In this interview, we hear from Livingstone Sewanyana, Executive Director of 
the Foundation for Human Rights Initiative. His views are that human rights vary greatly across the Commonwealth in terms of perception, action, and practice. In addition, he feels there are serious contradictions within the 53 participating countries and that many countries are lagging behind their commonwealth brothers and sisters where this issue is concerned.
Mr Sewanyana’s role at the CPF is that his organisation are organising the ‘Commonwealth Human Rights Forum’ at the event. The aim of which will be to feed into the main CHOGM event during the following week.
Click to dowload a low bandwidth file here.
Download a transcript in Word or PDF here.
Mr Sewanyana poses a few questions himself to the participants of this blog:
- What does it mean for people to enjoy their right to vote?
- What does it mean to have freedom of the media including the freedom to express oneself?
He also mentions that there is a long way to go within the Commonwealth for them to appreciate the role of civil society organisations in defending and advocating for rights.
Some other points to think about include:
- How can civil society organisations make themselves more appreciated in defending and advocating rights in the eyes of governments?
Mr Sewanyana calls on you to air your views and post your comments because they are essential to maintain debate on these issues!
