HRF Monthly

Has West lost its appetite for a rules-based order?

/ / HRF Monthly

The ICJ decision on interim measures was carefully crafted. It is as political as it is legal. Pointedly, it did not call for an immediate ceasefire ap

 

By Ravi Nair – 18/02/2024

On February 27, or a few days earlier, Israel will hopefully submit its response report to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) interim order of January 26, 2024. The final decision in the South African plaint, now supported by other countries, is in the distant future. Soon, the registrar of the ICJ will call in South African and Israeli lawyers to outline the time frame for filing papers on the merits of the case. South Africa has hoped that it would take no more than six months for both sides to file papers. This would just be the first step in a very long process.

The ICJ decision on interim measures was carefully crafted. It is as political as it is legal. Pointedly, it did not call for an immediate ceasefire. All countries that are party to the genocide convention, including India, have to ensure that these interim measures are implemented. The United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), the European Union (EU), Germany and many other European States are doing are doing everything but that. The continuance of armament shipments and economic bailouts to a beleaguered Israeli economy is evidently not furthering their legal obligations to prevent genocide.

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HRF Monthly

An ocean Indian in name only: Reflections on the Maldivian contretemps

/ / HRF Monthly

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As the Maldives deadline for withdrawal of Indian armed forces comes close, Ravi Nair traces the historical and contemporary dynamics of the geopolitics in the ‘Indian’ Ocean that have led to this crucial juncture. 

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MOST Indians, including those who should know better, think the Indian Ocean belongs to India.

In this era, when official history is only issued in denominations of 500 and 1,000 years, they would do well to remember that prior to 1515, it was called the Eastern Ocean.

But when those in power and in proximity to it believe that, in 2024, the Indian Ocean is Indian in the geopolitical sense, it is delusional.

The Maldives is a sovereign nation

The contretemps with the Maldives is a recent example.

The air of injured innocence on the part of many in India at the request of the Maldives for the withdrawal of Indian armed forces personnel borders on the ludicrous. The Akhand Bharat (Greater India) groupies conveniently forget the Maldives is a sovereign nation.

The air of injured innocence on the part of many in India at the request of the Maldives for the withdrawal of Indian armed forces personnel borders on the ludicrous.

The Indian media is replete with all the benefits that accrue to the Maldives thanks to the Indian connection. The Maldivian media, on the other hand, has chosen to downplay the assistance rendered by India in 1988.

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HRF Monthly

Post Nijjar and Pannun fiascos, can India continue without parliamentary oversight for intelligence services?

/ / HRF Monthly

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Ghar mein ghus kar marenge is a great movie dialogue. It is an even better election slogan. But can the demands of democracy and the delicate balance of international relations afford India such bravado, asks Ravi Nair.

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NEW Delhi Chatterati loves to play Chinese Whispers. The most popular one presently is, “If the US can do targeted killings outside their country, why can’t we do it?”

Targeted killings internally, within India by official agencies, or by using proxies, are an age-old practice. Too well documented to need reiteration here. Euphemistically called ‘encounter deaths’, they are endemic.

Targeted killings of non-Indian nationals

There is credible information in the public domain about the killing of a pro-Chinese Marxist tribal leader in Bangladesh in 1983 by a pro-Indian tribal leader now living in India.

Operation Leech

On February 11, 1998, an Indian tri-services detachment gunned down in cold blood six of the leadership of the nascent Arakan-based Rakhine armed group fighting the Myanmar junta. They were gunned down on Landfall Island of the Andaman group of islands.

The Rakhine now have the Arakan Army (AA), one of the more formidable armed groups fighting the Myanmar junta.

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HRF Monthly

A refugee chink in Look East policy

/ / HRF Monthly

ByRavi Nair

Dec 07, 2023 10:18 PM IST
 
New Delhi needs to have a nuanced view of the crisis in the Northeast. A refugee policy is need of the hour
It is heartening to hear the Mizoram chief minister designate Lalduhoma saying that the Chin refugee influx in the state is a humanitarian issue and there will be no change in Aizawl’s policy towards them. The influx of over 6,000 Chin refugees from the Chin state of Myanmar into Mizoram from the second week of November 2023 requires reflection. Public perception in India has it that the Mizoram-Chin state border of Myanmar is the Indo-Myanmar border. The Indo-Myanmar border actually extends across the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Manipur on the Indian side, the Sagaing region and the Chin state of Myanmar, and the Chittagong hill tracts of Bangladesh across the international boundary.
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HRF Monthly

Return of combatant Burmese soldiers by India: A violation of international humanitarian law

/ / HRF Monthly

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As the ragtag Myanmar army starts crumbling, many more from the Myanmar army will cross the Indian border from the Chin state and the Sagaing division. Does the government of India have a policy for the intrusion of armed soldiers of a neighbouring State into India which is cognisant of international humanitarian law?

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THE recent return by India of Burmese soldiers who had crossed the international border into Mizoram to seek shelter during fighting in the Chin State in Myanmar is troubling.

Initially, 44 personnel from the Myanmar army and police had fled across the international border into Mizoram amidst fierce fighting between Chin National Army fighters and the military junta soldiers in Myanmar’s Chin state since the evening of November 13, 2023.

The fighting was adjacent to the Zokhawthar border crossing in Mizoram. The Myanmar soldiers took shelter at the local Mizoram police station. The local police handed them over to the Assam Rifles.

The Assam Rifles, which controls the international border on the Indian side in this sector, is under the administrative control of the Union home ministry. However, all its officers are drawn from the Indian army.

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HRF Monthly

As NHRCI elbows out Korea to host Asia Pacific HR institutions meeting; HR work in India firmly under the jackboot

/ / HRF Monthly

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How is it possible that after having its membership in the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions deferred and being at the bottom of every human rights index, the National Human Rights Commission of India managed to find a collaborator in Australia-based Asia Pacific Forum to host the Biennial Conference of National Human Rights Institutions?

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THE National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRCI) is set to host the Biennial Conference of National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) of Asia Pacific on September 20–21, 2023.

The conference  is being organised in collaboration with the Australia-based Asia Pacific Forum (APF).

The President of India is scheduled to address the conference.

“On 21st September, 2023, the Biennial Conference will mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UNDHR). It will also celebrate 30 years of National Human Rights Institutions and the Paris Principles, with a sub-theme on the environment and climate change,” a press release of the NHRCI states.

In a badly drafted repetitive press release, the NHRCI makes such basic mistakes as calling the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the “UNDHR”!

In this theatre of the absurd, the APF is being represented by NHRCI on the management committee of the GANHRI even after its deferred status!

This only reflects the NHRCI’s staffing by government apparatchiks in violation of the Principles Relating to the Status of National Human Rights Institutions, also known as the Paris Principles.

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