Attendees of the Anna Lindh Lecture 2011 got to know Hina Jilani, a Pakistani Human Rights Defender, and her perspective on the “Protection of Human Rights in Situations of crisis”.
Hina Jilani is a small woman with short hair and glasses. She knows how to raise her voice – as lawyer, as Human Right Defender, and as special guest of the Anna Lindh Lecture, which was held on Wednesday in the University Hall of Lund.
This lecture is organised every year by UPF and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute to remember Anna Lindh, the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs that was killed by a knife attack on September 11th 2003. She, among others, was responsible for Human Rights policy.
In her speech, emphasised the need and importance of people who are standing up for Human Rights.
– Without Human Right Defenders, the population would be more vulnerable and the United Nations less equipped.
But the Defenders often become the target of threats. The majority of activists in political unstable countries are threatened by illegal armed groups or even by their own governments. Crises like economic instability, natural hazards and food shortages are worsening the abuses on Human Rights and security regulations. Hina Jilani is in the Supreme Court of Pakistan and was Special Representative of the UN Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders from 2000 to 2008. To the question on how to “constitute security for Human Right Defenders,” she answered:
– Networks are providing protection, not a chair at the United Nations. Governments should provide every opportunity to create local, regional, national and international networks for the protection of Human Rights Defenders.
Tonight Jan Öberg, Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, will hold a related lecture to the topic: “Peace is so much more than the absence of war”. UPF will invite him to SOL:s lecture hall at 7pm.
