June 23rd and 24th will always be remembered as an important day in the history of the United Nations and civil society for their coming together to discuss the issues of human dignity, human rights, freedom from hunger and freedom to live in dignity.

Over 250 organizations from civil society, NGOs, private entrepreneurs and government representatives at the United Nations sat together at the historical hall of the Economic and Social Cultural Council of the United Nations in New York. Many welcomed the disbanding of the discredited UN sub-commission and wanted a better UN Human Rights Council, which could be more responsible towards the victims and protection of human rights, as envisaged by the Secretary General's report 'towards a larger freedom'.

Organizations from Asia, Africa and Latin America voiced their concerns over the hunger situation in their countries and criticized the western world for the exploitation of the situation and failing to address the issues.

The state failed to fulfill the promises made at the 1997 Rome Summit that poverty would be history by 2015. The fact is that poverty is growing under tremendous pressure from international monetary and financial institutions. You can close your eyes to the growing problems of the world under the garb of war on terrorism. There are issues of poverty, hunger and malnutrition, which need our urgent attention, they opened.

They also felt that human dignity comes from empowerment. The social marginalized communities, minorities and women need to be given special preference to bring them to the mainstream of our national life. We need to focus on the issue of livelihood and a comprehensive agrarian reform, because it is the landless, forest workers, forest dwellers and other kinds of working class people from unorganized sectors and communities whose dignity and human rights are violated regularly.

One hope is that the proposed Human Rights Council will be useful in correcting the past mistakes so that the victims will no longer have to wait torturously for justice.