Bringing the Right to Education to Pakistan
- In the last five years, torture has been reported in 141 countries worldwide.
- There are an estimated 41 million victims of human trafficking, of which 71% are women and girls.
- On average, more than 13,000 people a day visit humanrights.com.
- Last year, over 109 million people were reached with the United for Human Rights campaign through booklets, lectures and the media.
Every day, you see examples of it when you turn on the television or read the news. Human rights violations are widespread. And it’s not just happening under oppressive regimes or third world countries—it’s happening everywhere.
In the U.S., every minute of every day 20 people are subjected to domestic violence. Behind the many commercial products produced worldwide, there are nearly 21 million people trapped in forced labor. One in four of these victims are children. These are just a few of the many examples of human rights abuses happening worldwide. As L. Ron Hubbard wrote, “Human rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream.” But to achieve that, human rights education has to happen on a global scale.
After seeing firsthand the suffering caused by human rights abuse, Muhammad Tayiib, a lawyer and human rights activist from Pakistan, decided to take action. Growing up in South Punjab, it was not uncommon for him to see children aged four to five years old working in the fields and brick kilns (furnace for baking bricks) instead of going to school. In fact, 22 million children in Pakistan don’t go to school—the second highest rate in the world. Every day, Muhammad saw violations of basic human rights. Even his own cousin was recently attacked with acid after a feud with her aunt, which burned her face and half of her body. Muhammad knew that a change was needed in Pakistan.
While searching online for solutions, he came across humanrights.com and immediately ordered two Educator Packages. After receiving the materials, he knew these were the solutions he was looking for. Over the course of five days, Muhammad visited five schools, a religious institute, and four different towns—educating nearly 2,000 children and adults on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“We spoke to parents whose children were not going to school and who were working as a labor force in brick kilns and the fields, and we educated them on their children’s basic and fundamental right to education,” says Muhammad. After his first lectures things changed. “We achieved the goal of 100 students, including 30 girls aged 7 to 10 years old, enrolling into the local schools.”
This was just the beginning for Muhammad, whose passion to spread the message of human rights has motivated him to continue his campaign even further. He now has government approval to deliver seminars and lectures in schools and colleges across the capital city of Islamabad. “I would like to thank Youth for Human Rights International for giving us the opportunity for this great cause to educate people about human rights. As a human being, you have basic rights which cannot be denied and which we are in need of at this time—especially in the remote areas across Pakistan. We need to make people aware of their rights as a human.”