Karnali, March 4: A province-level conference of human rights defenders has begun at Surkhet of Karnali province from today under the slogan 'The Right to Life, Dignity, Equality and Freedom: Basis of Sustainable Peace and Prosperity'.    

Inaugurating the conference organised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Chief Minister of Karnali Province, Jeevan Bahadur Shahi, stressed the need of protecting the human rights of all citizens of the province.    

Chief Minister Shahi complained about not establishing Commission's office at Surkhet and shared, "Cases of human rights violation that took place in Karnali province are pending at the NHRC office in Lumbini province as the NHRC does not have its office in Karnali province. Why the office of the NHRC is not established in Karnali?"    

He argued that though the constitution has mentioned the right to food as a fundamental right, human rights do not have any meaning in the situation where the people do not have food due to poverty and the advocacy carried out on the matter of human rights violations have no meaning.    

Chief of NHRC, Jumla, Buddha Narayan Sahani, said that the conference was organised with the objective of collecting the situation of rights defenders and challenging facing them in Karnali province as well as providing suggestions to the government.    
Around 90 human rights defenders are participating in the conference.    
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