Chief justice of Manipur High Court Siddharth Mridul on Thursday asserted that the rights of the indigenous people have been ignored for too long and must be addressed properly by all institutions.
“Peace can only be ushered when the rights of all individuals are given respect and upheld by all institutions,” he said.
He was speaking at the observation of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination at Imphal Hotel, North AOC, organised by the Manipur Human Rights Commission (MHRC).
The chief justice emphasised that it was the utmost duty of all institutions, be it judiciary or the human rights commission, to ensure the rights of all people are given their full flow, especially the indigenous rights.
“Human rights is something that everybody is born with and we must not permit anyone to take it away,” he said.
He also highlighted that it was human nature to oppress people we have power over and added that we must draw a stringent line to tackle such misuse of authority and power.
“Power is exercised in many forms be it military, emotional, psychological, cultural or others,” he said.
He further noted that human beings had the tendency to divide based on ethnicities, race, caste, religion, colour and many more.
As such he called upon all people to celebrate these differences instead of scrutinizing them and creating gaps.
When the rights of every man are diminished, the rights of individuals are threatened, he added.
He questioned how long the people will keep blaming the colonial past for the division and asked if it was necessary to keep continuing the division and hatred they spewed forward.
The differences are man-made. Instead we must strive to create a more cohesive and peaceful world, he said.
The prizes for the debate competition held in connection with ‘Human Rights Week’ were also distributed to the winners of the competition.
MHRC chairperson UB Saha, MHRC member Kangjam Khagendra and advocate general Hijam Lenin among others also attended the observance.
