The news of extension of AFSPA, w.e.f, 1 October 2022, though not surprising is, nonetheless, befuddling. Reports state that AFSPA has been extended for a period of six months in three out of the 26 districts of Arunachal Pradesh, viz., Tirap, Changlang and Longding districts and areas under Namsai & Mahadevpur police stations in Namsai district. In the state of[Read More…]
We are happy in releasing to the public the first part of the study of how the Indian state has weaponised the UAPA law against anyone who dares to challenge the Indian state and assert their fundamental rights to information, association, dissent and democracy. As part of the Campaign to repeal the UAPA, we had undertaken to study the[Read More…]
Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka and Tamils all over the world are very deeply concerned in relation to Sri Lanka’s past human rights violations including war crimes and the very minimal steps taken by Sri Lanka so far to uphold accountability and dispense justice to the victims which is long delayed and has been remaining in cold storage since the[Read More…]
It is a matter of shame for us as a society that Bilkis Bano’s rapists have been released by a District level committee of Gujarat Government. Some people in the Hindutva family are also justifying the act by claiming that a few of the rapists are Sanskari Brahmans. If rapists and murderers will be called Sanskari, then we as a[Read More…]
A Statement by Concerned Citizens and Representatives of Civil Liberties’ Organizations 20th Sep, 2022: More than 35 concerned citizens and representatives of civil liberties’ organisations in India have sought the urgent intervention of the authorities in Uttar Pradesh to ensure quality health care and medical bail for jailed student leader Atiq-ur-Rehman, struggling with partial paralysis and disorientation after a heart[Read More…]
In his classic “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte,” Karl Marx amends Hegel’s quip on history repeating itself, first as tragedy and then as farce (1986 97). With the former Philippine dictator Marcos’s son in office, will farcical acts be the spectacle for the next six years?. Imagine the sons of Somoza, Trujillo or Batista returning to their banana[Read More…]
The democratic community of Europe expressed its heartfelt condolences to the fascist repression unleashed on the Indian people, particularly on the untimely demise of Comrade Pandu Naroti, an Adivasi who stood by the working class, peasants and all oppressed and exploited people of India. It expressed its condolences to his family and friends in Mureweda village, a poor Adivasi community[Read More…]
Writers, Artists, Human Rights Activists and Well-known Personalities. Demand Protection of Human Rights and Livelihood of the Local Villagers of Dhinkia, Odisha The South Korean Company POSCO backed out from Odisha due to a long struggle of the local communities. However, the Odisha state Government is allowing Jindal to take over the lands and livelihood of the same local villagers. The struggle for[Read More…]
In yet another act of criminal negligence, the prison authorities of Taloja Central Jail, Maharashtra, have delayed medical treatment to Vernon Gonsalves, a prominent activist and one of the accused in the Bhima Koregaon – Elgar Parishad case. Gonsalves, who is 65 years old, fell ill with fever on August 30th, and even though his condition was steadily deteriorating, he[Read More…]
On 8th September Vernon Gonsalves, one of the 16 undertrials in the Bhima Koregaon case lodged in the anda cell of Taloja Central Jail, was diagnosed with dengue and likely pneumonia. Gonsalves age 65, had been suffering from fever since 30th August, but it took an appeal from his lawyer and the intervention of the Court for the Taloja Jail[Read More…]
Statement by Mumbai Rises to Save Democracy – a campaign of 40+ civil society groups MRSD is distressed to learn about the health situation of 65 year old activist, poet, and writer Vernon Gonsalves, incarcerated since 2018 in the Bhima Koregaon/Elgar Parishad case. Gonsalves started developing several symptoms, such as fever, cough, dizziness, and nausea starting on August 30, as[Read More…]
Incarcerations, brutality, and torture are common in the U.S. Activists claim that this amounts to a war waged against racially marginalized, poor, and working-class people. The very laws and government agencies created to protect the people in the United States are increasingly being weaponized against those who are often marginalized in society: people of color, the poor, and the working[Read More…]
One thing is constant in India: violence. The perpetrators are the same; only the faces of those who encounter and resist the violence change. In India, or JatiIndia — my name for this nation of jatis/castes — the social hierarchical structure of jatiism/casteism and the inherent violence that goes with it stems from the country’s tree of systemic upper-caste supremacy[Read More…]
Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) expresses its shock and horror at the order by the ASI S P Chero of Border Security Force (BSF) of 68 Battalion to rape a woman who was hiding with her baby daughter in the fields of spiny gourd (কাঁকরোল) while being caught in attempting to cross the Indo – Bangladesh border at[Read More…]
Julian Assange’s legal team has taken its next step along their Via Dolorosa, filing an appeal against the decision to extradite their client to the United States to face 18 charges, 17 based on the odious US Espionage Act of 1917. Since his violent eviction from the Ecuadorian embassy in April 2019, much to the delight of the national security[Read More…]
Pandu Narote, who was framed d along with former Delhi University professor G N Saibaba under various sections of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for Maoist links, died on Thursday after contracting swine flu. He was imprisoned at the Nagpur Central Jail. One of the blackest days in post-1947 Indian history. Crushing of democratic dissent has touched volumes unprecedented, with[Read More…]
Very recently, the CPIM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government has moved the Supreme Court against the Kerala High Court quashing the UAPA cases filed against alleged Maoist leader Roopesh. The entire sequence of events, as explained below, brings out once again the double standard adopted by the CPIM in questions of implementation of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (UAPA).[Read More…]
No, because the face of a little girl in Bangladesh, or a little boy in Cambodia, and the thought of a nuclear blast going off close enough to them for them to lose their life, is enough. Again, this is a love letter. This is a love letter to all the civilians of the planet. — Philipos Melaku-Bello, in response[Read More…]
It was Sunday, July 31, when some of us gathered outside the Indian Visa and Passport Application Center in Surrey, BC. The occasion was the martyrdom day of Indian revolutionary Udham Singh. Singh was executed on July 31, 1940 in London for assassinating the former Lt. Governor of Punjab, Michael O’ Dwyer, who was instrumental behind the circumstances leading to[Read More…]
The Association for Democratic Rights Punjab launched a protest in Sangrur on August 8th, comprising around 50 persons, condemning the state sponsored blacklaws.A march was led upto the office of the Deputy Commissioner. Swaranjeet Singh spoke about how the rulers were intruding in all independent areas to seize power and trod on the people’s rights.The manner the organs of democracy[Read More…]
Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) rose to the very need of the hour by staging a protest meeting for release of political prisoners. Even if not such large numbers, an event of most qualitative significance in light of neo-fascism sharpening it’s fangs day by day. It was a stepping stone in dealing with the question of incarceration of[Read More…]
On Sunday, July 31, South Asian activists came together outside the Indian Visa and Passport Application Center in Surrey, BC, to raise their voices for a detained journalist and human rights defender Teesta Setalvad was recently arrested on trumped up charges at the behest of the right wing Hindu nationalist BJP government in New Delhi for advocating for justice to[Read More…]
The case of social activist Himanshu Kumar is attracting widespread concern as it is widely believed that something exceptionally unjust has happened, even when judged by recent standards. To capture the events so far very briefly, as a social activist working in Dantewada, Chattisgarh, Himanshu Kumar petitioned the Supreme Court in 2009 ( with co-petitioners) regarding an independent inquiry into[Read More…]
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday, July 19 conducted intense search operations at the residences of alleged Communist Party of India-Maoist sympathisers and the widow of Maoist leader Ramakrishna in Andhra Pradesh. The searches were conducted in Alakurapadu village of Tangutur mandal. The officials of NIA raided the residence of G Kalyan Rao, a poet and leader of Viplava[Read More…]
Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by Nathu Ram Godse. There are some people subscribing to Hindutva ideology who idolize Godse. Various leaders, activists associated with the Hindutva ideology from time to time have portrayed Godse as a patriot. Question is Gandhi was the tallest leader of India’s freedom movement and even before India achieved independence Godse was making an attempt to[Read More…]
Jharkhand’s Saraikella Police arrested journalist Rupesh Kumar Singh from his house on July 17th, 2022 at noon. The police force along with magistrate attacked the house of Rupesh’s at Ramgarh, and his family members were interrogated in the name of search. Though police had search and arrest warrant, arrest warrant was not shown in anticipation of public resistance. Later, he[Read More…]
But are privacy rights coming in the way of reuniting lost children with families? In the backdrop of international development agencies such as International Labour Organisation (ILO) warning an imminent rise in incidence of child-trafficking during the pandemic, the Railway Police Force aims to use technology to outsmart unscrupulous elements trafficking children. It is rolling out a new set of[Read More…]
A Chhattisgarh court on July 14, 2022 acquited 121 tribals in an UAPA case after 5 years in jail. The accused were booked under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for allegedly assisting Maoists in the 2017 Burkapal attack, which killed 25 CRPF personnel. Of the 121 accused, seven were minors who were released earlier and one died during the[Read More…]
The National Solidarity Forum (NSF) is pleased to announce the call for 2022 nominations for Kandhamal Human Rights Awards: Kandhamal Human Rights Award for Individual category- It carries a cash award of INR 25,000 and a Plaque Kandhamal Human Rights Award for Institutional category- It carries a Plaque and Citation attesting the works. About KHR Awards: The National Solidarity Forum has instituted these[Read More…]
Indian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalist Mohammad Zubair, and cease harassing him in retaliation for his work, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday. In the evening of Monday, June 27, officers with the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit of the Delhi police arrested Zubair, co-founder of the fact-checking website Alt News, after summoning him for questioning, according[Read More…]
Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO), strongly condemns the false implication and detention of prominent human rights activist Teesta Setalvad in a criminal case. An FIR has been registered against her along with R. B. Sreekumar, a former Director General of Gujarat Police, and Sanjiv Bhatt, another IPS officer currently sentenced to life imprisonment. Teesta Setalvad and her organisation, Citizens[Read More…]
Today we commemorate the 50th birth anniversary of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) of West Bengal which is one of the oldest human rights organisations in India. A truly landmark day in the history of the civil liberties movement in India. Positive that today inspite of all ups and down it is shimmering it’s torch . It[Read More…]
The history of humankind of the past hundred years have thrown up a gamut of emotions and heart-wrenching crises. An accentuating challenge is the displacement of millions upon millions of peoples throughout the planet. People are forced to flee or migrate from their homeland or places of birth for a variety of reasons. At the international level United Nations High[Read More…]
After having a few lunches with Australia’s then opposition leader, Anthony Albanese, John Shipton felt reason to be confident. Albanese had promised Assange’s father that he would do whatever he could, should he win office, to bring the matter to a close. In December 2019, before a gathering at the Chifley Research Centre, Albanese also referred to Assange. “You don’t[Read More…]
In Sri Lanka it is a very serious concern that even after the government’s declaration of war victory and end of war, intimidation and harassment of media and journalists continue with increasing ferocity. People of Sri Lanka are deprived of their right to information and media and journalists are forced to practice an unprecedented level of self censorship. 34 Journalists[Read More…]
When it comes to the tawdry, hideous business of politicising the right to asylum, and the refugees who arise from it, no country does it better than Australia. A country proud of being a pioneer in women’s rights, the secret ballot, good pay conditions and tatty hardware (the Hills Hoist remains a famous suburban monstrosity) has also been responsible for[Read More…]
In recent days reports of hunger strikes by two political prisoners Sagar Gorkhe and G.N.Saibaba have deeply hurt the conscience of a nation preparing to celebrate its 75th independence day. During the freedom movement several political prisoners had gone on very valiant hunger strikes taken up in very difficult conditions. These included such great freedom fighters as Bhagat Singh, Jatindranath[Read More…]
