1. Overview of the point discussion
Human rights are the rights that each person on our Planet is given just because he or she is a human being. Those rights are universal and listed down in a document called Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However the real implementation of Universal Declaration of Human Rights is still questionable. There are people who disagree with the practice of human rights in different countries and vice versa. Our panel discussion focused on the points where all the panellists disagreed with the implementation of human rights in different countries and, moreover, we believe that the universal human rights are being violated by some governments.
2. The process
On June 4, 2013 five students voluntarily formed a group for a panel discussion. Nurul Afiqah volunteered to be a moderator and the rest four panellists – Kanykei Nurkamil Kyzy, Siti Nor Azimah, Nasibahon Ashranova and myself, Nurzhamal Saparova, have agreed on that. The next task was to choose a topic. Panellists had a hot discussion where all the members shared their ideas. The topics proposed were ‘Empowering women in different countries’, ‘The roles of NGO’s in Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Malaysia and Uzbekistan’ and many others. We faced some agreements and disagreements among the group members. For example, some members did not support some of the proposed topics because they were not confident with the sufficiency of their knowledge regarding the issue. Finally, we listened to each others’ opinions and came to one decision. Our topic for the panel discussion was chosen to be “The implementation of Universal Declaration of Human Rights” as agreed by all members.
The next step was to draw an outline for the panel discussion. The points of speakers were spoken out and the moderator together with the four panellists drew a draft outline.
Once the outline was done, panellists went through some internet and library research in order to find a support to their points. Let me describe the points made by each panellist in more details. The first panellist, Siti Nor Azimah argues that the right of freedom of expression and religion and the right to freedom of association and assembly are violated by government of Malaysia. She supports her points with factual evidences that look very persuasive. However, Azimah does not forget to mention the activities of NGOs that were supported by the government as well. The second panellist, Kanykei Nurkamil Kyzy talks about the violation of Article 26 in Human Rights Declaration by governments of many countries where it is stated that everyone should have a right to free elementary education. She highlights the bad effects of illiteracy on peoples’ personal lives and the economy of a country itself, too. The third panellist, Nasibahon Ashranova was not able to proceed with the real panel discussion as she urgently had to leave to her country. As a last fourth panellist, I, Nurzhamal Saparova, talk about the violation of universal human rights by governments. With examples of death penalty and the situation of Tibet I show that the right to life, right to property and many other human rights are violated by State. I bring out the issue where governments instead of protecting human rights go against them. So, by the end all of the members came to conclusion that Human Rights Declaration is not being implemented fully in many countries of the world, moreover, they are being violated by the important institutions such as government itself.
3. The Implementation
In my opinion, the panel discussion itself went very well. We tried our best to make it live and useful for each and every person. We have prepared ourselves before so that we use our time given to discussion effectively. I will not say that everything went perfect, because if I say so it will mean that we have reached the final destination. We have not reached it and we need to seek for perfection every time, so that we keep moving on and rising to higher and higher levels.
4. Learning/Reflection of the Panel Discussion
Even though it was not my first time, I felt nervousness and fear before and during the panel discussion. I, personally, believe that those feelings should exist in some extent as they give you a push to do your job well and keep the hard work until the good result is achieved. When you have those feelings you remember about the responsibility that you have on your shoulders and realize that it is you who has to carry them out. Fear and nervousness exist until you start speaking in front of an audience. Once I started my speech I forgot about any feelings and I was fully concentrated on what I was delivering to audience. It was important for me to try to express my mind to people in a simple and clear way. My speech was short, fast. I was relieved and hoped that I could make those people who were listening to me see the image in the way I see them. Fear and nervousness do not exist anymore. They are gone. You feel release, confidence, and satisfaction. However, at the end of each panel discussion new issues arise by the questions from the audience. In our case, there were just two questions raised and our panellist Kanykei managed to answer them. I should not forget to mention that the topic we have chosen seemed extremely interesting and I look forward to further research.
5. Conclusion
In this panel discussion we searched, found, talked, and shared the knowledge about the issue of Human Rights Declarations’ implementation in everyday life in contemporary world. We have gained knowledge, learned to do research, make our stand in arguments, work in team, listen to others’ opinions, make a collective decision, speak in front of people, handle questions and many other useful things that definitely contribute to our personal and professional growth.
References
United Nations (1948). Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Retrieved June 6, 2013, from http://donegallpass.org/UNIVERSAL_DECLARATION_OF_HUMAN_RIGHTS.pdf
Goel, V. (2008). Capital punishment: A human right examination case study and jurisprudence. International NGO Journal, 3(9), 152-161. Retrieved on June 6, 2013, from http://www.academicjournals.org/ingoj/pdf/pdf2008/september/Goel.pdf
Johnson, R. (2000). Execution is inhumane. In M.E. Williams (Ed.), Capital Punishment (pp. 42-50). San-Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, Inc.
COHRE (2002). ForcedEvictions: Violations of Human Rights, Global Survey No. 8. Retrieved June 7, 2013, from http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpuprojects/drivers_urb_change/urb_society/pdf_violence_rights/COHRE_global_survey_forced_evictions.pdf