Human Rights Defenders' Statement Of Manipur

Observance of Human Rights Day 2010 *

HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS' STATEMENT OF MANIPUR
Human Rights Day
10th December 2010
Imphal, Manipur, India

We are human rights defenders who have gathered here from many organisations and associations in Manipur1. We are fathers and mothers, daughters and sons, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, partners and friends working side by side with respect and shared goals. We speak one language – the language of human rights! We extend our solidarity greetings to the human rights defenders of the world.

We affirm that all human rights are universal, indivisible, inter-related and interdependent. We also affirm that the International Bill of Rights with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights constitute the globally accepted minimum standards regarding the full enjoyment of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights by every individual.

We pledge to protect, promote and encourage human rights and fundamental freedoms, all of which derive from the inherent dignity of the human person, and are essential for his/her free and full development.

We also affirm the principles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which protect and promote the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples as collective rights.

We also affirm the United Nations Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (known as the "Declaration on Human Rights Defenders"), which obligates all States, including India to promote and protect rights of all human rights defenders.

We welcome the forthcoming India mission of Mrs. Margaret Sekaggya, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on human rights defenders in January 2011, and extend an invitation to her to include Manipur and the north-eastern region of India during her visit to assess the rights situation of human rights defenders in Manipur, who work in a situation of armed conflict with serious scale of violations perpetrated with impunity.

What unites us is our pledge to end the inequality and discrimination that still plagues the lives of the people of Manipur. We are outraged at the prolonged and deliberate legislative and executive impunity of human rights violations that exists in Manipur in the name of national security. National security can no longer be at the cost of human security. We believe that security should be founded on the sanctity of human dignity, and security obligations of the State must refer to a people-centred approach that includes chronic threats such as hunger, disease, repression, and grave disruptions of ordinary life.

In this context we recall and affirm the resolutions and statements of the people and human rights defenders over the past years on human rights, in particular the Human Rights Resolution of the National Seminar on Human Rights, 8th -9th December 1994.

We express our deep concern about the emerging trend of States to flaunt the due process of their own domestic laws applicable while arresting and detaining a person, illegally deporting a person across international borders and rendering even the cardinal principles of the rule of law meaningless. In this context, we recall and support the human rights resolution of the National Convention on the legal and political implications of the abduction of the Sanayaima alias R.K. Meghen, held on 4th November 2010 as a recent most blatant example of the failure of the State to adhere to the rule of law.

We express our concern with the long term neglect of the Manipur Commission for Human Rights and current state of non-appointment of its members and Chairman. We urge upon the Government of Manipur to fulfill its human rights obligations under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993.

We insist on the Government of India to repeal those dated and colonial-era laws that breach contemporary international human rights standards. These legal remnants of a bygone era range from laws which provide the security forces with excessive emergency powers, including the Armed Forces [Special Powers] Act and impose collective punishment to laws that arbitrarily deprive people of their land and livelihoods.

We reiterate that human rights defenders are subjected to violations, ranging from arbitrary killings, torture, arbitrary arrest, sexual harassment, etc., and India's non- ratification of UN Convention against Torture and reservations with International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and other human rights treaties abetted such violations on human rights defenders. We call upon the Government of India to ratify UN Convention against Torture and its Optional Protocol, and fulfill its international human rights obligations.

We fully recognize that the reason for the long-standing Manipur-India conflict is in its core a question of the civil and political rights of the people of Manipur. It is an affront to humanity and human values that both parties in this long-term armed conflict have not respected international humanitarian law. We urge upon all parties to conflict in Manipur, State and non-State Actors, to adhere to the principles and norms established under International humanitarian law (Common Article 3 of Geneva Conventions).

We are deeply distressed that the youth of Manipur, young girls and boys, are increasingly drawn into the conflict, both as victims and perpetrators. We strongly believe that any repression in seeking a solution to the conflict is futile, and will only deepen it. We also believe that as long as peace is elusive, human rights and fundamental freedoms will continue to be a meaningless shadow for the people of Manipur.

We are also alarmed that the State of Manipur is now a failed state that cannot or will not safeguard minimal civil conditions for the people: domestic peace, law and order, and good governance. We are concerned that the present priority of the government of Manipur on introducing a development agenda that robs people of their socio-cultural and economic rights and livelihood. Corruption, in all walks of life, is openly tolerated and promoted, compromising and challenging the basic rights and civil liberties of the poor and majority of the rural areas (valleys and hills) of Manipur.

We are convinced that a just and honorable settlement to the Manipur-India conflict can only be achieved through a democratic, inclusive and transparent political process between the contesting protagonists.

We pledge and commit to peaceful conduct of our activities, and give our firm support and solidarity to every peaceful, fair and transparent means towards the full attainment of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Manipur and across the world.

We, therefore, take the view that nothing should prevent any human rights defender organisations and institutions, both government and nongovernment, from sharing a common platform, coming together, and working in unison on every issue of violations of the principles of human rights; failing to do so amounts to a serious problem in the perceptions or interpretation regarding the human rights principles that negate the very International Bill of Rights that we are promoting and defending..

Dr. Arambam Lokendra Singh
Presiding the Observance
10th December 2010
Imphal

Note 1:
Human Rights Day 2010 was observed jointly by:

• Action Committee Against Tipaimukh Project (ACTIP),
• All Manipur Muslim Development Organisation (AMMDO),
• Chanura Lamchinglen Kangleipak (CLK),
• Citizens Concern for Dams and Development (CCDD),
• Committee on Human Rights (COHR Manipur),
• Centre for Organisation Research & Education (CORE),
• Extrajudicial Execution Victims’ Families Association Manipur (EEVFAM),
• Families of the Involuntarily Disappeared Association Manipur (FIDAM),
• Human to Humane Transcultural Centre for Trauma & Torture (H2H),
• Human Rights Alert (HRA),
• Human Rights Initiative (HRI),
• Just Peace Foundation (JPF),
• Forum for Indigenous Perspectives and Action (FIPA),
• Leimarol Khorjeikol (LEIKOL),
• NACHOM Arts of Contemporary Dance Kampni (NACHOM),
• PEACE Core Team Manipur,
• Rongmei Lu Phuam (RLP),
• Threatened Indigenous Peoples’ Society (TIPS),
• United NGOs Mission – Manipur (UNMM)
• and others.