Police should not abuse Sex Workers, media should not publish their pictures of raid and rescue operations The Supreme Court of India directed that the police should treat sex workers with dignity and should not abuse them, verbally or physically. The State governments have been asked to ensure this through adequate sensitisation of the police. In addition, those sex workers[Read More…]
Dr. G.N. Saibaba, a 90% physical disabled person languishing in Nagpur central Jail started a hunger strike for the second time from Saturday 21st May 2022 seeking immediate resolution of his demands. Dr. G.N. Saibaba, also sat on hunger strike one and half years ago during lockdown in the jail demanding the immediate handover of medicines supplied by his family[Read More…]
In the Supreme Court today, a bench headed by the present Chief Justice NV Ramana heard that four former Chief Justices J.S. Against the backdrop of the tenure of Khehar, Deepak Mishra, Ranjan Gogoi and SA Bobade, a historic verdict has been passed that a law of treason should be enacted. Will not be used until reconsidered. Should go The[Read More…]
All those committed to protecting democracy, and more specifically to stopping the recent trend of highly undemocratic assaults on political opponents, will feel greatly relieved by the happy ending of the 10 day ordeal of Jignesh Mewani on April 29 by the acceptance of his bail by the Barpeta district and sessions court. As a bonus gain for the democracy[Read More…]
It is a matter of great concern that mindless mining and aggressive industrialization in Odisha, has become the root cause of deprivation of thousands of innocent people who have been depending on natural resources for generations for sustaining their life and livelihood. Absence of collective political will to take up people’s causes has further added to the worries of the[Read More…]
It is disgusting that the day Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani got bail at the CJM’s court,he was re-arrested on patently trumped-up charges of obstructing police officers from carrying out their duties and ‘outraging the modesty of a woman police officer’ by a police team from a different district of Assam. In both these cases the police are obviously the sole[Read More…]
In terms of labyrinthine callousness and indifference to justice, the treatment of lawyer Bernard Collaery by the Australian government must be slotted alongside that of another noted Australian currently being held in the maximum-security facility of Belmarsh, London. While Collaery has not suffered the same deprivations of liberty as publisher extraordinaire Julian Assange, both share the target status accorded them[Read More…]
A Vancouver-based online magazine has started another campaign for the jailed Indian scholar. Radical Desi had previously initiated a petition for the release of Prof. G.N. Saibaba, who is being incarcerated under brutal conditions in spite of being disabled below the waist. Now it has begun an online petition ( https://www.change.org/p/nobel-prize-for-gn-saibaba) asking for the Nobel prize in recognition of his[Read More…]
This month, the government of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson joined an ignominious collective in announcing a refugee deal with Rwanda, seedily entitled the UK-Rwanda Migration Partnership. The fact that such terms are used – a partnership or deal connotes contract and transaction – suggests how inhumane policies towards those seeking sanctuary and a better life have become. In no[Read More…]
Jan Adhikar Manch, a coalition of trade unions, democratic rights groups and other progressive forces in Odisha, strongly condemns the manner in which Comrade Batakrushna Swain was arbitrarily foisted with fresh charges by the state police on 12 April 2022 as he was ready to leave the Puri jail. Comrade Batakrushna Swain, the Convenor of Upakuliya Jami o Jangal[Read More…]
In 365 days of 2021 Christians witnessed 502 incidents of violence In first 103 days of 2022 Christians witnessed 127 incidents of violence New Delhi – 15 April 2022: Today, over two thousand years ago Jesus Christ was persecuted or believed to be crucified on this day. Followers of Jesus are even today being persecuted in certain parts of the[Read More…]
A Great Way of Celebrating 75th Anniversary of Independence is to Release All Political Prisoners. Campaign Should Start Now to be Effective by August 1 In the course of India’s long and very courageous freedom movement, India became from time to time the country with perhaps the largest number of political prisoners in the world. These included many highly distinguished[Read More…]
Tomorrow, 14th April 2022 marks the completion of two years of PUDR activist Gautam Navlakha’s surrender before the NIA. One of sixteen accused in the infamous Bhima Koregaon case, Gautam has been imprisoned in Taloja Central Jail, Navi Mumbai since 25 May 2020. For more than six months now, since 12 October 2021, the nearly 70 years old Gautam, an[Read More…]
On April 8th at Sangrur the Kirti Kisan Union, Punjab Students Union, Naujwan Bharat Sabha and Zameen Prapti Sangharsh Commitee raised a protest demanding unconditional release of all the political prisoners who have been framed by the Indian state. A march was staged of around 100 persons to the District Collectors office. It comprised of students, youth, intellectuals farmers dalit[Read More…]
In Sri Lanka, the issue of people going missing during the country’s long civil war is an open wound as evinced by the struggle of Tamil mothers seeking news about their loved ones. For the past five years Tamil mothers have been protesting in the North and Eastern Provinces in hot sun dust and rain demanding to know what happened[Read More…]
PUCL condemns the arbitrary travel bans on Rana Ayyub and Aakar Patel, prominent critics of the Government. On 6th April, 2022, Aakar Patel, well known human rights activist and journalist, was prevented by Immigration authorities in Bengaluru airport from catching a flight to the US and forced to turn back. Aakar Patel was on his way to speak at various[Read More…]
Recent reports on Gautam Navlakha’s appeal to change his jail term when the case just drags on on health grounds once again revive nagging doubts on the fabulous Maoist conspiracy case against a miscellaneous group of lawyers,social activists and human rights workers on the basis of documents allegedly retrieved from the laptop of some of the accused.The case is hanging[Read More…]
The Criminal Procedure (Identification) Bill, 2022, intends to link demographic and biometric information with the identification of citizens in an attempt to make all the natural citizens of India to be looked at as ‘suspects.’ The law is draconian and against the principle of civil liberties human right and against the tenets of Indian constitution. It is apparent that with[Read More…]
I had been in different jails, first in Sorda Sub-Jail, then in Brahmapur Circle Jail and later in Bhanjanagar Special Sub-Jail of Odisha, from mid-2011 to 2015, approximately three and half years, under false charges of ‘sedition’. I was arrested again in 2019 for the second time in connection to an eight-year-old case that was utterly false and fabricated and[Read More…]
Dear Colleagues, comrades and friends, We are writing to you on an issue of urgent concern regarding Professor Walden Bello. Recently, a political party founded by Sara Duterte (daughter of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte), incumbent Mayor of Davao City, and now vice-presidential candidate for the 2022 national elections—unfoundedly and maliciously labeled Walden as a “narco-politician.”This attack is clearly intended to silence dissent[Read More…]
Obscenities occupy the annals of State behaviour, revolting reminders about what governments can do. One of Australia’s most pronounced and undeniable obscenities is its continuing effort to gut and empty international refugee law of its relevant foundations. Instead of being treated as a scandal, populists and governments the world over have expressed admiration, even envy: If they can get away[Read More…]
Once a popular leader, Er. Rashid has almost disappeared from news, particularly from mainstream media. Rashid comes from Langate area of Kupwara, a border district in Kashmir valley . Rashid was arrested in 2019 at the time of repeal of Article 370 by NIA in a terror funding case for which he had been questioned in 2017 also. When Rashid[Read More…]
Julian Assange, even as he is being judicially and procedurally tormented, has braved every legal hoop in his effort to avoid extradition to the United States. Kept and caged in Belmarsh throughout this farce of judicial history, he risks being extradited to face 18 charges, 17 based on the US Espionage Act of 1917. District Court Judge Vanessa Baraitser initially[Read More…]
For the past 1390 days, the elderly mothers and relatives have been engaged in a series of struggles, especially amid the great epidemic threat, “78 parents of the missing relatives have lost their lives in the ongoing series of struggles for justice, “The 78 parents who fought for justice with us in past years are not with us today. The[Read More…]
The United Nations is a global organization that brings together its member states to confront common challenges, manage shared responsibilities and exercise collective action in an enduring “quest for a peaceful world.” One of the main purposes of the United Nations is to maintain world peace and security. At present there are 193 member states in the UN. Of the[Read More…]
The re-arrest of Fahad Shah, Editor of The Kashmir Walla, in politically motivated cases is another sign of the deepening crackdown on media freedom in Kashmir. Fahad Shah, a prominent Kashmiri journalist, was arrested on 4 February under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and other offences including sedition for allegedly “uploading anti-national content, including photographs, videos and posts[Read More…]
PROTESTERS AGAINST BIRBHUM COAL PROJECT IN WEST BENGAL MUST BE RELEASED AND CASES WITHDRAWN STOP POLICE AND STATE REPRESSION ON PEASANTS OF DHINKIA IN ODISHA Samyukt Kisan Morcha expresses deep concern at police repression against farmers in Birbhum in West Bengal and Dhinkia in Odisha. These farmers have been protesting against land acquisition for coal mining and industry, respectively, without[Read More…]
People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) expresses serious concern over the malafide action of the police in implicating local villagers and human rights defenders with fabricated cases following the incident that happened on 19th February, 2022 in Dhinkia. It needs to be noted that in response to a number of PILs about the police repressions in Dhinkia and requesting the[Read More…]
The United Nations, UN Human Rights Council and the International Community will now understand Sri Lanka’s policy of non-compliance of any recommendations of the UN or UNHRC. The following long standing core issues still to be investigated and perpetrators punished, On the evening of January 02, 2006, amid New Year’s celebrations at Trincomalee beach Sri Lankan security forces shot and[Read More…]
The question of Reparations for the historical crime of slavery is not primarily about money. Rather it is about spiritual cleansing and healing. It is about recognizing the fact that systemic physical and mental torture have long hands that stretch out across time and space. It is about acknowledging the attempted physical and spiritual destruction of a people and the[Read More…]
The recent arrest of Fahad Shah, editor of Kashmir Walla, under S 13 of UAPA and S 124 A and 505 of IPC for ‘uploading anti-national content’ raises a debate about the fate of journalism in times of conflict. Shah was arrested as he had uploaded Inayat Ahmad Mir’s family’s protest over the police’s claim that Mir was a “hybrid[Read More…]
The media coverage of the hostage-taking at a synagogue in Texas has been predictably hysterical, Islamophobic and inaccurate about Aafia Siddiqui, the apparent political cause of the hostage-taker Malik Faisad Akram. According to his family in England he has “mental health issues.” He was “said to have” weapons and explosives. He was “said to have” threatened[Read More…]
NCHRO condemns the actions of the authoritarian police in Dhinkia village, Odisha and the government’s attempt to displace its local populace In the Dhinkia village in Odisha, the collusion of corporations and government is being manifested in the routinely egregious manner. The people there have been protesting against the attempts to displace them and hand over the land to the[Read More…]
We the undersigned strongly condemn the brutal police violence by Odisha Police that continued for hours on the villagers of Dhinkia in Jagatsinghpur district on January 14. The villagers of the entire region have been carrying out a protest against land acquisition by the district administration for Jindal Steel Work Utkal Limited. On January 14, as people were gathering for[Read More…]
On the night of Sunday, January 16, members of the Indian Diaspora came together to denounce draconian laws of the world’s so-called largest democracy. To mark the 93rd birth anniversary of the towering US civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr., they burnt copies of the contentious Indian laws, such as Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Armed Forces[Read More…]
Julian Assange has now been in the maximum-security facilities of Belmarsh prison for over 1,000 days. On the occasion of his 1,000th day of imprisonment, campaigners, supporters and kindred spirits gathered to show their support, indignation and solidarity at this political detention most foul. Alison Mason of the Julian Assange Defence Committee reiterated those observations long made about the imprisonment[Read More…]
PF: Hi, this is Pieter Friedrich, and today I’m speaking with Dr. John Dayal. Dr. John Dayal, who is 74, is a former newspaper editor, a researcher and author, and one of India’s senior human rights and freedom of faith activists. We are going to be discussing the issue of persecuted Christians in India. So, thank you for joining me, Dr.[Read More…]
