An impeccable record or a pack of lies
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: September 24, 2012 -
Protest at a Repeal AFSPA rally Organised by Just Peace Foundation from Nov 2nd to 6th 2011 :: Pix - JPF
India Government's response to the recommendations over its human rights record at the 21st United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session at Geneva on 20 September 2012 has obviously not gone down well with human rights groups and defenders terming it as 'a failure to live up to its words and commitment'.
Leading the charge, Working Group on Human Rights (WGHR) in India and the UN, whose report was one of the three (the other two being those presented by the Government of India and the National Human Rights Commission), that were looked into by UNHRC members while arriving at their recommendations, has pointed out that the response Government of India to the 169 recommendations of the UNHRC lacks targeted course of action directed to tackle discrimination and specific human rights challenges and thus recommendations pertaining to specific as well as serious human rights issues have been rejected, despite the Council's expressed concern.
WGHR also maintained that 'blatant refusal' of the Government to adopt any recommendation to review or repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, which is a cause of systematic human rights violations, despite numerous recommendations made by the UN Special Rapporteur on Extra Judicial, Summary and Arbitrary Execution and by the Council Members during the second Universal Periodic Review (UPR), 'is disturbing'.
Out of the 169 recommendations made the UN member states during the second UPR in Geneva on June 4 last, India has refused to accept 86 recommendations.
These rejections include review and repeal of Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 (AFSPA), commitment to protect human rights defenders, ratification to Rome Statute on International Criminal Court and to invite the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture to visit India.
This is indeed a setback for the human rights groups and defenders who have been demanding review and repeal of AFSPA not only in Manipur but also in other parts of the country and beyond.
In fact, after United Kingdom, Canada and Germany raised human rights concerns vis-avis AFSPA during the first review of human rights record of India in 2008; France, Switzerland and Solvakia bolstered the morale of the anti-AFSPA campaigners with specific interventions for review and repeal of the Military Act denounced by many as draconian in the just concluded second UPR.
It is interesting to note that while rejecting the recommendation for review and repeal of AFSPA, Government of India has contended that it does not need to explain itself on human rights given that 'we have an open system of functioning, a very active civil society and a wide consensus on how to deal with issues'.
If this is really so and the human rights situation in the country is as good as it could be, then why is the Government of India shying away from inviting UN Special Rapporteur to India, whose visit to India has been pending for the last 18 years?
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