Faisalabad: December 13, 2010. (By Suneel Malik) On 8th December 2010, a public forum on the theme “Human Rights and Marginalized Groups” to mark international human rights day was jointly organized by Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM), Peace and Human Development (PHD), Liaison for Enforcement of Human Rights (LEHR) and Lyallpur Development Organization (LDO). Naseem Anthony (Executive Secretary-AWAM), Dr. Jaffar Hassan Mubarak, George Clement (Director-LEAP), Sr. Nasreen Daniel (Coordinator-PCWO), Syed Mujahid Hussain Gillani Advocate, Shazia George, Nazia Sardar, Iftikhar Ahmad and Arif Ayaz were among speakers of the forum. Naseem Anthony said, “The discrimination on different grounds is the root cause of conflicts in Pakistan, which causes violence in the society.” “Government must take steps to root out intolerance, inequality and injustice, and to ensure rule of law and equal human rights, for culminating class division and deprivation among marginalized groups,” he added. Jaffar Hassan Mubarak said, “All prophets and saints are role models for human beings, because they have disseminated the message of peace and respect for humanity, but their followers are practicing contrary to the teaching of the religions due to duplicity in their words and deeds, which is hypocrisy.” “The culture of human rights and peace is possible in Pakistan if all citizens start respecting humanity despite having different beliefs and strive for the progress of the country,” he added. George Clement said, “Inflation has a link with human rights whereas alliance of influential people (industrialists and politicians) is the main reason behind the persistent increase in inflation in Pakistan, because they create artificial shortage of food items in the market and then sell the items on their desired rates to maximize profit.” “Since elite class has a strong coalition, therefore inflation will not stop unless un-privileged class makes a strong union against privileged class,” he added. Sr. Nasreen Daniel said, “There are discriminatory laws and inhuman traditions in the name of culture and religion, which frequently victimize women, therefore Government must demonstrate its seriousness towards women’s rights by revoking such discriminatory laws (Hudood Ordinance, Law of Evidence, Citizenship Act, Qisas and Diyat Ordinance and Custody of children) and outmoded customary practices (honour killing, vani, burying women alive, domestic violence, early or forced or exchange marriages).” Syed Mujahid Hussain Gillani said, “Human rights violations are on the rise in Pakistan due to poor implementation of laws for the defense of human rights.” “Since human rights cell is set up by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in order to provide an expeditious and inexpensive remedy in matters relating to infringements of basic rights, therefore public must be acquainted with human rights and they must adopt effective means and ways to prevent human rights violations,” he added. Shazia George said, “Government must ensure firm enforcement of all policies and laws especially quota in education and jobs for people with disabilities, should devise policies and schemes for them in accordance with their share in the total population of Pakistan, and must ratify UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (CRPD) for addressing their problems and needs.” Nazia Sardar said, “Govt. should make certain the implementation on existing laws for the protection of women, should create new legislation to combat all forms of violence against women, and must ensure proper implementation on the UN convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW).” Arif Ayaz said, “Government must take affirmative actions in order to guarantee minimum monthly salary for all workers as declared by the government, should acknowledge workers working in informal sectors (home based workers, domestic workers, peasant workers) as labourers in labour codes, and must ratify ILO convention 177 for the protection of rights of such workers.” Iftikhar Ahmad said, “The division among human beings on the basis of class, creed, gender, caste, colour and ethnicity, is humiliation of humanity.” “All citizens must be treated and acknowledged equal, because abolition of biases, access to justice and respect for human rights, is imperative for creating peaceful and just society,” he added. At this juncture, the speakers of the forum for the improvement in the situation of human rights of marginalized groups demanded that: Judiciary must give priority to the cases of poor people over influential people in order to ensure easy access to justice for majority of people in Pakistan; Government must withdraw its support for corrupt elements and must take strict action against all influential people and institutions, and must increase the national reserves by recovering money from the possession of corrupt elements; Government must enforce direct tax on politicians, bureaucrats, landlords and industrialists instead of imposing indirect tax on the public through reformed general sales tax (RGST), for alleviating poverty and inflation, and for providing relief to the general public; Government should ensure safety and security of shrines and worship places belonging to different faiths for the promotion of religious and sectarian harmony, and must introduce amendment in the blasphemy laws through unanimity among all stakeholders, in order to avoid misuse of such laws for vested interests.