Universaility is not uniformity; one needs to respect the totality of existence.

What are human rights? A simple sounding question that finds attempts towards answering it in more than a dozen books in the contemporary collection and several others in historical documents - sometimes vaguely worded, sometimes convincingly or controversially worded phrases and sentences. But, with a pack of students in an unconventional lecture room setting where all the phrases and words the orator utters would be put to a close scrutiny and then be grilled for!

How do you convince a set of cross-cultural individuals whose sole objective is to understand and sensitize themselves to this doctrine and imbibe it more than just a concept. The phenomenon of human rights may sound very far fetched and vague to convince. But if you ask the humble Professor from National Law School, Bangalore; Prof. M.K.Ramesh he wouldn't take more than minutes to chalk out a scientific yet simplistic approach towards understanding easily what this whole monikerism was about!

Don't believe it? Well, that is exactly how it flowed out in an interactive session of about 12 hours approximately between June 26, 2002 and June 28, 2002 in the premises of RLEK Human Rights Centre. We are only referring to a guest lecture by Prof. Ramesh on a number of topics relating with human rights education beginning with the basic concept and understanding of it.

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The topics spanned from Human Rights - an introduction; Evolution and History of Human Rights; Right to Environment; PIL and Judicial Activism; Sovereignty and Politics of Human Rights; UN System and Human Rights; Various International Models of Human Rights; Development, Displacement and Rehabilitation Issues; Rights of the Indigenous Peoples.

Prof. M.K. Ramesh who is a faculty member at the National Law School, Bangalore has been a visiting faculty at the RLEK Human Rights Centre for a few seasons goneby now. His expertise spans from International Law, Family Law, Jurisprudence and Environment Law.

"Universaility is not uniformity; one needs to respect the totality of existence. When we talk about universality, we talk about a system and subsequently a scheme for the realisation within the considerative bounds of distinctiveness," spoke Prof. Ramesh in his interactive session with the participants of third batch of the Human Rights Centre. He further added, " although there are certain classifications of domineering concerns over the past, in the area of Human Rights sensitivity translated as Generations of human rights - namely, the first generation of civil and political rights; the second generation of economic, social and cultural rights; the third generation of collective and community rights; and a relatively new fourth generation of humanitarian and refugee law - the whole process of such a grading and prioritisation is nothing more than a fracture in the concept of universality."

"What one needs to understand is the basic human needs which essentially form the priorities varying from developed and developing nations. This is the underlying principle of all kinds of grading and prioritisation which is narrowing and zeroing down to women, children, minorities, indigenous peoples and so on," he explained.

Sovereignty and politics of human rights was one of the most interesting among subjects he dwelved into. Explaining it as nothing more than just 'supreme' or 'one who is authority', Prof. Ramesh went on to explain the external and internal sovereign.

Besides the classroom interaction (which no matter how much one may aspire, does come with certain hindrances to open interaction), RLEK Human Rights participants also had the opportunity to hold a personal one to one interaction with the guest lecturer over lunches, dinners and breakfasts respectively. Since, the participants are not students here, they had the liberty to speak their hearts out with Prof. Ramesh. From films, ghazals, politics, literature, environment, law, jurisprudence, career, history, geography to international covenants and instruments - all became a part of the long personal interactions that participants had with him.

A learning experience indeed - our learning curve doesn't just bend, it comes a full circle with all contributing to it - in all possible capacities. So at the end of a longish theoritical talk, one generally looks drained and bored but here our participants, faculty along with the guest lecture only sprouted a whole string of quizzicals and inquisitions - the dynamism only catalyzed out of the whole exercise!