HRF Monthly

Making sense of the Prime Minister’s offer to lift AFSPA in the Northeast

/ / HRF Monthly

·

The AFSPA will figure as a major item in the discussion at the United Human Rights Council  in September this year when it discusses India’s periodic report, and then again at the United Nations Human Rights Committee in November this year.

———

THERE are four audiences that the Prime Minister’s statement on the possible lifting of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 [AFSPA] in northeast India is aimed at. The first audience is the people of the North East. However, the people of Nagaland and Manipur have longer memories than the Prime Minister’s Office and the security establishment allow for. They are still awaiting the sanction for prosecution of Assam Rifles personnel pursuant to the Supreme Court’s EEVFAM judgment of 2016. Forget the detritus of Operation Golden Bird and Operation Bajrang in Assam.

…

Making sense of the Prime Minister’s offer to lift AFSPA in the NortheastRead More »

HRF Monthly

Detention and deportation of Rohingya refugees fly in the face of India’s obligations

/ / HRF Monthly

The new norms of an insensitive government

·

In the absence of a legislation to deal with refugees, India continues to treat Rohingya refugees in an arbitrary manner, discriminating against them in relation to refugees from other nations, and inhumanely detains and deports them, in violation of customary international law and its own international treaty obligations.

——

HASINA Begum, a Rohingya refugee staying in India, was deported to Myanmar on March 22 from the Indian border town of Moreh in Manipur’s Tengnoupal district. She had been in detention at the Kathua sub-jail in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir since March 6 last year. She had UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] registration no. 305-13C01783 as a refugee in India. Her husband and three minor children are still living in the most abject conditions in a slum in Jammu. The minor children have been inconsolable since the detention and deportation of their mother.

…

Detention and deportation of Rohingya refugees fly in the face of India’s obligationsRead More »

HRF Monthly

AFSPA in the North East – the never ending trauma

/ / HRF Monthly

  – March 12, 2022

The Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act [AFSPA] was passed by the Indian Parliament on September 11, 1958. The Parliament was told it would last no longer than a year. In 2022, we are still waiting for that year to end.

The Act contains immunity clauses for the armed forces even if they are involved in violations of the right to life or torture.

In theory, the Union Government could give permission upon application for prosecution of armed forces personnel accused of offences. According to a question raised in the Rajya Sabha (upper house of Parliament) in 2015, a total of 38 requests for the sanction of prosecution under AFSPA and the Armed Forces (Jammu and Kashmir) Special Powers Act, 1990 were made between June 1991 and March 2015. Of the 38, permission was denied in 30 cases while the remaining eight requests were pending as of March 2015.

…

AFSPA in the North East – the never ending traumaRead More »

HRF Monthly

Extension of policing powers to BSF: comparable international experiences BYRAVI NAIR OCTOBER 25, 2021

/ / HRF Monthly
 OCTOBER 25, 2021

Northern Ireland’s Royal Ulster Constabulary experience offers a lesson to Indian lawmakers: the militarised policing of a local population by a centrally-controlled force that has been awarded extraordinary powers without accountability measures will likely result in human rights violation, explains RAVI NAIR.

————

MOST modern democracies adhere to the policy of separation between the military and the police. Many nations have made limited exceptions for certain paramilitary forces.

Nevertheless, as Northern Ireland’s experience illustrates, the mixing of forces with inherently different mandates (armed combat versus law enforcement) and targets (enemy versus local citizen) is likely to do more harm than good.

…

Extension of policing powers to BSF: comparable international experiences BYRAVI NAIR OCTOBER 25, 2021Read More »

HRF Monthly

Shifting the borders inland: Policing powers of the Border Security Force

/ / HRF Monthly
OCTOBER 21, 2021
 
Amidst the recent decision to increase the jurisdiction of the Border Security Force in West Bengal, Punjab and Assam, RAVI NAIR examines the encroachment of Constitutional federalism by a union government gradually inching the country towards an authoritarian state.
 

Union government’s decision to extend the jurisdiction of the Border Security Force (BSF) to over 50 km in three states – namely, West Bengal, Punjab and Assam, from the barbed wire fence with Bangladesh and Pakistan, along with the grant of policing powers, is one more building block in the creation of a unitary authoritarian state.

…

Shifting the borders inland: Policing powers of the Border Security ForceRead More »

HRF Monthly

The right of private defense – a legal view

/ / HRF Monthly

An SAHRDC backgrounder

 
SEPTEMBER 28, 2021
 
RAVI NAIR of the SOUTH ASIA HUMAN RIGHTS DOCUMENTATION CENTRE provides an analysis of the right to self defense relating to person and property under the prevalent criminal jurisprudence, and how the Supreme Court has looked at it over the course of time.
 

It is the duty of the State to protect its citizens and their property from danger. However, there are circumstances wherein the State machinery is not available or is passive.

…

The right of private defense – a legal viewRead More »

Scroll to Top