Dharamshala: The workshop on Human Rights and UN System was conducted by Dr. Bobbi Nassar who represents International Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers (IFS) at the United Nations since 1991. She has served on the executive committee of the NGO Committee on Human Rights since 1997 and currently serves as Co-Chair.
Dr. Nassar is a mental health clinician and has been since 1969. She has worked with the refugee communities for the past 36 years. This work has included providing counseling to survivors of torture, human rights training, and leadership development.
She is currently on the board of South Asian Council for Social Services (SACSS) and is a Senior Adviser for International Center for Advocates Against Discrimination (ICAAD).
A total of 11 participants were present for the workshop, 8 from DIIR and 3 staff members from Tibet Policy Institute.
The main objective of the workshop is to provide a better understanding on the subject of human rights and the UN system to the CTA staff gathered.
The UN system and how it functions, introduction of Special Procedures Mandate Holders and Universal Declaration of Human Rights were key topics talked about in the workshop.
Some of the participants gathered there were from Tibet and they shared their troublesome plight to the audience. The experiences shared by the staff gathered there described in particular the blatant violation of Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Movement, Freedom of Education and Human rights as a whole.
Questions based on whether the UN Nations functioned as a hypocrisy and what UN can do to help with the Tibet cause were also discussed about in the workshop.
“One of the biggest challenges we face today is about finding out ways to get the word into Tibet”, said Dr. Nassar. Promoting the Tibet cause through indigenous people and through environment and development desk of the DIIR were also discussed in the workshop.
-Report filed by UN & HR desk, DIIR-