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HRF Monthly

  25 August 2021

 SAHRDC Think Piece 2 on Afghanistan (May be freely reproduced with due credit to SAHRDC)

The mythological yarns of Hinduism are many splendoured.  They make for many hours of wonderful reading. They also attest to the fertility of the Hindu imagination more than any sound historical record.  The revanchist Hindutva supporter who dreams of an ‘Akhand Bharat’, or ‘Greater India’, would like us to believe that the Gandhara kingdom mentioned in the great Indian epics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana comprises most of what was part of Pakistan’s North West Frontier province, now called Khyber Pakhtunwa, along with modern day Eastern Afghanistan.

HRF Monthly

 SAHRDC Think Piece 1 on Afghanistan: May be freely reproduced with due credit to SAHRDC

 20 August 2021

The cussedness of a Hindutva-based policy taking precedence over humanitarian or even geopolitical considerations, implicit in the statement of the Ministry of External Affairs on 16 August 2021, takes one’s breath away.

“We have been issuing periodic advisories for the safety and security of Indian nationals in that country, including calling for their immediate return to India… We had circulated emergency contact numbers and had also been extending assistance to community members,” the MEA spokesperson said.

HRF Monthly

 SAHRDC Backgrounder[1]      10 August 2021

On 15 June 2021, a two judge bench of the Delhi High Court composed of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambani issued orders granting bail to three student activists charged under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). The students – Ms Natasha Narwal, Ms Devangana Kalita, both members of  Pinjra Tod[2], a Delhi women’s rights organization and Mr Asif Iqbal Tanha[3], had been charged under UAPA for “instigat[ing] the local population in certain Muslim dominated areas of Delhi, particularly women, and incit[ing] in them feelings of persecution, which subsequently led to violence and rioting”.[4]

HRF Monthly

24 July 2021

The South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR) is a Colombo based regional organisation. Its Bureau consists of many knowledgeable individuals from the region. However, it is doubtful if they exercised oversight on a public statement put out in the name of the organisation dated 9 July 2021. The public statement titled, " SAHR Is Deeply Concerned For The Myanmar Nationals Fleeing To India And Their Impact On The Host Community” (see full text at https://www.southasianrights.org/sahr-is-deeply-concerned-for-the-myanmar-nationals-fleeing-to-india-and-their-impact-on-the-host-community/ ). It is dated 9 July 2021 and was brought to SAHRDC’S notice on the afternoon of 21 July 2021.

HRF Monthly

June 26, 2021

ndia’s academic institutions are all facing authoritarianism. One more example of it was seen when the MEA farmed out the writing of the first draft of their reports to UN rights bodies to academic institutions like the NLUD. The draft report for the Universal Periodic Report by NLUD academics was decent. By the time the MEA worked on it and the final product was submitted, it had made unbelievable claims to India’s human rights record. The same exercise is being repeated for the fourth periodic report to the HRC. The NLUD draft report should be put into the public domain and its academic integrity preserved, writes RAVI NAIR.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the National Law University Delhi (NLUD) have held three consultations on India’s fourth periodic report to the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Committee in May and June 2021. It is due for submission in August 2021.

HRF Monthly

 JUNE 5, 2021

Protecting and upholding human rights just got more difficult in India. Vacant positions in the NHRC are going to pliant retired judicial officers, policemen on deputation, and sleuths who probe and track complainants and not the human rights issues they raise, writes human rights activist RAVI NAIR. 

There is a certain insouciance and disesteem on the part of the Bharatiya Janata Party government in matters of upholding norms or respecting institutions. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) appointments committee has picked former Supreme Court judge Arun Kumar Mishra as chairperson. It has also made an insidious choice in Rajiv Jain, former head of the Intelligence Bureau. The third appointment is of a former Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Justice Mahesh Mittal Kumar.

HRF Monthly

BY RAVI NAIR:  APRIL 23, 2021
 
Throwing light on the inhumane and illegal method of ‘pushing back’ Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh adopted by the Border Security Force in India, RAVI NAIR writes about how this violates India’s international law obligations, and why these refugees deserve due process as guaranteed by the Indian Constitution.
 India shares a direct border with Myanmar as well as Bangladesh. Although the exodus of the Rohingya community coming directly from Myanmar has largely subsided, some Rohingya staying in overcrowded camps in Bangladesh have turned to cross into India. India shares a 4,096 km border with Bangladesh, and the Indian state of West Bengal, with a nearly 2,217 km-long border with Bangladesh, has been the preferred route for crossing over into India.

HRF Monthly

BY RAVI NAIR:  APRIL 12, 2021

 

Analysing the Supreme Court’s recent order denying Rohingya refugees in Jammu interim protection from deportation, RAVI NAIR breaks down the legal infirmities in the apex court’s reasoning to show that the court seems to have made up in advance about its decision and its reasoning follows ex-post facto.

In February 2021, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court asked the local government to explain within a month the measures taken by it to identify and deport illegal immigrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh staying in Jammu.

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