India human rights ‘disturbing’: report

By Sapa-dpa

New Delhi - Rights campaigners Wednesday submitted what they described as a “disturbing” report on India's human rights record to the United Nations. Its list of alleged violations include arbitrary arrests and extra-judicial killings by security forces in insurgency-hit areas.

The report - “Human Rights in India: An Overview” - was compiled by the Working Group on Human Rights in India and the UN (WGHR), a national coalition of human rights organisations and independent experts.

“The report presents a very bleak scenario of the actual state of human rights across India,” the WGHR's Miloon Kothari said at a press conference in New Delhi.

WGHR member Vrinda Grover said the last four years had seen a marked increase in the use of draconian laws in insurgency-hit areas such as Jammu and Kashmir, as well as in the country's north-east.

“In all these areas, violations are overlooked and even condoned. The legal framework and practice have entrenched the culture of impunity. People are increasingly losing faith in systems of justice and governance,” she said.

The report talked about 789 extra-judicial executions in the north-eastern Manipur state between 2007 and 2010, as well as the discovery of 2 700 unmarked graves in India-administered Kashmir this year.

India claims that its National Human Rights Commission ensures the protection of rights, but the commission usually defends government agencies and is not empowered to investigate violations by the army. State human rights commissions are poorly equipped and vulnerable to political pressure.

Every four years, the UN Human Rights Council examines the human rights records of all UN member states.

The latest WGHR report also pointed out that a large part of India's population remains marginalised, with many groups facing discrimination and neglect. They include women, children, Dalits or low-castes, religious minorities, the gay community and the disabled. - Sapa-dpa


(2011-12-8/iol.co.za)