A political refugee whose mother was killed and dismembered when he was a boy told a Bermudian audience last night to ?hope and dream? of a future in which every Islander can enjoy economic freedom.

Sujit Chowdhury, who fled Bangladesh after being tortured because of his political beliefs, received a standing ovation for his stirring speech to mark the UN International Human Rights Day and the 25th anniversary of Bermuda?s Human Rights Commission (HRC).

He spoke for more than an hour at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute on the need for optimism about eliminating poverty and the importance of personal responsibility in affecting change.

?It?s the right time to dream,? he told the audience, which included PLP MPs Ren?e Webb and George Scott and former UBP Minister Yvette Swan, who was instrumental in introducing human rights legislation to Bermuda. ?Without that dream I don?t think that we will really go anywhere.?

The president and CEO of the World Trade University and secretary general of the World Trade Forum praised the Island ? which he described as ?a small entity that is prosperous, that is privileged, that is definitely blessed? ? for having a Human Rights Commission for the past quarter of a century.

But he cautioned against having such a body just because ?it?s nice, it?s sexy, it?s beautiful? and because ?every other country? has one.

Mr. Chowdhury, who now lives in Canada, said every Bermudian needed to follow the road paved by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948.

?Our respect for one another is as sacred as our rights as individuals,? he said. ?Let us not talk of human rights at the exclusion of other concerns. We may speak of human rights but how often do we speak of the responsibility we carry as humans with rights.?

He spoke of Bermuda as a divided society which, despite its incredible wealth, still had marginalised people who were not benefiting from the Island?s economic success.

He cited black Bermudians earning less than their white counterparts as a prime example of the ?mismatch? which exists but praised organisations such as CURE (Commission for Unity and Racial Equality) for attempting to change the status quo.

?Bermuda enjoys one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, 50 percent higher than the US,? he said. ?You don?t know how fortunate you are. I look at people like you and I feel like wouldn?t it be wonderful if every people lived like the Bermudians and here you have your own problems. The problems are all relative. Human rights is a relative issue as well.?

Mr. Chowdhury?s talk was interlaced with details of his own past, including his mother?s murder and dismemberment into 17 pieces when he was a young boy and his becoming a refugee three times.

At one stage he was in a position to wreak revenge on his mother?s killers but did not, he said. ?I wanted to work with them to create change.?

His keynote address was followed by a reading of Bermuda?s Proclamation of Human Rights by Community and Cultural Affairs Minister Wayne Perinchief. The Minister told the audience that Mr. Chowdhury was a ?visionary? who had given him ideas about how the Government could accomplish economic empowerment for all.

Earlier, Lucy Attride-Stirling, director of Amnesty International Bermuda, urged those present to remember that victims of human rights abuses around the world were ?not just statistics, they are names?.

And Berkeley Institute student Candice Furbert gave a powerful performance of the Yolanda Adams? song What About the Children.

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