Shetty, an IIMA alumni was delivering a lecture on, ‘Is the world falling apart, and what can we do about it?’ at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, on Monday.
Sharing global insights about where the world is heading, secretary general of human rights organisation, Amnesty International, Salil Shetty spoke about the world’s refugee crisis, elected muscular leaders, leaders who would stand up for human rights and the convergence of business with human rights.
Shetty, an IIMA alumni was delivering a lecture on, ‘Is the world falling apart, and what can we do about it?’ at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, on Monday.
Showing a photograph of the G20 summit, he said, “Of the leaders who participated, only three would stand up for human rights on a global stage and they include Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, French president Emmanuel Macron, and Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel.”
On the gag on free speech and crackdown on dissenting voices, he said, “There is a new breed of muscular leaders who silence the media, then use social media strategically and then shut all independent organisations.
This is the new phenomenon that the world is seeing. In 2016, 68 countries arrested human rights defenders. In Russia, even a librarian was threatened as she made some documents public.”
“The question is why are we in this situation. One fundamental underlining issue is this has happened in the past two or three decades and not overnight. We have had several decades of unaccountable governance, growing inequality, institutions that have massively failed, systems have failed etc, he said.
Talking about the refugee crisis, he said the responsibility should be shared not just by rich countries but everyone, including Gulf countries, India and others.
Freedom of speech at academic institutes
Shetty said, “It is very important for people to stand up and show spine. Also, we should not forget several heads of institutions, too, subscribe to the view and are supporters of the system. At least the ones who don’t support the system should speak out and stand up. You cannot have two versions of freedom of expression.”
Shetty was earlier director of the United Nations Millennium Campaign. Before joining the UN, he served as chief executive of ActionAid.
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