Climate change is knocking on the doors and people in poorer nations are going to pay a "heavier price" for the degradation of the environment, President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday said and asserted that society must now consider the environmental dimension of justice.
In her address at an event hosted here by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to mark Human Rights Day, she also made a fervent appeal that humans must learn to treat nature and biodiversity with dignity and respect.
"I wonder what would the animals and trees around us tell us if they could speak. What would our rivers say about human history and what would our cattle say on the topic of human rights. We have trampled on their rights for long and now the results are before us," she said.
Just as the concept of human rights exhorts society to consider every human being as no different from us, "we should treat the whole living world and its habitat with respect", the President said, adding, "We must learn, rather relearn to treat nature with dignity. This is not only a moral duty; let us remember it is necessary for our own survival too."
Expanding notion of justice
Human Rights Day is observed to commemorate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). It was approved and proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948, as a universally accepted value-based document of understanding the importance of the promotion and protection of human rights.
The theme of this year's Human Rights Day is 'Dignity, Freedom, and Justice for All'. This is close to the ideals expressed in the Preamble of India's Constitution, Murmu said.
"I have said before that we should strive to expand the notion of justice. Over the past few years, the world has suffered from a high number of natural disasters caused by unusual weather patterns.
"Climate change is knocking on the doors. People in the poorer nations are going to pay a heavier price for the degradation of our environment. We must consider the environmental dimension of justice now," she said.
Murmu also emphasised that developing "sensitivity and sympathy" is key to promoting human rights.