Peace Society Worldwide

A Report : Human Rights Day Celebration, by Peace Society Worldwide

The Universal declaration of Human Rights was drafted between January 1947 and December 1948. Human Rights Day is being celebrated on 10^th December, each year since. This year, the focus is primarily on non-discrimination. “ Discrimination lies at the root of many of the world’s most pressing human rights problems. No country is immune from this scourge. Eliminating discrimination is a duty of the highest order”, has been aptly observed by Navi Pillay United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Human Rights established 60years ago as the basic premise of international human rights law utters the first few famous words “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”. Yet today, the fight against discrimination remains a daily struggle for millions around the globe. To make general mass more aware and conscious of  their rights, Peace Society Worldwide, a global civil organization for universal peace and harmony took a step to arrange a seminar in synchrony with UN’s Human Rights Day on 10^th December 2009 at The Open Center, 2/1A Dr. Rajendra Road, Kolkata-700020.

Many Eminent personalities were invited by the organization. The complete participants from the Honoured guests to the audience represented a conglomerate of varied fields and cross section of the society. Many highly reputed personalities responded to the request of Peace Society Worldwide and sent their valuable and treasured messages.

The program started at 4 PM as scheduled, with the ceremonious lighting of the lamp and was followed with presentation of flower bouquet to the guests as a mark of respect and thanks. 

Dr. Suresh Kumar Agarwal, President of Peace Society Worldwide, greeted  all warmly with his well articulated welcome speech. He emphasized on the significance Human Right and its proper implementation in present day world. He sited that the basic mental inertia that engulfs present social system is highly degradatory.

After the welcome speech Ms. Ushasi Mahapatra read out two highly treasured messages received from H.H Dalai Lama and Hon’ble Mr. Justice V. S. Sirpurkar, Ho’ble Judge of the Supreme Court of India. These messages set the tone or the evening right at the initiation of the event.

The Chief Guest for the day was Mr. Md Selim, Former M.P. of Govt. Of West Bengal and present Chairman West Bengal Minorities Development and Finance Corporation. He opined that though Human Rights is seen as a western concept but India from ages prehistoric had these values within its culture and it is something very much incorporated within its culture. He advocated for the feeling of acceptance of others rights and according to him the first and foremost task was awareness of rights since ignorance causes major violations.

Acharya Surajit Sengupta , an erudite scholar from U.S.A, gave a new dimension to the thought processes regarding Human Right. He emphasized that to proper implementation of Human Rights we need Right Humans. Proper education and awareness can create a person who is morally right and once a person is a right Human then he will restore Human Right automatically. His practical examples and powerful oratory gave a new vigor to the seminar.

Jain Munishri Mani Kumarji soothed the discussion with his compassionate and calm sharing of views. He sited small stories to make the audience understand the daily needs of compassion, tolerance and understanding in the path of achieving Human Rights which can not just be implemented but has to be incorporated. He emphasized the concern of the governing bodies needed in this task.

Dr. P. K. Mohanty, Former M.L.A. was the next to share his ideologies. He sited very situational examples of East Midnapore where majority of the population live on meager fooding and shelter, letting aside the concept of human rights. He opposed in strong words the discrimination that is practiced in the society through time very conveniently.

With the permission of the Chair Dr. S.K. Agarwal requested audiences to participate and put forward their views regarding the motion of the seminar. At this Advocate Mr. N.C. Samanta expressed his views through certain instances revealing how the political power struggle hampers the Human Rights of general people and how it affects the daily life of the society as a whole. He sited Swami Vivekananda and his lifelong journey against every barrier of caste and creed.

Next from the audience was Md. Abdul Rahaman. He joined the seminar from Karnataka. He discussed the concept of Human Right and proper social structure in light of Islam. He added a new flavor to the event by speaking in the Arabic language and reciting hymns from the Koran.

Dr. M.M Paik a well known professor of Philosophy the seminar was a strong initial step forward to work actively and eliminate the social discriminations from its very root.

The Chairman of the Seminar Hon’ble Mr. Justice Samir Kumar Mookherjee, Former Chief Justice of High Court of Calcutta gave his views. He has tasted the real life discriminations and violations of basic Human Rights through out his magnificent and enduring professional life. So he gave certain instances which reveals the vitiated social practices and degenerated human morals.

With this the end of the seminar drew towards closing, but with a strong impact on all the participants and a sublime promise of fighting the demons of society and reach a crest of proper human life.

At the end the Vote of thanks was given by Ms. Ushasi Mahapatra, on behalf of the Peace Society Worldwide family to all the participants, along with a light of hope thus enlightened within to spread across the world and light up the darks of discrimination and segregation.

The event saw a great cluster of participants, Dr. Jayasree Sarkar, Dr. Jiaul Hauque, Dr. Jahangir Mollah, Dr. Prakash Sanchetee, Dr. Ashit Chakraborty, Dr. Partho Mukherjee, Dr. Amarendra nath Das, Dr. Zubeir Ahmed Gadda, Dr. Arun Chatterjee, Mr. Dhiraj Singh, Dr. Ashoke Poddar, Dr. Prankrishna Pramanik, Dr. Ashim Chakraborty, Sarat Kumar Singh, Dr. C. Bhattacharya, Dr. Sayed Faruk, Dr. Fairoz Khan, Dr. Md. Arif, Dr. Sideek, Dr. M.M.Paik, Dr. Sudhakar Reddy R, Bankim Chandra Dutta, Dulal Bhattacharya, Pran Ballab Das, Dr. Taniya Chatterjee, Dr. Pujari Prabhu Debaru, S S Pal, Dilip Seal, Rana Datta, Chandan Das, Naba Kumar Pal, Shekhar Dey, Sanjay Pal, Sangita Das, Madhusree Banerjee, Souvik Mitra, Deep Roy, Aindrila Chandra, Dr.P Mukherjee, Arijit Halder, Papia Mandal., Sujit Kumar Agarwal, Bama Prasad Dey, Sabita Agarwal, Samir Das, Arpita Banerjee, Sambhu Pradhan, Swapan Mukherjee.

This event was jointly convened by Mr. Sushil Agarwal, Mr. Amrita Sil and Ms. Ushasi Mahapatra.