Rashida too says it
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: May 04, 2013 -
In recurring echo of what the UN Special Rapportuer on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions Christof Heynes, who, of course, was denied permission to visit Manipur during his last official mission to India in March, 2012, had said on the need for scrapping Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to bring the domestic law more in line not only with the International standards but also to send out a powerful message that instead of military approach, the Government is committed to respect right to life of all people in the country.
Rashida Manjoo, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, its Causes and Consequences, while wrapping up his 10-day long official mission to India on May 1, too has reiterated that an Act that takes away the fundamental rights of a person under the guise of national protection needs to be taken off.
Unlike Christof, Rashida was lucky to be permitted to visit Manipur and interacted with the AFSPA-affected people of the State directly.
That is why she has made a strong case for repealing AFSPA as it violates the International laws of which India is obliged to follow.
According to her, AFSPA perpetuates impunity, gives sweeping power to personnel of armed forces who widely used the Act against human rights defenders and has been blamed for fake encounter killings.
As a matter of fact, the observations of the two UN Special Rapportuers have only emphasised the chorus of comments being made by the UN since 1997 against prolong imposition of AFSPA in Northeast and Jammu & Kashmir by the Government of India.
Introduced in 1958 to suppress Naga insurgency, AFSPA has been extended to cover whole of Manipur in 1980.
At the time of enacting the Act as an 'emergency', Indian Parliament and the people have been promised that it would be in operation for only six months but it has lived on till today with no sign of any abatement in the insurgency problem anywhere.
On the other hand, hundreds of deaths, rapes and false imprisonments in the hands of the Armed forces personnel have become the defining character of AFSPA today.
This exacerbation has compelled the UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination to exert pressure on the Government of India in 2007 for doing away with AFSPA.
In March 2009 too, the then Indian High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay herself had demanded that the Act be repealed.
But all these pleadings and other instructions issued forth from the table of the UN have remained ignored.
This is the harsh reality in the world’s largest democracy where the basic fundamental rights of some sections of the people are denied.
But lets hope that at least, this time, the Government of India listens to the cries of Irom Chanu Sharmila.
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