Human Rights Day celebrations: Time to expand concept of justice to include environment, says President Murmu

The President said “the challenge of climate change is so enormous that it forces us to redefine rights”.

Murmu recalled the Uttarakhand High Court’s recent observation that “Ganga and Yamuna rivers have the same legal rights as human beings”, adding “why stop at only two rivers?”

“India is a land of sacred geography, with countless holy lakes, rivers and mountains. To these landscapes, the flora and fauna add rich biodiversity. In old times, our sages and seers saw them all as part of a universal whole, along with us. So, just as the concept of human rights exhorts us to consider every human being as no different from us, we should treat the whole living world and its habitat with respect,” she said.

The President said humanity has trampled the rights of animals, trees and rivers for long. “We must learn – rather re-learn – to treat nature with dignity. This is not only a moral duty; let us remember it is necessary for our own survival too.”

The President said that “developing sensitivity and sympathy is the key to promoting human rights”.

This, she said “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 will open our eyes and compel us to do the needful…Treat others as you would like them to treat you…”

Addressing the event, NHRC Chairperson Justice Arun Mishra stressed the need to enact a Uniform Civil Code to ensure that women are not discriminated against.

“We see discrimination against women worldwide due to social, customary and religious practices. The time has come to take care of the same by enacting legislative provisions to remove discrimination in inheritance, property rights, parental rights, domicile of married women, and legal capacity…They cannot be made to suffer discrimination and gender violence for eternity. Without providing dignity and equal right to them, a celebration of the day is meaningless. The Supreme Court has shown the way for equality by progressive interpretations. Article 44 of the Constitution, enabling equality by enacting a common civil code should not remain a dead letter,” he said.

Justice Mishra also stressed how rights and duties are interlinked. “The fundamental right to live with human dignity carries responsibility and discipline constitutionally envisaged in Article 51A. Performing duties is a prerequisite for claiming rights — every right springs from a commitment to duty,” he said.