Spread awareness on basic rights
Sheena Chohan, an actress who, as South Asia Ambassador for United for Human Rights, has helped spread awareness of basic rights and equality to over a hundred and sixty million people, was personally approached by the United Nations Human Rights Office to help promote 75 years of UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Sheena worked with artists like Preety Zinta, Sonakshi Sinha, Oscar Winner Guneet Monga, Sonu Sood and entrepreneur Rohini Iyer to give millions of Indians basic information about and motivation to know and use their human rights.
She Informs,”By working with artists like Preety ZInta, Sonakshi Sinha, Raveena Tandon, Sonu Sood, Oscar winner Guneet Monga and the amazing Rohini Iyer, we spread awareness of basic rights and equality to over one hundred million people in India in one year. Our podcast, Born Free & Equal, focuses only on awareness and education - giving people basic info on their human rights - what they are, how they relate to present life, what are the major issues today, etc. Also each major celebrity who came on the show told stories about how that human right made a difference to their life and how they applied human rights for success in society and in communities - basically we provided the information about the right and the celebrity provided motivation to know about and use the human right. We would love to have Aamir Khan or Priyanka Chopra take up the right our show is named after - We Are All Born Free and Equal.”
If you Google “Indian Actor Human Rights” Sheena Chohan comes up number one out of 294 million searches, which is why the UN’s Human Rights High Commissioner’s office chose Sheena first to approach to help celebrate the 75th anniversary of the UN’s Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
Sheena said: “Awareness and education about our basic rights is vital for our nation because human rights bring decency, unity and peace. India’s constitution is admired around the world - it was hard fought for so we must make sure that we and others read it because it stands up for equality, it stands against discrimination and it contains such important information as the Right to Education, Social Security, No Torture (domestic violence), No Slavery (child labour), etc. That’s why we are using the UN’s celebration of 75 years of human rights to call for mandatory human rights education in all schools in India - if our youth know their rights and responsibilities this nation will be guided by our Constitition into what India’s founding fathers always imagined - Incredible India!”
As well as her podcast, Sheena, who was awarded the Hero Award at the United Nations in New York, helped stage events with Preety Zinta, Oscar Winner Guneet Monga and Rohini Iyer to promote the human rights connected with women’s safety, equality and respect. Imtiaz Ali also took part in a live event to promote the right to Freedom of Thought. The podcast consists of well-known artists giving motivational stories about their struggles & successes to do with the human right they feel is most important as well as their ideas concerning bringing it to life. As well as the motivation from the artists, the podcast provides information about the right from both the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Indian Constitution – giving practical information about what the right is, what the laws regarding it are, what are the major issues surrounding it and how it relates to everyday life.