LUDHIANA: The Punjab Human Rights Organisation (P.HR.O.) has asked its branches abroad to reconstitute their executives so as to meet the constitutional liability of this nongovernmental organisation.

The P.H.R.O, Secretariat at its meeting held here under the Chairmanship of Mr Harinder Singh Khalsa, formerly an Indian exenvoy to Norway, decided to reconstitute the branches of the Organisation working abroad as it was mandatory for them, according to the provisions of the PHRO’s constitution, to elect, select or appoint their functionaries annually.

General Secretary, Mr D.S.Gill in a statement said that the PHRO secretariat had requested and deputed Mr Hayjit Singh Barrister (U.K.) Dr Rajwant Singh (USA) and Mr Gurdev Singh Gill (Canada) to do the needful in their Respective executives.

The nonparty human rights group based in India in a separate resolution had appreciated the valuable contribution made by its branches and chapters working abroad especially for PHRO literature, Particular mention has been made, in this regard, of the U.K.Branch headed by Barrister Hanjit Singh which has end eavoured to reprint most of the PHRO reports and circulated these reports the World over.

The registered human rights body mainly comprising judges, advocates, doctors, professors etc., has also placed on record the personal efforts made by Dr.Gurcharan Singh, Mr Amarjit Singh Grewal, Mr Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Dr.Gurinder Singh Grewal (World Sikh News) and Dr.Rajwant Singh during general secretary, Mr Gill’s visit to U.S.A. last year.

The meeting earlier paid homage to its former secretary for International Relations and of late secretary of the Canadian Chapter (Toronto), Mr Nazar Singh (Dapak) Chahal who had recently expired due to brain tumor.

It has been the endeavour of the PHRO, asserted Mr Gill, to take active steps to preserve and defend human rights and civil liberties of the people of Punjab irrespective of their caste or creed. During the last 5 years, it has documented numerous cases of human rights violations in the state of Punjab including the Kashmir Massacre, Bidar killings and Jammu carnage, he added.

The human rights group is mainly committed to promote and protect various fundamental rights and freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International covenants on Civil and Political Rights and the UN declarations.

Article extracted from this publication >> October 12, 1990