Citizen rights under spotlight at seminar.

LAHORE -- Lawyers, journalists, students and civil society representatives held a discussion on Friday on citizenship rights in the context of domestic and international human rights frameworks.

The event was organised by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) in collaboration with the Information Technology University. The seminar was titled 'Citizenship Rights (Nationality) in the Mirror of Fundamental Rights'.

Usama Malik said that international law gave egalitarian basis of citizenship. Articles 14 and 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights acknowledged the right of a person to have and change its nationality; moreover, articles 24 and 25 accorded this right to every child. However, the application of right to citizenship and right to change citizenship remained purely a domestic domain. Therefore, different standards were practiced in different countries.

Recalling the past of Pakistan, columnist Wajahat Masood said that the expression of identity on the basis of language and religion were denied whereas state's prescribed classification of religious identity was imposed which disfranchised the populace from their democratic rights.

Executive Director of the CSJ Peter Jacob said that the different forms of discrimination ultimately formed a co-relation. 'All discrimination ought...