INTRODUCTION
In 1998 we celebrated the International year of the Human Rights and every 10th December is celebrated as the International Human Rights Day all over the world. This article focuses on creating awareness and to invigorate the commitment to work with zeal in areas of Human Rights.
Hundreds have been tortured to death or killed in police custody. Everyday millions of women struggle against social, economic and cultural biases that infringe their Human Rights either within home or abroad. Children are overworked, underpaid, underfed and their chances of making a better life for themselves are nil. The introduction of TADA has created a furore in the country. An act to bring about law and order has created great confusion. During the last 10 years and especially, during past few years, there is a rise of a fascist tendency reflecting through imposing Nationalistic Ideology, viz., One Nation, One Religion, One Culture, One Language, One People as opposed to the basic concept of “Secularism” by prompting “Unity in Diversity”. Before we plunge into the topic, it would be heartrendering to go through few of the incidents that took place in our motherland.
I. SOME ILLUSTRATIONS
On 12 October, 1998 in Aminchikkarai Police Station, Chennai, one Chithra, was stripped naked in front of her husband, raped by policemen and was beaten up with lathi. A furniture shop owner complained to the police of, a theft of Rs.2.5 lakhs from his shop. The police enquired Ravi and Arun who were working in that furniture shop.
In the same night the police brought Chithra, the wife of Ravi, to the police station and kept her under custody till midnight and ill-treated her as narrated above. At midnight she was released. On reaching home she hanged herself.( Makkal Kural, 24.10.1998)
Joginder Kumar, a practicing lawyer was called to a police station for enquiry on 07.01.1994. The family members of the detained lawyer could not trace the whereabouts of him. So they filed a petition in the nature of habeas corpus before the court on 11.01.1994. The detenu asserted that he was detained in police custody for 5 days. But the police version was that he was not in detention but was only assisting the police to detect some cases. The Court’s verdict was that it is a violation of human rights on the part of the police. Even if the human right of a lawyer is not protected in a democratic society like ours, then what kind of protection the police force can afford to the common mass? (A.I.R 1997)
The above incidents clearly bring out the violation of the basic right of a person. What is that basic right?
II. DEFINING HUMAN RIGHTS
· Human Rights could be generally defined as those rights, which are inherent in our nature and in the absence of which we cannot live as human beings.
· Human rights are inherent and inalienable rights because they are due to an individual simply because of his or her being a human being.
· Human rights are “generally accepted principles of fairness and justice”.
· “Universal moral rights that belong equally to all people simply because they are human beings”.
The concept of Human Rights is an ethical concept, which has developed throughout the history as a result of negative conditions that befell humanity. The following details show how the human rights movements originated in the history of humankind.
III.THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
The Universal Declaration on Human Rights was a protest against the terrible atrocities, which had occurred during World War II. The world saw the results of the Nazi policy of genocide. Six million Jews were killed between 1939 and 1945 just because they were Jews. The nations and the people of the world wrote the UDHR with the hope that this type of Human Rights abuse would never happen again. The UDHR states the basic hopes and wishes that are common to all humanity. The UDHR records the wishes not only of people from countries which had already reached a certain economic standard of living, but it also sets out the rights of people in countries where hundreds of millions of human beings were still weighed down by oppression, poverty and lack of adequate education.
On 10th December 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Of course this is not a legally binding instrument but it is a valuable and authoritative guide. It has considerable indirect legal effects and also bears the status as part of the law of the United Nations.
B. INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON HUMAN RIGHTS
The International Covenants on Human Rights are treatises between State parties- i.e., nations which have formally agreed to abide by their provisions – undertake to respect, ensure and take steps for the full achievements of a wide range of rights.
There are two such covenants: the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Both were adopted by the General Assembly and opened for signature in December1966 and both came into force in 1976.
The optional Protocol is an adjunct instrument of the Covenant, which came into force in 1976 at the same time as the Covenant. The States acceding to the Optional Protocol empower the Human Rights Committee, established under the Covenant, to receive communications from individuals who claim to be victims of a violation of any of the rights set out in the Covenant.
IV. HUMAN RIGHTS SITUATION IN INDIA
India has been making sincere efforts, not only to ensure enforcement of the fundamental, civil and political rights, but also of as many socio-economic rights as the limited resources of the country permit. Rule of law is the basis of the Indian system of rights. India has accepted and ratified almost all the major conventions and covenants adopted by the United Nations and its specialized agencies. These include the Covenants on Civil and Political Rights as well as the Covenant on Social and Economic Rights.
