Students of St. John`s University in Dodoma pay attention during the launch of the Human Rights Association coordinated by the Legal and Human Rights Centre.
It was a special day as educated young people gathered at the St. John`s University to ponder on pertinent issues that would make history in the country, especially the constitutional reforms.
Unlike other meetings, theirs was a well disciplined gathering which respected each one’s opinion and if one was to assess the situation he or she would have judged it right, that the students were eager to learn.
The day began with the launch of the human rights association that would groom them to become good leaders of tomorrow; who will have the conscious and the guts to fight corruption, domestic violence and mob justice just to mention a few.
A legal officer in charge of the human rights monitoring unit at the Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC) did not mince words when talking to students at the university stressing that being an activist meant abiding to its values by being not only persons but also humans.
“There is a fine line between a human being and a person. Not every person is human. A human being respects the rules of law, human rights and good governance. We don’t expect you as members of the human rights association to boycott without reasons. Neither do we expect members to beat their teachers as they are expected to be humans and not people. Whatever you do you must respect your teachers. We don’t expect you to enter into dubious contracts, or beat your wives, husbands, demand bribes for service delivery in the future that is why we are imparting you the human rights value now,” stressed Laetitia.
These words seem to be directed to the recent events where ministers attending meetings at our higher learning institutions have now been forced to do so with maximum security as if they were going to the DRC.
From the cans, abusive languages, and all you can think of has been the order of the day and no wonder
Professor Eginald Mihanjo, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the St. John’s University said human rights are fundamental to all Tanzanians, adding that “we all must take part to.”
“Equality and dignity is very important. Tanzanians seem to forget that justice is fundamental to equality,” said Mihanjo.
The idea of launching human rights association seemed noble taking into consideration of the recent trend where Tanzanians especially the youth seem to have resolved to retaliate into violence whenever they feel dissatisfied with the system.
Sadly, the respect for the right to life seems to go down as time goes by, and according to retired judge Mihayo, Tanzanians ought to search their souls and shun away from mob justice.
Long gone are the days when our youths used to put up with whatever an elder said. Respect towards the elders is becoming a new vocabulary to the many and violence and taking law in own hands seem to be the only thing they can think of.
Police officers have also resorted to the use of excessive powers whenever they are called to ensure there is peace and harmony and we all have seen what happened in Nyamongo, Urambo and in our parliament grounds during the recent discussion on the constitutional reforms.
Something is obvious very wrong no wonder our youths act the way they do. Imparting the values of human rights while in school could help as the student of today is set to be a leader, police officer and a minister of tomorrow.
The violent police officers we see shoot people are our very own children and a student of today is bound to become anything in the future.
Let’s impart the human rights value to enable them learn to respect others instead of booing, to enable question things in mannerism instead of breaking chairs and throwing bottles to anyone who says something they are not happy with.
The association may be a novel idea, but parents ought to breath hard to ensure their young ones behave wherever they are. A crook of today is a nuisance of tomorrow, let us do the needful.
Let other universities keep their students busy by emulating what St. John’s has, for human rights is indeed very fundamental to not only today, but also for the future generation.
No comments:
Post a Comment