NGO Coalition on Human Rights chair Shamima Ali says governments don’t like human rights.
Speaking at the World Human Rights Day celebration in Suva today, Ms Ali said governments were forced to align themselves to human rights.
“Because dictatorship is so easy, so easy,” she said.
“You know just become the most powerful person in the world and do whatever people, do your bidding.
“It’s nice, isn’t it, nobody questions you.”
She said this placed the responsibility on the civil societies to find allies in government and demand human rights.
“And we must fight for this every single day as those of us who are in the human rights arena, we know it is every single day we fight for it.
“It involves us recognizing that there are still people in this country who are not safe in their own homes, especially the women and the girls, and the children, not safe in their own homes.
“They’re hungry, homeless, and treated differently because of their race, gender, or social status and they are not free because of that.”
Ms Ali urged everyone to commit themselves to making sure that everybody was free and had equal opportunities.
“We don’t have all our human rights all the time, but we must strive for that, what we don’t have.”