It is true that conditions for enjoyment of Human Rights in our country leave much to be desired. More than 65 per cent people are still illiterate; nearly one-third of the country’s population have poor means of subsistence; many live below the poverty line, communal riots and social tensions do still occur.
Large-scale terrorization of poor communities asserting their constitutional rights continues unabated. Industrialists, landlords, contractors, and upper- and middle – class peasants continue to suppress any political mobilization of the poor. Therefore it is important, that the government, all political parties and the Indian people be committed to the reduction of these evils.
A. VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN INDIA
Browsing through the daily newspapers, one can find out very many cases of dehumanizing torture, assault, rape, and death in the custody of police or other government agencies. Their increase is alarming in proportions, affecting the credibility of the Rule of Law and the administration of criminal justice system.
Most of the victims of custodial violence are the poor and the downtrodden. A death in police station is made to look like a suicide or an accident and the body is disposed of quickly without postmortem. Records are manipulated and evidences are destroyed to shield the police personnel responsible for the offence. All these happen with the collaboration of political influence. The kith and kin of the victims are voiceless and unable to seek justice because of fear, poverty and ignorance of law.
Just few examples are sufficient to illustrate how the persons who are supposed to be the protectors of the citizens, turn out to be law breakers and cause for custodial violence and lockup deaths. The major forms of violences caused to the voiceless people are as under:
Custodial Death:
On 26 August 1997, a 22-year-old street vendor, who sold chana outside Bandra (Mumbai) West Railway Station, was spirited away by the crime Branch of the Mumbai police. His family looked desperately for him everywhere. On 2 September, his sister was taken to the JJ Hospital Morgue where she was able to identify the body of the missing person. It bore four bullet marks, and traces of tire marks. The police insisted that the dead man was a goonda with mafia connections. Yet they could not prove this legally or inform his family of his death.( INDIAN CURRENTS, 20-26 July,1998)
Sexual Harassment of Women
On 10 November 1997 a gang of armed desperados raped a woman and five others were stripped naked and were paraded in the streets of Kodaira, a village in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar. A person being paraded naked has almost become a norm in Bihar. This case has also highlighted the reign of terror let loosed by well-organized criminal gangs with whom the politicians seem to be hand in glove. ( INDIAN CURRENTS, Dec. 13-19, 1997)
3.Humiliation of Minorities:
Since last decade, atrocities against Minorities by fundamental groups have been the norm of life. No one can forget the cruel act of burning Stanes and his two sons in Orissa. Frs. A.T.Thomas, and Aruldas, Sr.Rani Mary were driven to death by barbaric fanatics. To cite a case, Fr.Christudas was paraded naked and tortured by a mob on 2 September 1997 in Dumka of Bihar on account of false criminal cases against him. Our constitution gives even the fundamental rights to privacy to prostitutes. But our protectors of law in Bihar thought a Catholic priest does not deserve it for reasons best known to such officials! (INDIAN CURRENTS, Oct. 25-31, 1997)
B. TADA AND HUMAN RIGHTS
Talking about TADA, K.G.Karabiran, a civil rights activist says “the law makers and administrators cannot distinguish between terrorism and social movements trying to bring about social change!” This law is being used indiscriminately against anyone whom the law wishes to get even with, or against those who challenge or oppose oppressive and repressive actions of the State machinery.
1. For example, in 1986-87, a student from Andhra Pradesh protesting against a bus fare hike was booked under sections 3,4 & 5 of TADA and languished in prison for a whole year before he was released.*
2. Then in 1991-92, in Ahmedabad, a woman whose husband had only a few hours earlier fallen victim to police bullets, was booked under TADA and held in prison for 10 months, because she had argued heatedly with the police over their unjust action.*
A person accused of wrongdoing is innocent until proven guilty, is the basic understanding of the law. But unfortunately, all these cases suggest the reality in our country, is the opposite.
