Mumbai Smiles celebrates International Human Rights Day!

December 10, each year is celebrated as the International Human Rights Day, and as mentioned in our earlier blog, at Mumbai Smiles, with the newly launched Human Rights based Advocacy project of JUMP2justice, we celebrated this important, yet uncommonly celebrated day to commemorate its importance.

The theme selected for the event was “Contemporary Human Rights Issues and its Solutions”.

After the address from the Founder of Mumbai Smiles Foundation, Mr. Jaume Sanllorente and the Executive Director India, Mrs. Alpa Chauhan, the Guest Speaker, Prof. Jaymangal Dhanraj, Principal of Dr. Ambedkar Law College delivered a short lecture on the same, followed by an intellectually stimulating panel discussion by eminent representatives of different domains:

(Left to Right)

• Law perspective: Adv. Ashfaq Quereshi, Council, High Court
• Human Rights Activist: Mr. Yogesh Kamdar, Co-founder of PUCL and Course Head, Journalism, Xavier Institute of Communications
• Health perspective: Dr. Mini Khetarpal, Deputy Executive of Health, BMC
• Media perspective: Mr. Niranjan Narayana Swamy, Senior Journalist

An important session of the event was the launch of the posters of Human Rights and Child Rights, which was also given to each of the guests of the event.

Some of the light activities of the evening included a short play by the students of Sandesh Vidyalaya on how to create and sustain a healthy environment and fulfill our duties towards the protection of Right to Good Health, and also an Awareness song on what the responsibilities are of all of us as citizens to enjoy the Rights provided to us by the Constitution.

With the overall understanding that, to enjoy the Rights provided to us by our Constitution, we must also fulfill our duties towards it at each individual’s level, and a promise to do our best to stand up for at least ONE person’s Rights in the coming year, the event ended on an extremely positive note!