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(February 15, 1999)

South Asia Region

India's Foreign Relations

Economy & Trade

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Opinion

Feature: Interview - Jaswant Singh, External Affairs Minister

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Seventh Asia-Pacific Workshop on
Regional Cooperation for the Promotion and
Protection of Human Rights
New Delhi, February 16-18, 1999

The Seventh Asia-Pacific Workshop on Regional Cooperation of the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights is being organized by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and hosted by the Government of India in New Delhi from 16 to 18 February 1999. The Opening Session will be addressed by Shri Jaswant Singh, External Affairs Minister and Mrs. Mary Robinson, UN High Commissisoner for Human Rights (UN HCHR). Mrs. Mary Robindon, former President of Ireland, will be the guest of the Government of India and will have meetings with various Indian dignitaries.

2. The Office of UN HCHR have extended invitations to forty-six Governments in the Asia Pacific region. National institutions and select non-governmental organizations active in the field of human rights have also been invited to attend as Observers.

3. One of the fundamental objectives of the United Nations is to promote universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms. In order to promote regional cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region in the field of human rights, a series of inter-governmental meetings, in the form of Workshops, have been organized by the UN in different parts of the region. Six Workshops have been held so far, commencing with Manila in 1990. The previous (6th) Workshop was held in Tehran in 1998.

India has been in the forefront of countries advocating the promotion of human rights. Its commitment to human rights put it in the vanguard of struggle against racism and colonialism in the 1950s and 1960s. India has championed the indivisibility of civil and political liberties and economics, social and cultural rights. The 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR 1948) by the United Nations General Assembly was celebrated in India through a series of commemorative functions organized by the Government of India.