by Vaibhav Sorte & Jayanth Tadinada A frail figure, sporting a beard with a kurta and pyjama hung on him, scuttling with determination and head always held high is how one would have noticed Sharjeel Imam in the hostel 4 of IIT Bombay. It seemed he was unstoppable but if you managed to get his attention and asked something, a[Read More…]
How is anyone responsible for being born where he/she has been and the identity attached to his/her personality primarily because of his/her birth? Whatever is any person’s identity, why is any bias being practiced towards him/her primarily because of this? But this is still happening at this very moment. Prospects of this inhumane trend coming to an end in near[Read More…]
With Julian Assange now fighting the next stage of efforts to extradite him to the United States to face 18 charges, 17 of which are based on the brutal, archaic Espionage Act, some Australian politicians have found their voice. It might be said that a few have even found their conscience. Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce was sufficiently exercised[Read More…]
Tamils all over the world [85 million] appreciate and thank the US State Department for their sanctions on two Sri Lankan Military Officials. Those military personnel were: Chandana Hettiarachchi, a Sri Lankan naval intelligence officer, for his involvement in gross violations of human rights, namely, the flagrant denial of the right to liberty of at least eight “Trincomalee 11” victims,[Read More…]
In a detailed report released today, 17th December, 2021, Arsenal Consulting, the Boston-based forensic investigation firm assisting the defense lawyers in the Bhima Koregaon (BK) case, and Amnesty Tech Security Lab, have confirmed that the iPhone of one of the key accused, Mr. Rona Wilson, was attacked multiple times by the Pegasus spyware. This has been simultaneously reported in the[Read More…]
Settlers enjoyed a seeming free permission: to dispossess natives at will of all the best land, turn them out of traditional fishing locations, disrespect elders, women, children and religion, leave whole communities without political representation and punish men for breaking laws which they could have no means of knowing existed. It was inconceivable that all this change could happen overnight[Read More…]
The frustration of those who lost hope of any retaliatory action against human rights violators in Bangladesh has finally been eased, at least partially, by the recent US Treasury Department’s action against a few law-enforcers in the country, well-known for gross human rights violations. The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury has designated[Read More…]
He exposed empire as a criminal enterprise. He documented its lies, its callous disregard for human life, its rampant corruption, and its innumerable war crimes. But, as history shows, empires kill those who inflict deep wounds. Let us name Julian Assange’s executioners. Joe Biden. Boris Johnson. Scott Morrison. Theresa May. Lenin Moreno. Donald Trump. Barack Obama. Mike Pompeo. Hillary Clinton.[Read More…]
Doctors have confirmed that Julian Assange suffered a “mini stroke” inside Belmarsh Prison during a High Court appeal in October, his fiancée Stella Moris revealed over the weekend. She made clear that a pseudo-legal conspiracy by the US and UK governments to secure Assange’s extradition is pushing the WikiLeaks publisher to breaking point. Moris spoke to the Daily Mail on Saturday, just[Read More…]
Julian Assange, a standard-bearer of freedom, has effectively nullified the “freedom” imperialist media propagates round the clock. Today, the imperialist “freedom” is on the dock. Voices across continents are calling to defend the freedom Assange stands for – the freedom to information, the freedom to know facts related to thousands of innocent civilian lives in countries, the freedom to present[Read More…]
In spite of rain and cold weather, South Asian activists gathered outside the Indian Visa and Passport Application Center in Surrey on Friday, December 10 to raise their voices for political prisoners being incarcerated by the world’s so-called largest democracy. Organized by Radical Desi, the rally started with a moment of silence for 14 civilians killed by the Indian army[Read More…]
Dr. G N Saibaba, former Professor of English at University of Delhi continues to languish in the Anda cell of Nagpur Central Jail, Maharashtra since more than four and a half years. Dr Saibaba was arrested under fabricated charges and sentenced to life imprisonment by Gadchiroli Session Court under UAPA. He campaigned for the rights of exploited and oppressed sections[Read More…]
A British court ruled Friday that WikiLeaks founder and publisher Julian Assange can be extradited to the United States to face charges of violating the Espionage Act, a decision that rights groups say poses a profound threat to global press freedoms. “This is an utterly shameful development that has alarming implications not only for Assange’s mental health, but also for[Read More…]
Today, December 10, is Human Rights Day. The slogan of The Human Rights Day 2021 is All Human, All Equal. The slogan, the message the slogan carries, the spirit the slogan upholds – all are lofty, noble, beautiful. This year’s Human Rights Day theme, according to a UN release (Human Rights Day 10 December, https://www.un.org/en/observances/human-rights-day), is related to “Equality” and Article 1[Read More…]
On 4th December 2021, the Indian armed forces ambushed and killed 13 daily wage labourers who work in the coal mines of Tiru, bordering the state of Assam. These coal miners from the Mon district were on their usual journey home from the coal mine to spend Sunday with their families before returning for duty on Monday. Besides these 13[Read More…]
The PUCL welcomes the short order of the Supreme Court yesterday, 07th December, 2021, dismissing the SLP filed by the NIA which challenged the grant of statutory bail to Advocate Sudha Bharadwaj, a committed activist lawyer and member of PUCL. The PUCL sees this important order and the order of the Bombay High Court which was under challenge, as a[Read More…]
PUCL DEMANDS from the Government of India: Immediately Prosecute Military Officials for Murder! Publicly Declare: No Immunity from Prosecution u/s 6 of AFSPA, Repeal Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 (AFSPA)!!! PUCL strongly condemns the tragic and brutal killing on Saturday, 4th December, 2021 of 6 unarmed civilians (belonging to the Konyak tribe), in a military ambush in an[Read More…]
Death of migrants in the English Channel has hit headlines as “worst disaster on record” with France and United Kingdom’s “war of words” marking a “low point” in their ties, a “humanitarian crisis” and so forth. Who is to be blamed for this tragedy? Little importance has been given to the hard reality that increase in migrants being desperate for[Read More…]
“Selective” advocacy of Rights violations?” “When daily incidents of hate crimes, lynchings, caste atrocities and state violations become common place, Every egregious violation deserves our attention” Dear Sir, You had in your speech on the 28th NHRC foundation programme on 12th October, 2021 made four assertions on human rights to which the PUCL, as one of the oldest civil liberties[Read More…]
The PUCL is monitoring with extreme concern the precarious health condition of Atiq Ur Rehman who was unjustly accused and arrested by the UP police in early October, 2020 for daring to go with journalist Siddique Kappan to Hathras (UP) to report on the rape incident of a 19-year old Dalit woman. Atiq, Kappan and 2 others were charged under[Read More…]
Khurram Parvez, a leading human rights defender and President of the Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), was arrested yesterday, on the 22nd of November 2021. The arrest was carried out by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) after the day-long raid carried out at the JKCCS office in Amira Kadal and Parvez’s house in Sonwar, Srinagar Kashmir. Parvez[Read More…]
PUCL calls for the immediate release of Kashmiri human rights defender Khurram Parvez, who was arrested on 22nd November 2021, by the National Investigating Agency under various provisions of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and Indian Penal Code. PUCL condemns the relentless use of UAPA by the Indian Government to arrest, detain and jail human rights defenders for long periods[Read More…]
Gautam Navlakha, nearly 70, is one of the oldest of the Bhima Koregaon arrestees, who was shifted to the “Anda Circle” (high security) from the barracks on October 12, 2021. Additionally, his telephone calls to me and his lawyers, his lifeline to the outside world, have been discontinued on the pretext that physical mulaquats have resumed in jail. I, his[Read More…]
Little Muthu was used to her mother returning late and narrating issues and causes that none of her friends mothers are even aware of. She was slowly and steadily understanding the meaning and reason for her mother to be near the oppressed and the needy. This time she closely followed the issue because it involved the rights of a baby[Read More…]
BUJ and DUJ Condemn Arrest of Journalists in Tripura; Welcome Bail; Demand Withdrawal of all Cases and End to Intimidation of Journalists covering Tripura violence The Brihanmumbai Union of Journalists (BUJ) and the Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ) have strongly condemned the arrest of Samriddhi Sakunia and Swarna Jha, two journalists from HW News Network, by Tripura police on Nov[Read More…]
The Assam Human Rights Commission closed on 10.3.2021 the case filed by Hirak Jyoti Bora,former General Secretary,Cotton College Students’ Union and now a member of the Assamese nationalist party AJP ,against the allegedly unprovoked police firing during the night of 12 December 2019 in Assam that had killed Sam Stafford and four other youthful protesters against the passing of CAA.[Read More…]
The members of Punjabi Press Club of British Columbia (PPCBC) have unanimously condemned the continued incarceration of the journalist and author under inhuman conditions in the Indian jail. Gautam Navlakha was arrested on trumped up charges in April 2020, and is currently lodged in jail near Mumbai. His only crime is daring to question the powerful, and always standing up[Read More…]
In the town of Bolpur, in the land of Tagore’s Shantiniketan, there lived a 28-year-old Raju Thandar from Dalit (Dom) Community at his in-laws’ house at Muchipara/ Darjipara with his wife and a girl child. Raju was a native of Durgapur in Burdwan district, 60 km away from Bolpur. Since 2006, Raju settled in Bolpur and made his living through[Read More…]
Withdraw the charges against the Fact-Finding team and social media users and prosecute the perpetrators of violence in Tripura! On November 3rd, the Tripura Police sent notices to four Delhi based lawyers charging them under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). These lawyers, Advocate Ansar Indori, secretary of National Confederation[Read More…]
Currently incarcerated under trumped up charges in the world’s so called largest democracy, Sudha Bharadwaj is one of the dozens of scholars and activists locked up in the Indian jails. Bharadwaj, who turned 60 on November 1, is a lawyer who has been advocating for the rights of the poor and marginalized, especially Adivasis or the Indigenous peoples of India[Read More…]
The PUCL strongly condemns the Tripura Police for registering a FIR dated 03rd November, 2021 under the UAPA and other draconian provision of the IPC against a team of advocates from Delhi, the “Lawyers for Democracy”, for conducting a Fact Finding Enquiry into communal violence incidents in Tripura in mid-end October, 2021. It is clear that the police have[Read More…]
The invocation of UAPA charges against members of a fact-finding team shortly after they released its findings on the communal violence in Tripura, is shocking and condemnable. Besides S. 13 of UAPA (punishment for ‘unlawful activity’), a slew of IPC offences has also been invoked: 153 A and B of IPC (promoting enmity and anti-national activities), 120 B, 503, 504[Read More…]
On the 37th anniversary of the 1984 Sikh Genocide, South Asian activists gathered in Surrey to raise their voices for a jailed Indian scholar, who was behind documenting the tragedy and exposing those involved. Gautam Navlakha was arrested on trumped up charges in April 2020, and is currently lodged in jail near Mumbai. His only crime is daring to question[Read More…]
Sudha Bharadwaj marks her fourth birthday in prison today, November 1st, 2021, when she completes 60 years. She has been in jail along with the other BK-16 accused as undertrials, with the state neither commencing the trial nor releasing her on bail. Sudha’s life is a testament to a passionate concern to redressing injustice and redressing injustice is nothing, if[Read More…]
Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people … The General Assembly, Proclaims this Universal[Read More…]
How a human rights activist could be a challenge to the jail authority? On what way could solitary confinement of undertrial prisoner help him/her to avail justice? From various press releases, letters and media reports, Ganatantrik Adhikar Surakhya Sangathan, Odisha (GASS) got information that the some of the human rights activists, arrested on Elgar Parishad – Bhima Koregaon case, have[Read More…]
The Association for Protection of Democratic Right, better known as APDR was going to hold its belated (due to pandemic related restrictions) 28th biannual State Convention (রাজ্য সম্মেলন / राज्य सम्मेलन) at Surendranath Vidya Niketan at Sheoraphuli on 23rd & 24th October, 2021. They were forced to suspend the meet under extreme pressure and intimidation by Administration at the last[Read More…]
On Friday, Israel’s Defence Minister Benny Gantz signed a military order declaring six of the most prominent Palestinian non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the occupied Palestinian territories “terrorist organizations.” The decree is an attack on Palestinian human rights activists and the communities they represent, and on the local and international public’s right to information about the situation in the occupied territories.[Read More…]
