Ambassadors of France and Germany, Mr Nicolas Galey and Ms Ina Lepel, on the eve of the International Human Rights (HR) Day i.e. (December 10) jointly presented the prestigious Franco-German HR & Rule of Law award to the Pakistani defender of the minorities rights, particularly, Dalit members of the Hindu community of Sindh in particular Pirbhu Lal Satyani for his valuable efforts and struggle to highlight their plight. Member (Sindh) Minorities, National Commission on the Rights of Child (NCRC), Pirbhu Lal Satyani was decorated with a medal and a certificate of appreciation by the German and the French envoys during a ceremony hosted at the Residence of the French Ambassador.
Besides fellow colleagues of the NCRC, HR activists and diplomats, Pirbhu Lal’s daughters—Pooja and Nandani— and his son Naresh also attended their papa’s ‘big day’ to share and cheer the honours bestowed on him by the two major EU countries’ envoys.
Ambassador Galey in his brief address congratulated Satyani and his family upon the conferment of the Franco-German HR award. “You along with 13 other winners from different countries, have been selected for this very selective award,” said Mr Galey adding that the German and the French embassies around the world had put forward a candidate but 14 were selected and Mr. Satyani was one of them
Since 2016, France and Germany have used International Human Rights Day as an opportunity to jointly pay tributes to individuals around the world who have shown outstanding commitment to promoting human rights.
The recipients are usually human rights defenders, journalists, women and men who concretely act in defense of freedom of expression, against torture, inhuman treatment, arbitrary detention impunity or enforced disappearances, against violence against women and for promoting equality between women and men and against all forms of discrimination.
German Ambassador Ina Lepel also congratulated Pirbhu Lal on being selected for the Franco-German honour.
She paid compliments to Mr. Pirbhu Lal Satyani for not just raising awareness about Dalits of Sindh but also for taking practical steps to protect children from forced marriage or forced labor, promoting birth registration and acting against bonded labor, all of which particularly concerns Dalits. Your work has made you the most befitting candidate for the award, she said adding that among the many values that France and Germany shared wholeheartedly, defending the human rights of women, children and minorities takes a special place.
In his acceptance speech, Pirbhu Lal Satyani expressed gratitude to France and Germany for considering his work and struggle worthy of the award. I take this award not only as an honour but as a milestone and a responsibility and a milestone for the work ahead, he said. Unfortunately, in Pakistan religious minorities, Dalits, women and children are facing many challenges and every year hundreds of under-age (77%) minority girls are abducted, married and converted to Islam forcibly—22% of such Dalit girls are even below 14, he shared.
Another area Pirbhu Lal Satyani is working tirelessly is rights of non-Muslim sanitary workers. Here, too, he said 80% sanitation work is being performed the 4% minority of Pakistan and that too without proper safety measures, equipment and social security. Last but not least is the issue of the out of school children as 26.2 million children aged 5-12 have never attended a school and we are also working to raise awareness among the communities to send their kids to schools, he said.
Before Mr. Satyani, two Pakistani women have been awarded in 2016 and 2020 respectively Sarah Belal, founder and director of Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) and Ms Nayyab Ali, a transgender rights activist.
