Pro-Palestinian activists disrupt speech of German Ambassador to Pakistan Alfred Grannas at the Asma Jahangir Conference

LAHORE, April 27 (SABAH): Pro-Palestinian activists disrupted the speech of German Ambassador to Pakistan Alfred Grannas when he took the podium to speak at the Asma Jahangir Conference 2024 titled ‘People’s Mandate: Safeguarding Civil Rights in South Asia’.

Announced by the Asma Jahangir Legal Aid Cell (AGHS), the two-day conference is being organised in collaboration with the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC).

Just moments after the ambassador began his speech, the protester can be heard saying, “Excuse me, Mr Ambassador. I am shocked by the audacity that you are here to talk about civil rights while your country is brutally abusing the people speaking for the rights of the Palestinians.”

The activist also questioned the envoy about his government’s complicity in the ongoing genocide, as his speech was largely aimed at exploring the state of human and civil rights in South Asia, including Pakistan.

“Why your country is brutally abusing the people speaking for the rights of Palestinians,” the activist said, addressing the German envoy.

His comments drew applause and cheer from the crowd, while chants of “Free, Free Palestine” and “From the River to the Sea” could be heard.

Ambassador Grannas, who was visibly taken aback, began shouting while asking the protesters not to shout. He also gestured at the students while waving his left hand in the air, asking them to “go out”.

“If you want to shout, go out, and there you can shout because shouting is not a discussion. That it is [sic]… if you want to discuss…,” the envoy said, soon after which the conference went off-air for a while on a digital media platform’s YouTube channel.

However, the speech by Ambassador Grannas resumed in a matter of few minutes.

As Grannas resumed his speech, he remarked that the “mother of all basic human rights is the protection of human dignity”, as well as the inviolability of human dignity. “This actually brings [Germany] in commonality with Pakistan, because there are not too many countries in the world that have an explicit guarantee of the inviolability of human dignity,” he said, referencing Article 14 of Pakistan’s Constitution.

“When it comes to the role of the judiciary here, the Constitution guarantees the rights. But it’s the courts that interpret, safeguard and develop further those rights,” Grannas said. He noted that the most important rule of the judiciary is safeguarding rights and preventing the rule of law from being substituted with the rule by law.

He also noted that the judiciary must not only protect rights on paper but put them into practice.

Grannas praised Pakistan’s courts for interpreting the law to the people’s benefit, saying, “a very concrete example is that there is no [compulsion] in attesting in criminal procedures.”

He also noted that the court’s interpretation of Article 14 led to the ending of the “infamous two-finger testing in rape cases.”

“So you see, these things have concrete consequences and positive effects on us all.”

The ambassador acknowledged the importance of conferences like these, stating that courts do not operate in a vacuum.

“Courts need input; courts need inspiration. And these intellectual and academic discussions here, the things that are developed here serve for the courts to draw inspiration,” Grannas said.

He noted that the results of these academic writings are used and incorporated in the court’s ruling when protecting and developing basic human rights

“I think it’s a useful exercise that we are here, and I wish us all fruitful discussions,” the ambassador concluded.

When reached out for a comment by a private TV channel regarding the envoy’s mic being muted, Munizae Jahangir — journalist and board member of the Asma Jahangir Foundation, clarified: “German ambassador mic was not muted at all, we don’t have that technology or above all, the intention.”

She also maintained that the conference had arranged a “full panel on Palestine” and with great difficulty got a noted human rights activists recognised as a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International.

“We have over 22 sessions, 140 female lawyers from across Pakistan (including far flung areas like Turbat, Gilgit and newly-merged districts) 140 prosecutors, ambassador from more than 12 countries, and 80 speakers,” she said.

She added that the holding conference every year was only made possible due to the “hundreds of hours of voluntary work go into it by lawyers and journalists who are committed to human rights values”.

Jahangir further said that this was “our commitment to Asma’s principles of democracy and free speech”.