The high handedness of the Taloja Central Jail administration was evident in the events leading to the death of the octogenarian Bhima Koregaon undertrail, Stan Swamy on July 5, 2021. Almost immediately, the remaining BK undertrials protested the arbitrary jail conditions imposed by the then Superintendent, Kaustabh Kurlekar by observing a one-day hunger strike. However, far from bringing such persecution[Read More…]
A coalition of over two dozen press freedom and human rights organisations has called on the Biden administration to drop all charges against Julian Assange. This is ahead of a US appeal that will be heard next week, challenging a British court decision that blocked the WikiLeaks publisher’s extradition. The statement, delivered last week to Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland,[Read More…]
There is no doubt in the fact that Sikhism actually was a revolt against the Brahmanical system and superstition. Guru Granth Saheb is perhaps the only holy book which contains matters from different religions as well as those of various Sufi Saints including Kabir, Ravidas, Baba Farid and others. The aim of Sikhism was to create an egalitarian society and[Read More…]
In a democratic country like India, custodial death, being a regular occurrence, raises question of our system. Custodial Violence is never acceptable in our civilized society. But it is a matter of regret that our educated and civilised masses are not concerned about it in any way. Further, while the allegations of custodial death are rising in the state day[Read More…]
Joint Fact-Finding Report by: Association for Protection of CivilRights|United Christian Forum | United Against Hate Series Of Attack On Christians The violence against Muslims in India which has now become pan Indian needs to be seen with the violence and vendetta against Christians. Unfortunately the media tends to ignore the violence against Christian. Human rights groups which monitor atrocities against[Read More…]
Within just a few days, the United States will once again make its case in a UK court that it has a right to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to be tried under the Espionage Act, in what remains this century’s most dangerous attack on global press freedom. These hearings, taking place on October 27 and 28, are an attempt[Read More…]
The plight of the undertrials in the jails: The majority of the undertrials in India belong to the disadvantaged sections of the society. The offences alleged to have been committed by them may be minor ones but they are forced to languish in jails without a trial for years, as the criminal justice system in the country is a slow-moving[Read More…]
Commemorations were held on Oct 17 to mark the 60th anniversary of a bloody Paris police crackdown on a demonstration by Algerians that occurred during the final year of the struggle for independence from the colonial power France. Human rights and anti-racism groups as well as Algerian associations staged a tribute march in Paris on Sunday and called on authorities[Read More…]
The number of migrant children who cross the Darien Gap on foot has hit an all-time high, UNICEF warned today. The Darien Gap is an extensive and inhospitable strip of tropical forest that divides Panama and Colombia, considered one of the most dangerous places for migrants attempting to reach North America. On their trek north towards the U.S., some 19,000[Read More…]
Language is politics and politics is power. This is why the misuse of language is particularly disturbing, especially when the innocent and vulnerable pay the price. The wars in Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern, Asian and African countries in recent years have resulted in one of the greatest humanitarian catastrophes, arguably unseen since World War II. Instead of[Read More…]
Feminists, jan sangathans, mass organizations, collectives, students, trade unionists, farm workers, fisher people, members of Adivasi, Dalit and Muslim communities, displaced persons, civil liberties activists, journalists, academics, youth, as well persons facing political persecution joined the events held across States and expressed their solidarity with Gulfisha Fatima. Numerous cities and towns across the country were part of this solidarity action,[Read More…]
We call Gandhi as Father of our nation, who preached non-violence, but police stations remain mothers of custodial violence throughout the country. *** During 17 years till 2018, 1727 persons died in custodial violence in India. Just they were killed. According to data released by National Crime Records Bureau NCRB, 26 policemen were convicted. Some critics described only 26 are[Read More…]
Pushing people back across borders; turning asylum seekers away from shores. When such tactics were openly adopted and used with impunity by Australia’s navy and border force, it caused outrage and concern in the maritime community and pricked the interest of border protectionists the world over. Disgust and outrage have, in time, been replaced by admiration at the sheer chutzpah[Read More…]
A prominent Rohingya Muslim leader has been shot dead in a refugee camp in southern Bangladesh. Mohibullah, who was in his late 40s, led one of the largest of several community groups to emerge since more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar after a military crackdown in August 2017, Al Jazeera reported. He was talking with other refugee leaders outside[Read More…]
A Yahoo News’ investigation reveals that, through much of 2017, the CIA weighed up whether to use wholly extrajudicial means to deal with the supposed threat posed by Julian Assange and his whistleblowers’ platform Wikileaks. The agency plotted either to kidnap or assassinate him. Shocking as the revelations are – exposing the entirely lawless approach of the main US intelligence[Read More…]
If there was any reason to halt a farcical train of legal proceedings, then the case against Julian Assange would have to be the standard bearing example. Since last year, the efforts by the US government to pursue his extradition to the vicious purgatory of American justice has seen more than a fair share of obscene revelations. While prosecutors for[Read More…]
Two years ago, when Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro favorably promoted the idea of labor for children as young as eight or nine, his minister for Human Rights, Family, and Women shot back: “Let us be clear that for children to work is a violation of their rights, something that cannot be allowed.” The Brazilian National Forum for the Prevention and Eradication of[Read More…]
The 48th UN Human Rights Council’s sessions has evoked much interest for Sri Lanka’s Human Rights activists and Government coupled with mixed signals from the Human Rights Commissioner. While the Commissioner appreciates Sri Lanka’s moves which are apparently opportunistic and face saving farcical measures, she has also issued a warning to Sri Lanka that it will remain in the watch[Read More…]
Friends and Family of Sudha Bharadwaj are extremely worried over the alarming and disturbing news of the rising Covid-19 infection in Byculla women’s jail forcing the authorities to seal the premise. Last week, in a prison supervised phone conversation Koel Sen had with her mother Shoma Sen, former professor of English from Nagpur University, arrested in the Bhima Koregaon case[Read More…]
We, members of Ganatantrik Adhikar Surakhya Sangathan (Odisha), are deeply shocked and enraged with the vindictive attitude of the government of Odisha towards the tribals of the state. The government of Odisha has started hounding tribal leaders of Mali Hill defying statutory and constitutional provisions as well as time to time verdict of the Apex court. The arrests are happening[Read More…]
Does the death penalty work ? Or is it an anachronism which is long past its “use by” date ? But still continues to remain in use ? According to Amnesty International, there are 106 countries where use of the death penalty is not allowed by law and 8 countries which permit the death penalty only for serious crimes in[Read More…]
Raju’s death and version of suicide, in Telangana on September16 , is questioned by human rights activists, women groups, public spirited lawyers as also by the mother and wife of the killed suspect. It may not be just a coincidence, but dead body was found within a day after a Minister declared that certainly the suspect will be ‘encountered’ following[Read More…]
ABVA members wearing black T-shirts addressing the press at the Ashoka hotel, New Delhi during the Second Asia Pacific AIDS conference, November 1992 In April 1994 ABVA filed a Civil Writ Petition no. 1784 of 1994 titled AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan vs. Union of India and others in the Delhi High Court (DHC) asking for striking down inter alia entire[Read More…]
The Land of the Free, Where So Many of the Brave Are Homeless. Resisting Evictions Amid a Pandemic Over the past weeks, multiple crises have merged: a crisis of democracy with the most significant attack on voting rights since Reconstruction; a climate crisis with lives and livelihoods upended in the Gulf Coast and the Northeast by extreme weather events and in the West by[Read More…]
Conditions in all spheres of life is going from bad to worse. On September 13, ‘political prisoners’day was observed. On that day, Jatin Das, friend of Bhagat Singh and member of Hindustan Republican Socialist Association, passed away after 63 days of hunger strike. He demanded ‘political prisoners’ status to those who have been jailed by the State. Even 92 years[Read More…]
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was presented with a medal on Sunday, September 12 at Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey. Vancouver-based online magazine Radical Desi, which covers alternative politics, gives out medals to individuals who speak out and stand up against injustice and repression anywhere in the world. Nijjar was honoured for organizing special prayers for the indigenous children whose unmarked[Read More…]
Washington-based global lender the World Bank, through concessional lending arms, has gone to bat for Bangladesh to foster its development initiatives since 1972; committing more than $30 billion by backing priorities in economic, social and infrastructural development. Since 2018, this UN affiliated multilateral body, largest source of financial assistance to developing nations, has committed a total $590 million grant to[Read More…]
The Hon. Naveen Patnaik Chief Minister, Odisha Sub: Request for the release of Upakuliya Jami o Jangala Surakhya Samiti member Mr. Batakrushna Swain Honorable Sir, We the undersigned people, regret to convey our dissatisfaction regarding the change in the definition of crime in our state. Though the drought situation is not new in the state, however, the increase in the[Read More…]
Minister of Justice Ali Sabry at a Zoom discussion on 30 August 2021 disclosed that the President in Cabinet meetings and outside has again and again stressed to us his following stand on the issue of disappeared persons. ” If anyone disappeared, there is no need to investigate the reasons for his disappearance. Do not try to find out if[Read More…]
The City of Burnaby has declared September 5 as a day to honour a slain Indian journalist. Daring editor Gauri Lankesh was allegedly murdered by right wing extremists in Bengaluru, on the ill-fated date in 2017. She consistently wrote against superstition and growing fanaticism under the current Hindu nationalist BJP government in New Delhi. Attacks on religious minorities and political[Read More…]
The distressing images coming from Afghanistan following the call of withdrawal of US forces is yet another poignant reminder of the humanitarian crisis facing millions of people around the world. According to the United Nations refugee agency more than 70 million people worldwide were displaced in 2018. In the past three years more numbers have been added to this tally.[Read More…]
A sustained or protracted campaign has to be launched to save the life or Dr.Abimael Guzman or Chairman Gonzalo.He is on the verge of dying with continuous deterioration of health. The reactionary State cites untreated skin cancer which has now metastasized as the cause for Gonzalo’s admission to the hospital. Chairman Gonzalo’s condition is easily diagnosed and treatable at an[Read More…]
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court N.V. Ramana recently asked the Attorney General of the Central Government, “Is there a need for a law of ‘treason’ which reminds us of the remnants of colonialism after 75 years of independence?” According to the court, section 124 (a) of the Act is being grossly misused. The ‘Sedition Act’ was enacted by the[Read More…]
For various reasons, marginalised people like myself and vulnerable asylum seekers arriving by boat to UK shores are rarely heard from. Nevertheless, we have a lot to say to you. The UK government’s proposed Nationality and Borders Bill is politically expedient, not principled. I attempt to put myself in the shoes of those desperate asylum seekers who put their life[Read More…]
“Having Palestinians, Africans, Asians, Latinx, Muslims, LGBTQIA folks, etc., in the NYCP Dept. doesn’t make it less brutal, violent or corrupt,” writes Mawusi Ture, sister of the late Kwame Ture/Stokely Carmichael and organizer for Black Alliance for Peace (BAP). Ture’s words refer to the promotion of Palestinian American Filastin Srour to captain, making her the first woman of Arab descent[Read More…]
In late August of 2017, Rohima Kadu’s idyllic village of Chin Khali, Rakhine was visited by Myanmar’s much dreaded military, the Tatmadaw and its local Buddhist militia associates. A helpless Rohingya widow of 50, Rohima was at a loss. Her eldest daughter, with whom she was living at that time, was bedridden with malaria and too weak to run. So,[Read More…]
Preamble Every human being is born with intrinsic rights which recognise and protect her or his life and dignity. As civilization progressed, and specially with the formation of the United Nations after World War II, many international charters and covenants were formulated to define and codify these rights, and enjoin on member States to protect them. India with its plural[Read More…]
