Stand up to human rights violators—APM
President Peter Mutharika on Thursday urged Malawians to guarantee human rights and freedoms to all citizens, especially by standing up to all those who violate other people’s rights.
The President was speaking when he led the nation in commemorating the International Human Rights Day at Masintha ground in Lilongwe.
Mutharika also walked a short distance to the venue, capping a 10-kilometre Solidarity March that involved thousands of placard-waving and colourfully-dressed people who had walked from the Malawi Human Rights Commission (MHRC) offices through Mchesi and Kawale townships in Lilongwe.
MHRC, the taxpayer funded human rights watchdog, facilitated the march designed to civic educate the public on the importance of the day. The Malawi Police Service (MPS) brass band led the march, resplendent with more than 50 placards bearing pro-human rights messages.
In his remarks, Mutharika said: “Our gathering on this day should make us remember to dignify humanity. Let us rise above our differences and focus on the things that matter most to our human existence.
“Let us rise beyond our differences to remember that we are born equal with dignity and worth. Every human life is as worthy as any other. And think of the other person as human first and foremost.”
The President said the evils depicted by the Second World War and the massacre of Jews decades ago should keep everyone on guard against hatred and other excesses which can destroy societal values and human rights.
Mutharika encouraged Malawians to strive to balance and moderate their quest for rights and freedoms with duty and obligations to themselves, others and to the nation, as guided by the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights.
Earlier, Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs Samuel Tembenu called for dialogue between government and civil society organisations (CSOs) in tackling challenges towards the promotion of legal and social mechanisms to benefit citizens.
He assured the people that the Access to Information (ATI) Bill will be tabled after some issues are cleaned up and ‘inconsistencies’ are removed.
Government is under fire for allegedly dragging its feet in tabling the legislation in Parliament and critics pinpoint this matter as proof of the subtle human rights violations perpetrated by this regime and two others before it over the past decade since the need for the Bill emerged.
Media owners and managers recently dared government to make public the so-called “inconsistencies’ in the Bill while the European Union (EU) and the World Bank have included ATI Bill among 20 conditionalities to be fulfilled for them to resume direct budget support to Malawi.
Government has indicated that the ATI Bill will be passed by March 31 2016. However, there have been similar deadlines before that have not been met. n
