By Anjuman Ara Begum, TwoCircles.net,
Guwahati: Ms. Margaret Sekaggya, United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Situation of Human Rights Defenders, interacted with human rights defenders of North-eastern states here today. While interacting with the visiting UN official, the regional activists discussed the situation of human rights defenders including women activists in the region.
At the end of the two-hour discussion, which was not open to the media, a the participants submitted with the official a written representation on their situation.
At the beginning of the consultation meeting, the Special Rapporteur
offered thanks to the human rights activists of the region and promised to make recommendations to the government of India based on
the interactions. The venue of the consultation was originally planned for Kolkata which was later shifted to Guwahati to facilitate more human rights defenders to take part in the consultation. This was the first ever visit of any UN official of the rank of Special Rapporteur in this region.
About 50 human rights defenders from all the north eastern states including Manipur, Assam, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland attended the Regional Consultation for Human Rights Defender from North Eastern states held at the conference hall of Don Bosco Institute of Kharghuli, Jaypur, Guwahati.
Margaret Sekaggya, a lawyer from Uganda, was appointed Special Rapporteur in March 2008 by the UN Human Rights Council. She is independent from any Government and serves in her individual capacity.
Margaret Sekaggya is on a 10-day visit to the country ‘to evaluate in
person, in an objective and impartial manner, the situation of human
rights defenders in the country, and to initiate a process of
constructive cooperation with the authorities’.