(* UNDERSTANDING HUMAN RIGHTS. Bombay: Research and Documentation Centre , St.Pius X College. P. 12)
C. DALITS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
“The new millennium is going to be the hellannium for Dalits” thus spake the former Justice of the Supreme Court, Mr.Krishna Aiyer. The tremendous advancement in science and technology in our country has had quite an impact on the progress of our country. But its effects have yet to trickle down to the common man, and much more to the Dalits. On the contrary, in every sphere of society, they still experience discrimination, are looked down on with scorn and often with suspicion. Above all, they are deprived of their basic right of being treated as humans and being recognized as such. The following examples of Human Rights abuses heaped on the Dalits will help us to see the reality of the situation:
1. In A.P. Dalits asking for the title to the land they cultivated were falsely charged and arrested under TADA. Though no material evidence could be produced against the accused, it was six months before they were released.*
2. In Rewa District of Madhya Pradesh, the entire Dalit Basti was burnt down and three Dalits were killed by a ravaging mob of 300 persons, because a new hand-pump was installed in a water-starved Dalit basti!*
Six Schedule Tribe women were mass-raped in Padaria, Bihar.* (* UNDERSTANDING HUMAN RIGHTS, p.13)
D. CUMMUNALISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS
The word communalism evokes distasteful pictures of clashes between which arise on the basis of religion and caste. The bloody Bombay riots of December, 1992 and January, 1993 which were sparked off as a result of the shameful demolition of the Babri Masjid, portrays best the extreme hatred and fanaticism prevalent in society. The rampaging communal mobs killed in the name of religion, destroyed properties and spread fear, on a scale that can never be described and which eventually brought shame to the fair name of cosmopolitan Mumbai. People lived for 3 to 4 decades in harmony, as neighbours became enemies overnight. The trust of a generation went up in flames in a single night. This is the danger of communalism.
Victims of communal hatred in Mumbai had to suffer doubly. They suffered even at the hands of police. Being protectors, they took a day off, so to say. They took law into their own hands and terrorized the already harassed victims; at other times, they stood by silently, almost blindly, allowing the mobs a free hand!
India cannot remain a spectator when these violations were taking place in her soil. Accordingly an Act on Human Right was enacted in 1993 and a commission was set up to look into the violations.
V.NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
In India the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) was set up in the year 1994 and the then former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Mr.Ranganath Mishra headed it. This Commission looked into abuses of Human Rights especially in Kashmir and Punjab, custodial deaths, bonded laborers, atrocities, etc. It has suggested that TADA be abolished and further recommended that every State should set up a Human Rights Commission. And the Amnesty International was allowed to visit the Kashmir Valley for their findings. This move was a response to the commitment of India to the cause of Human Rights. Some other interventions of the NHRC are:
· Seven children from Orissa, who were working as bonded laborers in the construction of a flyover at Shahdra in Delhi, have been released following the Commission’s intervention.
· The NHRC Chairman, Justice Ranganath Mishra declared “issues like child labour and bonded labour will now be a part of our chapter.” The Commission took up the issue of child labour in the glass industry in Uttar Pradesh and then followed it by examining the problem of child labour in the” match-making industry” at Sivakasi.
· The Commission has asked the Medical Council of India (MCI) to examine the ethical aspects of the tests being conducted in the name of sex determination.
· It has also taken up the case of hysterectomy being performed on some mentally retarded women in Maharashtra.
· The Commission has lent its support to a unique campaign launched by the kerala Police Officers’ Association for the promotion of Human Rights awareness. It is for the first time that an association of Police Officers has started a campaign of this kind.
While we all agree that the NHRC is essential and its work is noteworthy we have to also accept some shortcomings of this Commission. Here are a few suggestions:
a. The Commission should have the power to appoint an independent investigative agency.
b. It should have the power to summon witnesses, seek evidence, call for records and this should be made binding on all governments to submit the necessary information and documents.
The Commission should not depend on government machinery for its functioning more so because, in most cases the government is a respondent and this definitely hampers the investigation.
CONCLUSION
Violation of human rights in a civilized society takes place in the form of sexism, untouchability, discrimination and prejudices based on caste, creed or place of birth. As a result, mostly the innocents are the victims of such violence. Now is the crucial time for all of us, as caretakers of law and order in the society, to launch into the campaign on protection of human dignity and honor. Through education and creation of legal awareness in the minds of common man we can enable the sleeping masses to awake and arise so that they can protect themselves legally from all dangers and evils that assail them in their day today life events.
For more details contact:
Fr.M.Jegadhees
Capuchin Legal Awareness
Research and Educational Services (Clares) Amalashram
Srirangam,P.O.
Trichy-620006, S.India, Tel.0431/432208.
E-mail: fr_jagadhees@hotmail.com & fr_jagadhees@yahoo.co.in
