The Ministry of Human Rights (MoHR) has provided legal services to 4,222 victims of human rights abuses, who had approached it through Helpline 1099, personal visits, or through other ways during the year of 2020.
According to an MoHR’s spokesman, about 1,299 callers were given legal advice instantly; 2,762 instant referrals to relevant departments through calls, besides legal advice; and 39 referrals to the departments concerned through letters, besides legal advice.
Some 122 who visited the ministry or approached it through fax or emails, were also provided legal advice, the spokesman told APP.
He said a total of 144,948 people have approached the ministry on the Helpline, fax, e-mail or personal visits.
The spokesman said some 46,527 calls were received at the helpline while 57,466 calls were dropped. The queue timeout calls were 18,407 and repeat calls were 1,529 .
He said the ministry officials made 8,717 follow-up phone calls and 13,398 calls back to voicemails to the victims.
The spokesman said the ministry had succeeded in achieving the objectives of the Helpline as it not only facilitated the victims of human rights by providing them legal advice, but also linked relevant support services for them and their families.
He said that the objectives of the Helpline for legal advice on human rights violations were in line with the social sector objectives of the government’s development programmes, such as annual development plan, growth strategy, Vision 2025 and Vision 2030, which focused to make social and economic policies, and programmes to ensure social protection to the weaker and vulnerable segments of the society.
He added that the specific objectives of the project were to establish a grievance-redressal mechanism through referral services to the victims of human rights abuses and maintain a database on human rights violations at national level.
