On the occasion of the United Nations World Human Rights Day 2020, School of Political Science and School of Visual Communication, Kumaraguru College of Liberal Arts and Science, Coimbatore in association with GSDS organized a virtual workshop on UN Human Rights on the theme “Recover Better: Stand Up for human Rights” on December 10, 2020. The keynote address was delivered by Lordship Justice K. G. Balakrishnan, former Chief Justice of India and former Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India.
In his address, Justice Balakrishnan spoke about the history of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and also its various articles. He observed how the basic principles of human rights were an intrinsic aspect of the Indian Constitution right from its outset, and how that allows for greater freedom of the Indian citizen in matters like judicial rights. He recalled his time as the chairman of the NHRC and the processes that enabled implementation of his commission’s recommendations for the benefit of various states. Stating that the Covid-19 pandemic requires human rights to ensure stability, he emphasized the need for governmental authorities to focus on creating solutions that cater to the common man’s problems that go beyond the primary concern of health. He concluded with the four basic human rights – life, liberty, equality and fraternity – the four pillars of the UDHR.
To promote awareness about Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Declaration, KCLAS Coimbatore conducted three competitions for school and college students, the prizes for which were announced by the Chief Guest during the live programme. The winning entries were also screened. The poster-making competitions were on the themes “Gender Equality” and “Women Empowerment”, the 2000-word essay competition was on the theme “Recover Better: Stand Up for Human Rights” and the 2-minute short video presentation competition was on the theme “Child Rights Awareness”. The participation for this competition was from students of 92 cities/towns/villages, from 23 states of India.
A special video by Team KCLAS was also screened, which had been prepared for the UNHR website that listed all 30 articles of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. The event was streamed live on the Facebook and YouTube pages of KCLAS.