Human rights groups send representation on torture
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, June 27 2020:
Certain human rights groups based in the State have sent a representation to the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to visit Manipur and study the endemic phenomena of torture by authorities in the State at the earliest.
A joint statement issued by Civil Society Coalition for Human Rights in Manipur and UN; Human Rights Alert; Committee on Human Rights (COHR), Manipur; Reachout; Just Peace Foundation (JPF); Extrajudicial Execution Victims Family Association, Manipur; United People's Front; Families of Involuntarily Disappeared' Association, Manipur; Human Rights Defender, Manipur; Movement for People's Right to Information, Manipur; Human Rights Initiative; Manipur Alliance for Child Rights; Indigenous Perspective claimed that torture has become endemic in Manipur since the imposition of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958, which allows the armed forces of the Union to operate with impunity.
The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA) is another instrument facilitating torture and ill-treatment by sanctioning arbitrary arrest and detention as well as by providing stringent conditions of bail, it said and added that the hardship faced by the people during the unprecedented lockdown is compounded by the heavy-handed and opportunistic "counter-terrorism measures" of the Government.