Civil society launches media guide to human rights
The HRCP vice-chairperson demanded the government to review its economics and foreign policies and implement all the international commitments it had made. PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI: Civil society representatives launched on Sunday a ‘media guide’ for journalists to encourage use of human rights lens in their reporting keeping in view the country’s present circumstances.
The nine-page Urdu guide reads about the state of human rights, laws guarding them, efficiency of the state watchdogs and suggestions on how the system could be improved.
The speakers, including Asad Iqbal Butt of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Zahid Farooq of Urban Resource Centre and Muhammad Rafique of Democracy Reporting International (DRI), opined over the launch of this guide that media plays an important role in shaping the minds of its audience and readers.
Sharing the statistics of human rights violations, Butt urged media to create awareness among people, especially the stakeholders like traders and labourers about the Generalized System of Preference Plus (GSP+) status awarded by the European Union to the country.
He said that the award was only seen for its business benefits that most of the products made in the country could reach Europe on very low, or zero, tariffs. However, very little was mentioned on what others things the government was asked to implement in return to foster this agreement, he added.
The HRCP vice-chairperson demanded the government to review its economics and foreign policies and implement all the international commitments it had made.
DRI’s advocacy expert Rafique pointed out that the country had ratified a number of international human rights treaties and their compliance was necessary. He said that in the GSP+ status, the country committed to comply with the 27 international treaties but their full-fledged compliance was yet to be made.
Original news : http://tribune.com.pk/story/1153173/civil-society-launches-media-guide-human-rights/