By Constitutional Conduct Group Dear Citizens of India, We are a group of retired officers of the All India and Central Services who have worked with the Central and State Governments in the course of our careers. As members of the Constitutional Conduct Group, we believe in impartiality, neutrality and commitment to the Indian Constitution and in safeguarding its values.[Read More…]
I sat in Court 4 in the Royal Courts of Justice in London yesterday with Stella Moris, Julian Assange’s partner. I have known Stella for as long as I have known Julian. She, too, is a voice of freedom, coming from a family that fought the fascism of Apartheid. Today, her name was uttered in court by a barrister and[Read More…]
The desperate attempt by the US imperium to nab Julian Assange was elevated to another level on August 11 in a preliminary hearing before the UK High Court. The central component to this gruesome affair was the continuing libel of the expert witness upon which District Justice Vanessa Baraitser placed so much emphasis in her January 4 decision not to[Read More…]
Canada is developing a new image: one of burning churches, toppling statues, and mass graves. There are thousands more unmarked graves, thousands more Indigenous children killed at residential schools, remaining to be unearthed. There can be no denying that this is Canada, and it has to change. But can Canada transform itself for the better? If the revelation of the[Read More…]
In Khori Gaon, hundreds of families have been displaced and thousands of houses are being brutally demolished each day. After the completion of the demolition drive, the destitute working-class residents are being forced to live without any shelter. They are also being immediately and forcibly removed from the area and being threatened with police action. Despite the order of the[Read More…]
PUDR’s report, Framed to Die: The Case of Stan Swamy, offers an exhaustive account of what lay behind Stan Swamy’s death in judicial custody in a private hospital on 5 July 2021. As is known, he was arrested from his room in Bagaicha ATC campus on 8 October 2020 under S. 120 B, 121 A, 124 A and 34 of[Read More…]
The Public Inquiry into the murder of the resourceful journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia handed down its findings on July 29. Firm aim was taken at the Maltese State, which had “to shoulder responsibility for the assassination because it created an atmosphere of impunity, generated from the highest levels in the heart of the administration of the Office of the Prime[Read More…]
An Egyptian kangaroo court on Thursday sentenced 24 members of the Muslim Brotherhood to death in two separate cases, the daily Sabah reported. The state-owned Al-Ahram newspaper said the Damanhour Criminal Court ordered the death penalty for 16 defendants affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, including Mohamed Sweidan, a regional leader of the organization, for their involvement in the bombing of a[Read More…]
Ecuador has stripped Julian Assange of his citizenship. The move is another outrageous assault on the WikiLeaks founder’s democratic rights, made in preparation for his extradition to the United States on charges under the Espionage Act. He is currently held in the UK’s Belmarsh maximum security prison, pending a case in the High Court. The decision to revoke citizenship was[Read More…]
It has been 500 days since Khalid Saifi’s incarceration, and 300 since Umar Khalid’s, in false UAPA cases; and a week since the custodial demise of Fr. Stan Swamy in the bogus Bhima Koregaon case. Both the Delhi riots and Bhima Koregaon cases are very important instances to explore the category of ‘political prisoner’ in contemporary Indian politics. They illustrate[Read More…]
“There were 1,307 cases registered by the police, in the last 6 years, under Section 66A of Information Technology Act, 2000, after Supreme Court declared it as unconstitutional… … The police and prosecutors, who are perpetuating this abuse, should be jailed for contempt of court. There should be a severe disciplinary action against the magistrates for framing charges under this[Read More…]
I have been persuaded by Noam Chomsky’s luminous and lucid insight that the politics we are familiar with simply befogs and obfuscates simple moral questions of right or wrong,just or unjust,good or evil.The questions that the Pegasus controversy raises are also basically moral ones,if you clean up all the usual confusing clutter. This is dismissed by vested and extremely partisan[Read More…]
by Advocate Mohammad Shoaib and Sandeep Pandey That corruption is rampant in police department is a common experience. However, there is another form of corruption which devastates lives of individuals and their families. It has now emerged as a common phenomenon that police more often than not register false cases because of which individuals have to spend number of years[Read More…]
Introduction This paper concerns torture and medical complicity in its practice. In 2015, Amnesty International noted that 157 states had ratified the UN Convention Against Torture (UNCAT), but 141 states surveyed in the previous 5 years had used torture. Torture is a form of terrorism. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 1998 defined torture as a crime[Read More…]
Since 14th July, the Haryana Government has been brutally demolishing houses built by Khori Gaon residents who have been living on this land for decades. Along with the bulldozers the residents have also been dealing with police violence and harassment simultaneously. The Municipal Corporation of Faridabad framed a draft policy for rehabilitation of Khori Gaon residents 5 weeks after the[Read More…]
Trump supporter revealed it was Miles Yu who planned the anti-Asian policy. Recently, a screenshot of Trump supporters discussing Miles Yu’s anti-Asian policy in the Telegram group has been widely disseminated on social media. Such a criminal act of deliberately creating racial tensions and tearing American society apart has been criticized by netizens. In the screenshot of the telegram chat[Read More…]
“…these are fundamental rights from a police constable’s point of view and not from the point of view of a free and fighting nation. Here whatever right is given is taken away by a proviso. Sardar Patel would punish us if we make a speech, but Rajaji would punish us even before we have made the speech…”- Somnath Lahiri, during[Read More…]
To Shri A K Bhalla Union Home Secretary Dear Shri Bhalla, Kindly refer to my letters dated 31-3-2019, 31-10-2019 & 19-7-2021 addressed to you (copies forwarded here) on the possible use/misuse of Pegasus in India. I wish to draw your attention to a press conference held by the Chattisgarh Chief Minister, as indicated in a news report, “Pegasus: Chhattisgarh CM[Read More…]
On the birthday of jailed Indian scholar Anand Teltumbde, activists gathered outside the Visa and Passport Application Center of the world’s so called largest democracy in Surrey to raise their voices for his release, as well as others detained under draconian laws. Teltumbde, who turned 71 on July 15, was arrested last year on trumped up charges for merely questioning[Read More…]
20th July, 2021: This public hearing was organised to hear the affected citizens of Khorigaon and understand the status of implementation of the Supreme Court’s order of 7 June 2021. The Jury members included Environmentalist Ashish Kothari, Environmentalist Claude Alvares, Social Activist Ms. Anjali Bhardwaj, Adv. Tripti Poddar, Housing Right Activist, Prof. Amita Bhide from TISS, Mumbai and Prof. Bittu K.[Read More…]
Earlier this month, a Honduran court found David Castillo, a U.S.-trained former Army intelligence officer and the head of an internationally financed hydroelectric company, guilty of the 2016 murder of celebrated Indigenous activist Berta Cáceres. His company was building a dam that threatened the traditional lands and water sources of the Indigenous Lenca people. For years, Cáceres and her organization, the Council[Read More…]
Today is the first anniversary of the loss of John Lewis, a civil rights crusader. At the time of his death, Lewis was one of the last Selma-era civil rights leaders. In 1965, Selma, Alabama became a battle ground in an effort to guarantee Blacks the right to vote. During that time, a system of racial apartheid was in the[Read More…]
GENEVA (16 July 2021) – UN human rights experts* today called on India to halt evictions of some 100,000 people – including 20,000 children – that began this week in the midst of monsoon rains. Demolition of homes began on Wednesday, 14 July, in a village in Haryana State built on protected forest land, even though the forest was actually[Read More…]
After NIA’s contentions, the special court has rejected the request for sipper. The judge did not ask NIA to prove the genuineness of their claim that nothing was confiscated by them..and without asking why you need 20 days to say yes or no to sipper request? Is it because a sipper in the hands of Parkinson patient is threat to[Read More…]
Delhi and Haryana governments cannot shy away from the responsibility of the Khorigaon people. Without a feasible rehabilitation plan, stop the demolition in the midst of monsoon. Demolition continued in Khori village during the first monsoon rains in Delhi. Sitting in the comfort of her office, Garima Mittal, the commissioner of Faridabad Municipality, carried out the demolition drive. On July[Read More…]
To, Mr. Sitaraman Shankar, Acting CEO, TPML, Editor, Deccan Herald CC: Mr B.S Arun, Deputy Editor 15 July 2021 We would like to draw your attention to the State page (Page 5) of E-Paper/Newspaper, released on 15 July 2021. The Deccan Herald’s (DH) Visual Connect ad on the page is not just factually incorrect, but also in appalling taste. Advertising[Read More…]
The Bhima Koregaon15 spending a single additional night in jail is a travesty of justice. The third report by Arsenal Consulting on evidence planting became public on July 6, with even more damning evidence corroborating the first two reports in February and April that confirmed extensive evidence planting on Rona Wilson’s hard drive, the first of the arrestees in the[Read More…]
In the post world war era, when the first wave of decolonisation happened and many countries were given their independence, India was the most prominent of those let go. Most prominent in the sense that India was considered the crown jewel of the British empire and the British King was separately designated too as the emperor of India. India’s independence [Read More…]
Perhaps, a new ministry of cooperation may bring in better understanding of others’ faith, especially those who oppose the practice of Christian faith. This year, 2021, hasn’t been any difference to Indian Christians in practicing their faith in their own country except that Indian Christians across globe came together to establish an exclusive day for themselves on July 3rd and[Read More…]
The present rulers of the country and state institutions have imprisoned Fr. Stan Swamy for a crime he did not commit, and killed him without being given proper treatment in time and without bail, to prove their allegiance to fascist corporate capitalism. He fought for the democratic rights of thousands of tribal in Jharkhand who were imprisoned under black laws[Read More…]
Almost all anti-CAA protestors are terrorists according to the Government of India and Governments of the states ruled by BJP or NDA coalition partner… the police in this state or that state go on registering false cases and make the innocent citizen to suffer the trauma of appeals up to Supreme Court. Specific directions from the Supreme Court that such[Read More…]
Condemn the arbitrary arrest of workers of the Century Workers Union as well as activists Medha Patkar, Jagdish Khairalia and others : Call Maharashtra Police to Free All Arrested State & Company Management must Dialogue with Workers and Withdraw the forced VRS policy: Uphold Right to Livelihoods of Workers 9th July, 2021: NAPM condemns the arbitrary manner in which protesting[Read More…]
It is most heartening how the masses of India are not taking the custodial murder of Father Stan Swamy lying down. We must congratulate all the sections be it of the workers, peasants, youth or students who have collectively galvanised forces to crystallise resistance against neo-fascism. A spark is virtually being turned into a Prairie fire. In the last few[Read More…]
It took over half a year, but the US government’s case against Julian Assange continues its draining grind. Even the Biden administration, which claims to tolerate a free press and truthful dialogue with the fourth estate, has decided to exhaust its legal options in seeking the publisher’s scalp. On July 7, the UK High Court of Justice agreed to hear[Read More…]
Fr. Stan Swamy’s institutional murder must lead to a nation-wide movement against draconian, anti-people laws and state repression. NAPM joins citizens and democratic groups across the globe remembering the life and struggle of Stan Swamy with pain and pride 7th July, 2021: The news of the cold-blooded killing of Fr. Stan Swamy by all the institutions that held him arbitrarily in[Read More…]
In the death of Fr Stan Swamy on July 5, 2021, who was an “under trial” detainee languishing in the custody of the authorities, India has lost a courageous campaigner for adivasi rights. The manner in which the 84-year old Jesuit priest was forced to die has shaken the conscience of the nation. What hurts the feelings of any one[Read More…]
From Bujha Singh to Stan Swamy, the Indian state has proved that it doesn’t care for seniors when it comes to suppressing any voice of dissent July 5, 2021 will go down as another black day in the history of the world’s so-called largest democracy. It was then that an 84-year-old Roman Catholic priest, Stan Swamy, died in the custody[Read More…]
The whistleblower acted on behalf of the public’s right to know what is being done in its name “Pardon Daniel Hale.” These words hung in the air on a recent Saturday evening, projected onto several Washington, D.C. buildings, above the face of a courageous whistleblower facing ten years in prison. The artists aimed to inform the U.S. public about Daniel[Read More…]
