NHRC's seminar on good governance, human rights tomorrow

The NHRC will hold a two-day national seminar on good governance and human rights starting tomorrow.
It comes at a time when issues such as the deaths of children at a hospital in Gorakhpur and planned deportation of Rohingyas have hogged headlines.
Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) justice (retd) H L Dattu will deliver the inaugural address, while Home Minister Rajnath Singh will deliver the presidential address at the opening session at the Teen Murti Bhawan here, a senior NHRC official said.
Over 70 children had died within a few days in early August at the state-run BRD Medical College in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, sparking an outcry.

The issue of Rohingya Muslims continues to be a matter of raging debate, with the Centre telling the Supreme Court in an affidavit on September 18 that these refugees were "illegal" and their presence in the country would pose a "serious" national security threat.
Incidentally, the NHRC had last month issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on the Gorakhpur incident and to the Union Home Ministry on the issue of Rohingyas, who had fled their homes in Myanmar.

"The NHRC has been consistently highlighting any issue related to the promotion and protection of human rights. Good governance and development are the two such issues. The Commission is striving for being a catalyst to achieve good governance and sustainable development in the country, which may not be relevant without protection to human rights," the rights panel said in a statement today.

The seminar is divided into five technical sessions and these will be chaired by NHRC members and addressed as well as attended by different domain experts and top government functionaries from the Centre, state governments and Union Territories, it said.
The discussion will focus on areas such as the role of media in civil society in promoting good governance and human rights, discerning indicators of good governance, service delivery mechanism and measures to enhance transparency and accountability, the official said.
The event is the culmination of three regional workshops organised by the Commission on the subject in Shillong (Meghalaya), in Bangalore (Karnataka) and in Chandigarh (Punjab) respectively in order to discuss, among various stake holders, the different aspects related to good governance in the north-eastern region, the southern region and the northern region of the country.

"The seminar will also provide a platform to discuss challenges in the way of good governance, identify them and devise ways to deal with them," he said.