , Workshop on Know Your Rights for School Children at Primary School, Masol and distribution of dignity kits  for school children were organised. The legal aid camp was led by the student team of the Centre comprising Shubham, Ms. Kavita, Ms. Parul , Gurdeep Singh, Guneet Singla, Gurpinderjit Singh and Gurnoordeep. Around 50 villagers both men and women attended the camp. Dr. Upneet Kaur Mangat, Chairperson , Centre for Human Rights and Duties informed that during the legal aid camp the grievances of the villagers were noted down which were primarily lack of dispensary , lack of water supply in village, lack of transport leading to safety concern of girl students walking to nearby village for their secondary education and other matters. Their issues would be forwarded to  Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC) and Punjab State Legal Service Authority (PULSA) for further intervention. The ‘Know Your Rights Workshop’ was led by Dr. Kanika Sharma and Manavjit Singh Malik and the students were apprised “What is Good and Bad Touch”. Thereafter, the school kids also showcased their talent by cultural performance and dignity kits were distributed to them.

A webinar was also organised on December 10thi.e. Human Rights Day. The guest speaker of the Webinar was Colin Gonsalves, Senior Advocate , Supreme Court of India ; Founder , Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) and Recipient of Right to Livelihood Award -2017. The topic of webinar was ‘ Recent Supreme Court Decisions on Human Rights’ . He discussed the role of judiciary in dealing with human rights cases and also encouraged students to do critical analysis of judgments. The webinar was well attended by students, faculty, and research scholars from across the university.