The President of India, Droupadi Murmu, on the occasion of Human Rights Day said that developing sensitivity and sympathy is the key to promoting Human Rights.

Gracing and addressing the celebration organised by the National Human Rights Commission in New Delhi, the President said that it is an important occasion for the whole of humankind, as it was on this day in 1948 that the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Righst (UDHR).

President Murmu said that although the text of the UDHR has been translated into more than 500 languages, “when we consider the sad developments that keep taking place in many parts of the world, we wonder if the declaration has been read at all in some of those languages. The fact remains that human rights are a work in progress around the world.”

A press release from the President’s Secretariat read, “The President said that developing sensitivity and sympathy is the key to promoting human rights. It is essentially an exercise of the faculty of imagination. If we can imagine ourselves in the place of those who are treated as less than human, it would open our eyes and compel us to do the needful. There is a so-called ‘golden rule’, which says “Treat others as you would like them to treat you”. That sums up the human rights discourse beautifully.”

“The President noted that today is the beginning of the worldwide, year-long celebrations of the 75 years of the UDHR. And the United Nations has chosen ‘Dignity, Freedom and Justice for All’ as the theme of the year 2022. She said that over the past few years, the world has suffered from a high number of natural disasters caused by unusual weather patterns. Climate change is knocking on the doors. People in the poorer nations are going to pay a heavier price for the degradation of our environment. We must consider the environmental dimension of justice now,” it added.