Actress Sheena Chohan was given The President’s Lifetime Achievement Award from the President of the United States, Joseph Biden, at a ceremony on 8th June in the USA – she used her speech to call for all Indian schools and universities to teach human rights in a practical way, so people understand and can benefit from the Indian Constitution.
Because Sheena Chohan comes up number one on Google if you search “Indian Actor Human Rights”, she was personally asked by the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, to help promote the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. Sheena is the only Indian celebrity followed by Volker Türk’s official office on Instagram (instagram.com/unitednationshumanrights).
Sheena took High Commissioner Türk’s request to heart and received the award from President Biden for spreading awareness of basic rights and equality to over 170 million people.
Sheena said: “Human Rights are the way to create a decent society of peace and equality and the most important way to achieve that is through awareness and education campaigns. My podcast, Born Free & Equal, which teamed up with artists like Preety Zinta, Sonakshi Sinha, Raveena Tandon, Sonu Sood, Sanjana Sanghi, Imtiaz Ali and more, spread awareness of basic rights and equality to over a hundred million people during lockdown, but it’s nowhere near enough! India is the most populous and youthful country in the world – we need our youth to completely understand their rights, and in a way that’s in line with the excellent new National Education Policy. Our rights must be taught so they are understood – which means looking up the hard to understand words in a dictionary and giving real life examples so children and young people actually understand what No Discrimination or the other rights like Social Security, No Torture, No Slavery, etc., mean.”
Sheena was previously given the Human Rights Hero Award at the United Nations in New York, partly for her work getting human rights education into the curriculums of over 100 schools and universities. She continued:
“United for Human Rights (www.humanrights.com) has made each of the 30 human rights into Hollywood quality films and dubbed them in Hindi and gives free education kits to any school or university in the world. India has one of the finest constitutions on the planet – it contains all of the rights and responsibilities that the laws of our land are based on. It’s the most important information that all citizens must know – so it must become mandatory in all Indian schools and universities!”
On the work front Sheena is in America shooting, while she waits for her Hollywood launch in a film directed by Taron Lexton which tied the Guinness Book of World Records for the film shot in the most countries. Last week Sheena’s Hindi film Amar Prem was launched in the official Indian pavilion at the world’s most prestigious film festival – Cannes.
Sheena returns to India in mid-June to finish shooting for a web-series where she plays a negative lead and the launch of her Hindi debut – Sant Tukaram , where she plays the lead female role alongside Subodh Bhave in Aditya Om’s Hindi Historical Drama – Sant Tukaram.
Sheena was last seen on Netflix’s Fame Game, alongside Madhuri Dixit, Disney Hot Star’s The Trial alongside Kajol and she was nominated for Best Actress for her lead role in Ant Story, which was bought by Netflix.