Planting of files on Bhima Koregaon accused Surendra Gadling’s system follows a similar pattern as that on Rona Wilson’s system, new forensic report finds The already weakened case against the 16 accused in the Bhima Koregaon case was dealt a final blow by a third digital forensic report released earlier this afternoon by NDTV and the Washington Post. The report[Read More…]
Without doubt one of the great democrats or crusaders against proto- fascism has perished. Few activists in such a considerable degree voiced the very soul of the opressed masses of Jharkhand as Father Stan Swamy.He was a living illustration that regardless of age the relentless spirit is never lost in the quest for liberation from the clutches of tyranny. Father[Read More…]
The death of Fr. Stan Swamy in extremely tragic circumstances on July 5 will be mourned by all those who believe in the most basic human values. He will be remembered by countless people for his very strong commitment to justice and for standing up for his beliefs and values with great courage. He will be remembered as a champion[Read More…]
A statement by the family members and friends of the BK-16 We, the friends and family members of those accused in the Bhima Koregaon Conspiracy case, are deeply pained and shaken to the core by the loss of Father Stan Swamy. This is not a natural death, but the institutional murder of a gentle soul, committed by an inhuman state.[Read More…]
The death of Father Stan Swamy in Custody is a reminder of how India’s criminal justice system has collapsed and is being used by the party in power to criminalise the activists, writers, dissenters and political opponents. One need not to think too much of it but a sequence of events since 2014 after Narendra Modi government took power. Right[Read More…]
Stan Swamy, a Jesuit priest, and human rights advocate died in custody Monday at the age of 84 after 270 days of arbitrary confinement. Despite his precarious health condition, advanced age, and positive Covid-19 test, the authorities consistently denied him parole and necessary treatment. I urge an unbiased and transparent investigation into Mr. Swamy’s death in order to hold all[Read More…]
CDRO salutes Fr. Stan Swamy, an activist and a champion of the rights of the tribal and marginalised people. CDRO believes that his death is nothing but a murder in judicial custody and urges all democratic people to protest against the death Fr. Stan Swamy’s death is nothing but a blatant murder in judicial custody. Modi-government and the Judiciary[Read More…]
PUCL is extremely saddened and anguished by the death of Fr. Stan Swamy today, 5th July, 2021 in the Holy Family Hospital, Bandra, where he was undertaking treatment pursuant to an interim order of the Bombay High Court in his bail petition in the Bhima Koregaon case. What is most tragic is that even as the High Court Division Bench[Read More…]
No prophet is recognised by the powerful. Prophets are killed because they are a threat to the powerful. That was the message of the Gospel read at masses in Catholic churches on Sunday, 4th July. Stan Swamy was bearing witness to it on the same day by being critical and he left us today, 5th July, a martyr of the[Read More…]
Statues of Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Victoria were torn down by protesters in Winnipeg, Canada. The latest acts of protests followed a spree of attacks on Catholic churches built on First Nation lands. At least seven churches have caught fire in recent weeks, since the grim discovery of more than 1,100 unmarked graves at sites where Catholic-run residential schools used to[Read More…]
The rule of law is under a serious challenge since the inception of Constitution of India, as far as killings in police custody are concerned. The Supreme Court recently ordered installation of CCTV cameras in every place of custodial activity under the control of the police. But it appears no state or no police personnel have taken a serious note[Read More…]
Respected Sir, This is to bring to your notice the irreversibly deteriorating condition of 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy, an undertrial prisoner accused in the Elgar Parishad case and lodged at Taloja Central Prison in Maharashtra. He has been under intensive care at the Holy Family Hospital at Bandra, Mumbai, after he was directed to be hospitalized on 28 May. Today,[Read More…]
Statement by Jharkhand Jan Adhikar Mahasabha 84-year old Priest Stan Swamy’s health has deteriorated and he has been put on a ventilator at the Holy Family hospital. His situation is said to be critical. The NIA and central government are solely responsible for the sufferings of this elderly person and the current state of affair. The NIA court also played[Read More…]
Edward Baptiste’s The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism attempts to provide a material analysis of the development of Slavery in the United States leading up to the Civil War. In doing so he reveals the origin of capitalism, and Western Economic Supremacy, to be the Southern Slave Plantations, who provided Northern and English Capitalists with[Read More…]
Not too far from the border of Delhi, Haryana’s Khori village has been the site of an unwavering protest movement. After a Supreme Court order on June 07, 2021 mandated the demolition of the slums of Khori village, the residents of the village took to protesting to save their houses. Most of the residents at the village are migrants from[Read More…]
by Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), Chhattisgarh and Chhattisgarh Right to Food Campaign (RTFC) Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA) and Right to Food Campaign (RTFC), Chhattisgarh are writing to the Chhattisgarh government to bring attention to the poor status of human rights and health rights of people living in the Bastar Region. For years the people of Bastar have been denied decent[Read More…]
Close to the birthday of George Orwell and the 46th anniversary of Emergency in the world’s so called largest democracy, activists came together in Surrey on Sunday, June 27, to raise their voices against the incarceration of thinkers by the Indian authorities. Organized by Radical Desi publications, the rally was held right outside the Indian Visa and Passport Application Center.[Read More…]
Dear Paleface, Let’s make things right for the longstanding Indigenous inhabitants of this land. Following the late May discovery of 215 concealed burials of First Nations children at a former residential school in Canada there was a post from a Jewish group on Facebook basically saying ‘Yes, this is an example of genocide.’ I am sure there are other Jews[Read More…]
On June 12, 2021, many online news portals reported an exchange of fire that took place between security forces and Maoists in Kuku-Piri forest, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Garu police station of Latehar (Jharkhand). According to reports, one Naxalite was killed and guns were found. The next day, many local newspapers highlighted that 24-year-old Bramhadev Singh of[Read More…]
It is now out in the open.There seems to be quite a lot of dissatisfaction in the higher judiciary about the burden placed on their shoulders by the rising number of UAPA cases.The phrasing of the act is so wide and sweeping that it gives a government powers to practically put under arrest and detain anyone it finds inconvenient or[Read More…]
Aisha Sultana, a native of Lakshadweep’s Chetlat island, is today one of India’s visible faces in the cry for justice! She is a well-known actor and director and an activist. Lakshadweep, a Union Territory, is an archipelago of 36 islands in the Arabian Sea: a paradise with pristine beauty. Its 70,000-strong population is predominantly Muslim (with smaller percentages of Hindus[Read More…]
A most encouraging phenomena has emerged in Punjab in the last week with 4most qualitative protests engulfing Punjab in Bathinda , Amritsar ,Sangrur and Nawanshahr against the detention of the intellectuals fabricated as Maoists. The speakers at the very core exposed link between saffron Hindutva politics and the patronage to corporate groups like Ambani or Adani.They portrayed how the trend[Read More…]
NAPM Condemns the unjustifiable order of the Supreme Court to Evict around One Lakh Residents of Khori Gaon, Haryana, without Rehabilitation in the Middle of the Pandemic Right to Housing of Working-Class people Living in Precarious Conditions is inalienable: ‘Environmental Protection’ cannot be an excuse to deprive vulnerable people of shelter 15th June, 2021: National Alliance of People’s Movements denounces[Read More…]
Australian officials and paper mad types are running out of ideas as to how to be cruel towards refugees. We need to give them some credit: for years they have tried to do what most autocratic and murderous regimes do in a heartbeat: ignore international law, treat it with disdain and use those feeble excuses in the service of sovereignty.[Read More…]
Q-Who are the workers who perform the most essential tasks, also earn the highest appreciation but get the least justice? Ans. -Sanitation workers. Since historical times, sanitation workers have suffered the most injustice in India. Perhaps oppressor sections thought that the most effective, even though highly unjust , means to ensure the ready availability of this essential service at a[Read More…]
Undergoing the process of having to screen our bodies invaded by an external touch also makes us vulnerable to unidentified sexual perversion. But does having to undergo the same if exercised by people of our respective genders make us any less vulnerable? Established heterosexual foundations so far has led to the screening of women and men bodies by their gender[Read More…]
It was the virtual ‘midnight knock’! The irony was that the knock took place in broad daylight, and expectedly in a blatantly unjust, uncivilised and unconstitutional manner. On 6 June 2018, Sudhir Dhawale, Surendra Gadling, Mahesh Raut, Shoma Sen and Rona Wilson were arrested from their residences in various parts of the country. The arrests of others then continued in[Read More…]
Over 50 eminent international figures including members of several European parliaments academics, lawyers, Nobel laureates, civil society leaders, and diasporic organisations have signed a joint statement urging the Indian government to show compassion and responsibility in the current Covid emergency, and call upon the authorities to release all arrested human rights defenders into safe conditions in the light of the[Read More…]
“Unbearable.” That’s the title of Reza Khandan’s gut-wrenching Ms. Magazine report from the Islamic Republic of Iran’s (IRI) Qarchak prison for women. Khandan is the husband of attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh, who is imprisoned there for the “crime” of representing activists for human and women’s rights. What is so “unbearable”? “Entering these cells is like being transported back to the Middle Ages,” Khandan writes,[Read More…]
I am writing this tribute to Jailed Professor G.N.Saibaba, commemorating the third anniversary of the attack on the Urban intellectuals in Mumbai. Professor G.N.Saibaba is in my view today the best son of our land today. It is hard to visualize a physically impaired person face and resist the iron feet of oppression with the same magnitude. Professor G.N.Saibaba is[Read More…]
This has been a fantasy of Danish governments for some time. There have been gazes of admiration towards countries like Australia, where processing refugees and asylum-seekers is a task offloaded, with cash incentives, to third countries (Papua New Guinea and Nauru come to mind). Danish politicians, notably a good number among the Social Democrats, have dreamed about doing the same[Read More…]
We, the members of various Human Rights Organisations and Concerned individuals, condemn the appointment of former SC Judge, Shri Arun Kumar Mishra, as the next Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of India by the selection Committee headed by the Prime Minister. What is troubling is that the decision to appoint Justice Arun Kumar Mishra as NHRC Head[Read More…]
The second wave in recent weeks has overwhelmed the healthcare system, leaving hospitals and people both struggling to cope with critical drugs and oxygen in short supply. The situation now seems a little under control with infections slowing down. Pandemic has revealed a lot of mismanagement on the part of the government. Many sections of the society have skipped the[Read More…]
Written by Thomas Klikauer and Catherine Link At the end May 2021, Australian media reported on a multinational company receiving a $121 million contract to keep asylum seekers locked away on a remote island of Papua New Guinea (PNG) for good. Ever since Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations and even more so since Karl Marx’s Value, Price and Profits (1865),[Read More…]
At the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Colombia, Canada, remains of 215 children were found buried. Some of the children were as young as three years old when they died, the First Nation said. Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation hired a specialist in ground-penetrating radar to carry out the work and believes the deaths of the children are undocumented. Chief Rosanne[Read More…]
Written by Bela Bhatia and Jean Drèze Mass protests against the proliferation of CRPF camps have been happening all over Bastar during the last two years, without attracting much media coverage. It is only because of the death of three protestors in police firing on 17 May 2021 that the Silger protest came to light. Silger is a small adivasi[Read More…]
PUCL feels a deep sense of loss over the sad demise of Prof. Dinesh Mohan on 21st May. Prof. Dinesh Mohan’s passing away marks the loss of a multifaceted personality: an outstanding academician, a visionary thinker, pioneer in the field of traffic studies and sustainable infrastructure development and a staunch champion of human rights. Prof. Dinesh Mohan was a member[Read More…]
