Hoodbhoy to address conference on violence against minorities

DALLAS: Internationally known Pakistani activist and peace scholar Pervez Hoodbhoy will be the keynote speaker at the high profile conference on violence against minorities in South Asia here organized by the South Asia Democracy Watch (SADeW.

The one-day conference will be held at the Southern Methodist University (SMU) on January 25, 2014 in collaboration with its Embery Human Rights Program.

Peace organizations, universities and community organizations are collaborating in organizing the conference including the Dallas Peace Center, the UNT Castleberry Peace Institute and several community organizations.

Renowned scholars including Dr. Hassan Abbas (Columbia University), Amjad Mahmood Khan (Los Angeles based attorney), Dr. Huma Dar (UC Barkley), Parshant Dharama Raj (known human rights activist), Elsie DeLeare (longtime Amnesty International activist) and others will be participating in the conference sessions.

The board also thanked the SMU Embery Human Rights Program Director Dr. Rick Halperin for sponsoring and hosting the conference at SMU.

The South Asia Democracy Watch Board of Directors, in its recent meeting, finalized the conference sessions which will discuss issues and propose strategies on the ongoing discrimination and violence against minorities in Pakistan and the region at large.

The board also expressed grave concerns on the recent dissolution of the Ministry of Human Rights in Pakistan. The group's president Dr. Qaisar Abbas asked the government of Pakistan to restore the ministry and appoint a high profile human rights leader as adviser. "When minorities are increasingly becoming target of a genocidal campaign throughout the country, eliminating the ministry indicates extreme insensitivity to their basic human rights" he said.

The meeting was attended by its board members Dr. Qaisar Abbas, Syed Fyyaz Hassan, Dr. Pritpal Singh, Raja Zahid Akhtar Khanzada, Aftab Siddiqui, Asif Effindi, Raja Muzaffar, Siraj Butt and Tausif Kamal. Prominent broadcaster Dr. Mona Kazim Shah, and community leaders Amir Ali Makhani and Dr. Jari Khan also participated in the meeting and extended their full support to the conference.