Sharmila Ebadi and Human Rights

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Sharmila, Ebadi and Human Rights

By:- David Buhril *

Irom Sharmila Chanu's resort to fasting for the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act 1958 (AFSPA) is raising more attention and concern after her six year's fasting.

On May 11, 2007 Sharmila came to Delhi with the Manipur jail authorities, her doctor and nurses to appear in the court of Ms. Kamini Lau, ACMM at Patiala House Court Complex on the charge of intending to commit suicide. What about the Satyagraha's instrument, is the question.

Miss Irom Sharmila with an AFSPA banner

But some truth has strange interpretation and version. Although the interpretation and version has no strength to negate the cause of her movement, it questions and contests the noble struggle.

Sharmila honestly told the court, "It is my only instrument. I have no other means", when she was asked why she wanted to end her life by fasting. Meanwhile, Sharmila was recently awarded the Gwangju prize for Human Rights, 2007.

Shirin Ebadi, the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner and human-rights activist, spoke strongly in support of Sharmila when she visited Delhi in November 2006. Ebadi spoke through her interpreter and talked about the discriminatory nature of AFSPA, which she called "a strange thing" in Indian democracy. Ebadi was more serious than she sounded as she talked about Sharmila's struggle.

Fifty eight years old Ebadi who was a judge dismissed from the bench after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran is now a lawyer who works to promote freedom, spotlight gender inequity and child abuse, and defends dissidents against Iran's theocratic regime.

Ebadi visited Sharmila at New Delhi AIIMS hospital when the latter was continuing her fast for the repeal of AFSPA. Ebadi was moved by the dogged will and struggle of Sharmila.

Ebadi expressed concern about Sharmila's deteriorating health conditions and said, "If Sharmila dies, the courts and judiciary are responsible, Parliament is directly responsible as the Parliament passed the laws. If Sharmila dies, the military is responsible because they created conditions for her to go on hunger strike. If Sharmila dies, the executive, the Prime Minister and the President are responsible."

Ebadi also said, "If Sharmila dies, each one of you journalists are responsible because you did not do your duty. You never write about the innocent people dying in Kashmir and the North East."

Ebadi called Sharmila "women with the will" and talked at length about the unbending strength of Sharmila and said, "Women are the one who can carry the message across the globe." Ebadi felt that to disregard women and bar them from active participation in political, social, economic and cultural life would in fact be tantamount to depriving the entire population of every society of half its capability.

Ebadi is very much concerned about Sharmila as she felt that the entire system, civil society and the authorities have created a condition where her voices are contained. She charged everyone saying: "You never say anything. You never speak out."

Ebadi actually begged the journalists to present the struggle of Sharmila and the discriminating AFSPA so that the world knows that things such as these are taking place in India. She also requested the journalists to go to the North-East of India and Kashmir to witness the violations of human rights.

Referring to the six year long hunger strike of Sharmila, Ebadi said, " I have worked in the areas of human rights for more than thirty years and my speciality is rights of prisoners. I have seen many people going on hunger strike. But what I saw here was a woman with an amazing will."

Ebadi showed deep anguish and anger on taking a serious note of the AFSPA. Ebadi said that she reserved the right to criticise the human rights violations in India, as human rights is universal.

Ebadi said, "human rights should function as a guarantor of freedom, justice and peace. If human rights fail to be manifested in codified laws or put into effect by states, then, as rendered in the preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, human beings will be left with no choice other than staging a "rebellion against tyranny and oppression."

A human being divested of all dignity, a human being deprived of human rights, a human being gripped by starvation, a human being beaten by famine, war and illness, a humiliated human being and a plundered human being is not in any position or state to recover the rights he or she has lost."

Ebadi also said that improving human rights conditions in any country is the responsible of the people of that country and that every country has the duty to make its opinion known on the human rights of another country.

Ebadi said, "If the 21st century wishes to free itself from the cycle of violence, acts of terror and war, and avoid repetition of the experience of the 20th century, that most disaster ridden century of humankind, there is no other way except by understanding and putting into practice every human right for all mankind irrespective of race, gender, faith, nationality or social status."

Ebadi also said, "Sharmila has a little demand. She is demanding for a just tribunal. Help her not to die."

On May 11,2007 Sharmila had to furnish a personal bond to the tune of Rs. 10,000/ for regular bail. She then returned to Imphal's JN Hospital to her security ward where the routine of nasal feeding and fortnight court appearance would continue.

Not only that, Sharmila would also continue her struggle for the repeal of AFSPA.

She is too certain when she said, "I will continue my fast."

David Buhril, a research scholar in JNU, contributes regularly to e-pao.net. The writer can be contacted at davidbuhril(AT)yahoo(dot)com . This article was webcasted on May 20th, 2007

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