Written by Saheli Chowdhury and Stephen Lalla Venezuelan businessman and diplomatic envoy Alex Saab, held in the African island nation of Cape Verde and facing extradition to the United States, is a victim of political persecution and his case is comparable to that of Julian Assange or Chelsea Manning. Saab, who had engaged in brokering deals that would evade the[Read More…]
Stan Swamy, 84-year old Adivasi rights activist from Jharkhand, was arrested by NIA under UAPA in the Bhima Koregaon case on the 8th of October 2020 and has been lodged in Taloja jail, near Mumbai, Maharashtra. He has spent his entire life fighting for Adivasi rights and the rights of the underprivileged. Stan Swamy is a Parkinson’s disease patient with[Read More…]
Though India is one of the worst hit covid affected countries in the world, the plight and plea of political prisoners under trial gets no attention from the state or central governments. So many people including students, activists, journalists, academicians, and political leaders are still behind the bars many of whom are tested Covid postive while some others got serious[Read More…]
It is the duty of all patriotic citizens to protect the international reputation of their country. For the greater part of its post-independence period India has experienced a reasonably good reputation in terms of democracy and human rights. There were always some problems, things were never perfect, there were ups and downs, but on the whole there was a reasonably[Read More…]
On May 13 Thailand released data of record increase in Covid cases, but perhaps even more worrying was the fact that over half of the new cases were reported from two prisons located in Bangkok which also house quite a few political prisoners who had been arrested mainly for their protests against the government and the monarchy. This is just[Read More…]
Till some time back Sudha Bharadwaj was known to many friends and admirers as a public interest lawyer who had protected many vulnerable and poor persons, particularly workers from injustice. She also taught law at prestigious institutions and was a source of inspiration for many of her students. How have conditions changed? Now her only daughter Maaysha has been moving[Read More…]
Last week the academic community in Haryana, Punjab, Delhi and other states was greatly distress by the news of the death of Dr. Mahavir Narwal. Many of his former students, particularly those in Hissar , were reduced to tears. He was remembered by teachers as well as students not only for his learning and teaching but also for the important[Read More…]
Hany Babu, an undertrial prisoner in the Bhima Koregaon case, who has been in custody since July 2020 without trial has now been diagnosed as COVID Positive. Hany had developed an acute eye infection in Taloja Jail. He has little or no vision in his left eye due to the swelling, which has spread to the cheek, ear and forehead[Read More…]
Family and friends of activists arrested in Bhima Koregaon conspiracy case write to Hon’ble Chief Minister, Maharashtra state for immediate release of the Bhima Koregaon under trial detainees in light of the threats posed to their life and health due to the raging Covid 19 pandemic. Letter attached. —————–Letter——————— Date: 11/05/21 To, The Honorable CM, Maharshtra Mr. Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray,[Read More…]
An Appeal to Chief Minister of Kerala Mr. Pinarayi Vijayan Sir, Please Intervene… To The Honourable Chief Minister of Kerala Dear Sir, We, the family members of Hany Babu M.T., who is the 12th person to be arrested in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case (NIA Case No. RC-02/2020/NIA/MUM), write to you in desperation and to bring to your kind attention[Read More…]
US Condemns China’s Uighur Policy, while Providing Billions in Foreign Aid to Israel Condemned for Apartheid Policies The US has a long-standing double standard when it comes to condemning nations for human rights violations, including state-terrorist acts, if it considers them enemies. At the same time, the US strongly supports and in some cases provides billions in foreign aid, guaranteed[Read More…]
A video in which Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev is interviewed by Orla Guerin has resurfaced; the interview took place in November 2020. (The BBC version.) Revealing is what is not seen in the BBC version. When Aliyev held up the mirror to Guerin’s “accusation” that there was no free media in Azerbaijan, the BBC responded by censoring Aliyev’s reference to[Read More…]
Dealing with the Forever Prison of America’s Forever Wars The Guantánamo conundrum never seems to end. Twelve years ago, I had other expectations. I envisioned a writing project that I had no doubt would be part of my future: an account of Guantánamo’s last 100 days. I expected to narrate in reverse, the episodes in a book I had just[Read More…]
One of the lesser known aspects of recent Assembly elections which deserves to be known more widely is that the well-known social activist Akhil Gogoi has won the election from Sivasagar constituency from Assam even though he fought the election from behind the bars as he had been arrested following his opposition to Citizens’ Amendment Act ( CAA). Despite being[Read More…]
If you ask those of us living in the Africa, almost all of us will tell you that the “human rights” that matter most are those that are basic to the right to life; food, water, shelter, medical care and education for your children. If you and you family are cold, hungry, sick and illiterate do you think “freedom of[Read More…]
PART I A Poem symptomatic of the Theme of Political Prisoners Let me invert the structure of this article a bit. I have referred to some of the poems in the anthalogy of poems “Dissenting Voices” (1977) which accompanied the 1977 – PUCLDR National Convention of Political Prisoners, at the end of this piece. However, let me begin with one[Read More…]
Blatant Human Rights violations and forcible takeover of land in Mikir Bamuni Grant village for a 15MW Solar Power Project of Azure Power. State officials, especially form local and district administration, facilitated the illegal and unjust takeover of the land. The Land and Forests of Assam belong to the indigenous and adivasi people of Assam and must be returned back[Read More…]
CDRO strongly condemns the declaration of Civil Liberties Committee (CLC) and 15 other organisations by the Telangana state government as unlawful associations under Telangana Public security Act. The Telangana Government, recently through a G. O. Ms.73 dt. 30-3-2021, declared that the following organisations, 1) Telangana Praja Front (TPF), 2.Telangana Asanghatitha Karmika Samkhya (TAKS), 3.Telangana Vidyarthi Vedika (TW), 4.Democratic Students Organisation[Read More…]
Dear Stan, It is rather unusual and certainly not normal to wish someone who is in prison “A Happy Birthday!” One’s birthday cannot be ‘happy’ in prison; however, in wishing you – we celebrate your life: your mission and your message and above all, those whom you have so closely identified with, all these years so “Birthday Greetings to[Read More…]
1,000 + activists, academics, concerned citizens from 20+ states in India and across the globe write to Chief Minister Chhattisgarh. Call for immediate release of Hidme Markam and end state excess on adivasis in Bastar Deeply outraged by the arbitrary incarceration of Hidme Markam, an adivasi human rights defender and environmental activist, for over 40 days, more than a thousand[Read More…]
Written by Saheli Chowdhury and Stephen Lalla “You cannot claim to protect human rights by violating human rights,” asserted Alena Douhan, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Negative Impact of Unilateral Coercive Measures on the Enjoyment of Human Rights, while detailing the human cost of the unilateral sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the United States and its allies. Prof. Douhan,[Read More…]
Close to the first anniversary of the arrest of a renowned Indian scholar, members of Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) held a demonstration in Surrey on Sunday, April 18. Anand Teltumbde, a well-known author and columnist, was arrested last year on April 14 under trumped up charges for merely questioning the power and standing up for the poor and[Read More…]
(PHOTO: Pam Africa presents the first issue of The Jamal Journal outside of Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office on March 12, 2021. Pam has repeatedly attempted to meet with DA Krasner but he has always refused to meet with her. Photo by Jamal Journal staff photographer Joe Piette) Ona Move! On Saturday April 17, Mumia called his wife Wadiya and[Read More…]
(A new Medical Professionals for Mumia petition co-written by Dr. Alvarez is reprinted at the bottom of this article. Read “A Christmas Cage,” Mumia Abu-Jamal’s personal account of what happened to him on the morning of Dec. 9, 1981) As this article goes to press today, April 15th, Mumia is now scheduled for open heart surgery tomorrow. We only know that he has severe blockages[Read More…]
Written by Nizamuddin Ahmad Siddiqui & Abu Zar Ali The Supreme Court of India, by way of an order dated 8th April 2021, allowed the deportation of Rohingyas from the Indian territory. The Government of India had argued that these people were illegal migrants who had crossed the borders from the neighbouring state; and though they enjoyed the equal protection[Read More…]
(The Press release is by way of a chronicle of the NIA Witch-hunt of Rights Defenders and documents the ongoing saga of the State’s Conspiracy to Silence Dissent) In an unprecedented manner, on 31st March & 1st April, 2021, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) raided the homes of at least 33 human rights and civil liberties activists, members of women’s[Read More…]
Members of the Telugu Church in Vancouver came together on Tuesday, April 6, to denounce the incarceration of the disabled Indian scholar G.N. Saibaba. A former Delhi University Professor, Saibaba continues to face inhuman conditions in an Indian jail after being convicted in 2017. First arrested on trumped-up charges in 2014, for merely speaking out against the repression of religious[Read More…]
Bhubaneswar: The Ganatantrik Adhikar Suraksha Sangathan (GASS) condemns the witch-hunting of the National Investigation Authority (NIA) officials against the human and democratic rights activists from Andra Pradesh and Telangana in the name of so-called “Maoist links “. It is reported in various National dailies that the NIA officials conducted raids at 31 residential places of the human rights activist and arrested[Read More…]
KV Biju, national coordinator of the Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh, one of groups under the umbrella of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha that has been leading the farmer protests on the borders of the national capital, was among two people thrashed late night on March 30, 2021, while out pasting posters urging voters in Kerala to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party candidates[Read More…]
National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) condemns in the strongest possible terms the high-handed manner of ‘raids’ by the National Investigative Agency (NIA) at the homes of over 16 activists of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, acting on dubious FIRs registered a couple of months back. We express our solidarity with all these activists and advocates who are long standing members[Read More…]
Co-ordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO) is strongly condemning the raids of NIA(National Investigation Agency) on the houses of Rights Activists and activists belongs to various peoples organisations. NIA has raided the houses of nearly 16 Human Rights, Civil liberties, feminist activists and progressive writers in AP and Telangana. The raids began on 31st March evening and continued till the[Read More…]
The Indian Sedition Law owes its origin to The British Sedition Act of 1661, an Act of Parliament of England which was passed as an Act for safety and Preservation of His Majesties Person and Government against Treasonable and Seditious practices and attempts. However Sedition was abolished in Great Britain through the Coroners and Justice Act of 2009. The Sedition Law in India was inserted into IPC[Read More…]
A welcome move for the United Nations, Security Council and International Community to uphold accountability and rein in Sri Lanka. At the 46th Session of UNHRC, the final Resolution on Sri Lanka was passed with 22 members voting for it with 11 opposing and 14 abstentions In this article some of the Resolutions’ vital recommendations can be analyzed in the[Read More…]
Johanna Fernández, author of The Young Lords: A Radical History and a leading member of the movement to bring Mumia Abu-Jamal and other political prisoners home, reports on Mumia’s COVID-19 diagnosis. History is not merely something to be read. And it does not refer merely, or even principally, to the past. On the contrary, the great force of history comes from the fact that[Read More…]
On March 03, 2021, The New Indian Express carried a news headline: ‘Falsely accused of rape, UP man freed after spending 20 years in jail’ – a very good news report indeed; he is free man finally. Then on March 06, 2021, Inquest News carried the following headline: ‘Surat court acquits 122 alleged SIMI members after 19 years of arrest’[Read More…]
Sometime, just before Monday 22 March (the day the order in response to his bail application was scheduled to be pronounced), Fr. Stan Swamy sent a communication from the confines of the Taloja Prison where he has been incarcerated for near six months now. In that communication he said, “So, we await ‘the ides of March’” From the tone of[Read More…]
The United States of America is victim of its own propaganda. Since being founded, the USA has always depicted itself as a beacon of democracy and liberty, a land of opportunity and hope where a person can accomplish rags to riches through hard work and initiative. For many the American Dream is viewed as a reality and can we[Read More…]
