Fx^jC h Am^s^do 1^97 Bangladesh Charley. Gauseret on Wednesday said no country can claim to be a role model in the area of Human Rights as none can claim to perfectly uphold Human Rights.

He made the remarks at a function at French Embassy to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights.

"The developed countries seemingly have a more theoretical approach while developing states, confronted with everyday hardship, have adopted a more pragmatic one. These two groups of countries have much to learn from each other,” he said.

National Human Rights Commission Chairman Justice Amirul Kabir Chowdhury, Additional Foreign Secretary MAK Mahmood, and Dr Meghna Guha Thakurta spoke on the occasion.

The French ambassador believed that developed countries have much to learn from developingcountries.

Citing two examples, he said in Mali, every year the president and all the members of the government stand in front of the media and anyone dealing with the protection of human rights to answer to their questions, even the most embarrassing ones.

The ambassador said would political leaders of developed countries be ready to submit to such a practice.

Mentioning the microcredit programme in Bangladesh, he said this system once appropriately implemented has brought economic empowerment to millions of women, not only in this country, but also in many developed ones.

In his remarks Additional Foreign Secretary Mahmood said at the global level, success in protecting and promoting human rights has been mixed.

"While we can claim certain degree of clarity at the conceptual level- civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, adherence to a universally reconginsed standard has still remained far from satisfactory in most part of the world.”

Mahmood said people are still exposed to multifarious violation of fundamental rights caused by factors political to economic, from cultural to institutional.

Establishment of the National Human Rights Commission, enactment of tiie Right to Information Act, and separation of the subordinate judiciary from the executive are some of the reform initiatives that one can hope would strengthen the governance structures for protection of people’s economic, political and socio-cultural rights.