The All India Catholic Union, founded 101 years ago, has called upon the Prime Minister and the Home minister of India to take exemplary action against the vigilante group and the police involved in the harassment of two Sacred Heart Nuns and two student Nuns in a moving train near Jhansi. In Uttar Pradesh. The police, instead of warding off[Read More…]
As his 67th birthday nears, and Pennsylvania political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal faces challenging and potentially fatal health crises, his legal case is still slowly winding its way through the arduous appellate court system. — New court filings for Abu-Jamal’s appeal, Workers World, March 22. Injustice is an industry in the United States of America, just like militarism and prisons. An[Read More…]
Over two dozen US and international civil and human rights organizations have expressed solidarity with Dr Audrey Truschke, Associate Professor of South Asian History at Rutgers University against the ongoing systematic campaign of vilification against her including vile threats of extreme violence. In a remarkable build up of broad support for Dr. Truschke, the joint letter thanks Rutgers for unequivocally supporting[Read More…]
Driven out of homeland and in search of a shore to call as one’s own- the story of every refugee fits in this framework. Termed as the most persecuted people of 21st century, life of Rohingya refugees since decades has been all about striking a balance between series of uprooting and stay planted as long as they are on the[Read More…]
Besides granting bail to Octogenarian poet Varavara Rao, one of the most important judicial actions that happened recently is grant of bail to Disha Ravi, who should be remembered on International Women’s Day of 2021. Disha and Varavara Rao were incarcerated for opposing the government’s policies, without proper evidence. The serious threat to personal liberty can only be averted with[Read More…]
The Committee for the Defence and Release of Dr. GN Saibaba organised a press conference at the Press Club of India in Delhi which was addressed by writer Arundhati Roy, former Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha D Raja, General Secretary of the National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) Muralidharan, former President of DUTA Nandita Narain,[Read More…]
On this International Women’s Day let’s take a moment to remember one of JatiIndia’s victims, 32-year-old Thangjam Manorama from Manipur, India who was hauled out of her home at night, brutally tortured, raped and then shot dead by Indian paramilitary forces — the 17th Assam Rifles — on July 11, 2004. There were bullet wounds found in her vagina and[Read More…]
On the eve of International Women’s Day, South Asian activists came together to raise their voices against gendered repression in the world’s so called largest democracy. Organized by the Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) on Sunday, March 7, the rally was held outside the Indian Visa and Passport Application Center in Surrey. The demonstration was mainly focussed on the[Read More…]
In a complaint that was filed by the National Confederation of Human Rights Organisations on December 7, 2020 against the mob violence on Madvi Muka and 27 other victims in Chhattisgarh, the SHRC, Chhattisgarh has ordered the police submission of an action taken report. The case came to light when a Hindutva mob attacked the people during the prayer that[Read More…]
Sometimes a particular fight weaves together so many strands of the oppressive fabric of the USA that it is difficult to figure out what is key and where to begin. Such is the case with the fight to free Bay View Newspaper editor Malik Washington from the clutches of the private, COVID-wracked “halfway-house” prison in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. Systemic[Read More…]
China has said that the door to Xinjiang “is always open” for UN High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet, after she claimed Muslim Uighurs are suffering arbitrary detention and ill-treatment in the area. The statement was made on Tuesday by the Chinese delegation to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in response to comments by Bachelet claiming an independent investigation needs[Read More…]
Discussion of Islam in Western languages, and latterly much of it in the languages of the Islamic world as well, is bedeviled by polemic and reductionism. Islam itself always seems to be in the dock. One school of thought wishes to prove that Islam as such is responsible for all the abuses and cruelties to be found in the Islamic[Read More…]
PUCL is extremely pleased that the Punjab and Haryana High Court, restored the civil liberties of dalit labour activist Nodeep Kaur of Mazdoor Adhikar Sangathan, by granting her bail on 26th February 2021. PUCL demands that co-activist, Shiv Kumar who is grievously injured and visually challenged also be released right away and till his release, he should be[Read More…]
The PUCL welcomes the order of the Delhi Sessions Court on 23.2.21, granting bail to Disha Ravi, a 21 year old resident of Bengaluru who was unjustly incarcerated for offences under Sections 124A, 153A and 120B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860. Ms. Ravi suffered a series of egregious violations including abduction by the Delhi police from her home[Read More…]
The recent arrest of a young climate activist in India for her association with a guide to passive resistance movements has once again exposed the true colours of the world’s so called largest democracy. Twenty-one-year-old Disha Ravi was arrested by Delhi Police from Bengaluru under conspiracy charges. Her only fault is her link with a toolkit built by the Canada-based[Read More…]
NAPM Stands with the Migrant Labourers of Ahmedabad Demanding Basic Living Facilities The past year has exposed the dire situation of migrant workers across India, who continue to work in precarious conditions. On 15th February, 2021, almost 1000 migrant labourers, members of the labour union Majur Adhikar Manch, gathered in Ahmedabad in front of the District Collector’s office, to submit a[Read More…]
To Secretary National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Sir, I refer to my letters dated 4-1-2021 & 16-1-2021 on violation of human rights of the detainees under the the Foreigners Act, 1946, the Foreigners (Tribunals For Assam) Order, 2006 and the other related laws in force in Assam. I have enclosed here copies of the two letters for your ready reference.[Read More…]
The 101-year-old All India Catholic Union [AICU] is deeply distressed and extremely worried at the hounding of young climate change and environment activists in the country. What makes it more critical is that this form of persecution comes from both State and non-state actors, and at a time when the nation is struggling to come out of the medical and[Read More…]
Members of Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) came together on Sunday, February 14, to raise their voices for the jailed Indian scholar who is being incarcerated despite being disabled below the waist, and having been tested positive for COVID 19. A well-known human rights defender, former Delhi University Professor GN Saibaba is currently serving a life term after having[Read More…]
News that Disha Ravi, a young woman and climate activist from Bengaluru, has been “picked up” – in what is referred to as a “closely guarded operation” of the Delhi police – is highly disturbing both for what appears to be its illegal nature and for the over-reaction of the State that it represents. Earlier today, Disha has been remanded to[Read More…]
The intruder [Gaur] was referring not to a joke Faruqui had just made, but one that he’d uploaded on YouTube in April 2020. It referenced Rama, a widely worshipped Hindu deity, and his wife Sita. “O Lord, my beloved, has come home,” Faruqui starts, dropping lyrics from an enormously popular Bollywood song in which a woman celebrates the return of[Read More…]
In a letter written by Fr. Stan Swamy SJ, from the prison, said, “Dear friends: Peace! Though I do not have many details, from what I have heard, I am grateful to all of you for expressing your solidarity support. I am in a cell approximately 13 feet x 8 feet, along with two more inmates. It has a small[Read More…]
Activist Rona Wilson’s computer was compromised for over 22 months before the Pune Police raided his home in New Delhi and arrested him as co-accused in Bhima Koregaon violence, claimed the Massachusetts-based digital forensics firm Arsenal Digital. The firm in its report said that the 10 letters used first by Pune Police and later the National Investigation Agency (NIA) as[Read More…]
With changes of presidential administrations, radical departures in policy are always exaggerated. Continuity remains, for the most part, a standard feature. It is precisely that continuity being challenged by groups fearful of the continuing prosecution of Julian Assange. The effort by the US Justice Department to extradite Assange from the UK on eighteen charges based on the Espionage Act and[Read More…]
The Kisan Andolan has brought many new faces, young and dynamic activists full of ideological commitments as well as active on the ground which is a positive sign. When the movement started, many people asked me the question about the agricultural workers, Dalit, Adivasis. I was very clear that farmers have now realised that corporate culture is anti-farmer which is[Read More…]
Recently. President Gotabaya Rajapakshe appointed a three man Commission to study and find out if any human rights violations have been revealed in the Lesson Learnt and Reconciliation Commission [ LLRC] Paranagama and Udalagama Commissions by ignoring and rejecting the several Reports of the UN Special Rapporteurs including United Nations Secretary General Ban-Ki-Moon’s Report which detailed comprehensive human rights[Read More…]
On February 3, 2021, Nitin Negi, who runs an electronics goods repair shop in Uttam Nagar, New Delhi, found a toddler outside his shop, no trace of his parents. The shopkeeper asked the little fellow what his name was, what his mother’s name was, and what his father was called. The toddler said he was Nana, his mother Anju and[Read More…]
Demand the immediate release of Nodeep Kaur and Shiv Kumar and cessation of targeting of workers and peasants by the Haryana Police! WSS strongly condemns the arrest and custodial sexual violence perpetrated by the Haryana Police in Kundli Industrial Area against 24-year-old dalit worker Nodeep Kaur On January 12th 2021, the Haryana Police began firing at a workers’ rally[Read More…]
Campaign Against State Repression demands the immediate release of Mandeep Punia and cessation of targeting of journalists! On January 30th, Mandeep Punia, a freelance journalist who worked for The Caravan magazine and Junputh, was dragged across the police barricades at Singhu Border and arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police. While his whereabouts were unknown for a long[Read More…]
Rosa Parks learned to stand her ground for which she was hauled off to jail. This incident wasn’t the first time, nor the last time, that an Afro-American would be incarcerated for an act of civil disobedience. Her arrest was due to this event: A bus driver in Montgomery, Alabama ordered her to give up her seat in the “colored”[Read More…]
Members of Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) came together on Saturday January 30,to mark the birth anniversary of a slain journalist, outside the Indian visa and passport center in Surrey. Gauri Lankesh was a critic of the current right wing Hindu nationalist government. Born on January 29, 1962, she was assassinated in 2017 by suspected Hindu extremists. Her murder[Read More…]
Activists, Advocates and commoners came together virtually to discuss and demand the repeal of the UAPA and underlined the legal, socio-cultural issues around it in a consultation organised by the People’s Union of Civil Liberties. ——– IN a session packed with human stories of abuse and misuse of law where activists and commoners were abused, the People’s Union for Civil[Read More…]
On January 19, a court in Gujarat issued an arrest warrant against eminent journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta in a defamation suit filed by the Adani Group. Since then several leading media organizations and commentators have voiced strong opposition of this action against a senior journalist with many-sided achievements in print journalism, TV and documentary films. Thakurta has also been working[Read More…]
National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) is deeply anguished at the continued incarceration of Akhil Gogoi, well-known peasant leader of Assam. The past two weeks have been particularly poignant, as one the one hand, it marked over 400 days of Akhil in jail, while on the other, his bail application, which came up for hearing after protracted delay was declined[Read More…]
NAPM condemns the police-state atrocities against Karbi and adivasi farmers of ‘Mikir Bamuni Grant’, protesting the ‘questionable purchase’ of their cultivable land in the name of ‘Green Energy’. Stop arrests, police persecution and intimidation, violence against women & villagers: Release all arrested farmers immediately . Govt of Assam must recognize the tenancy rights of farmers under the Assam (Temporarily Settled[Read More…]
On October 2019 Delivering a lecture on the “Indian Economy: Challenges and Prospects” at the Deepak and Neera Raj Centre on Indian Economic Policies , Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman , Finance Minister of the Modi Government , on being asked of the revocation of Article 370 and its economic impact on the state[Read More…]
Campaign Against State Repression demands the immediate release of Nodeep Kaur and strict action against the Haryana Police for targeting workers in the Kundli Industrial Area! On January 12th, the Haryana Police barged into the Majdoor Adhikar Sanghatan (MAS) tent erected in solidarity with the protesting farmers and peasants at the Singhu Border and arrested a 24-year-old dalit woman, a[Read More…]
To Secretary National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) N.Delhi Sir, Kindly refer to my attached letter dated 4-1-2021 on arbitrary detention of Mohammad Nur Hussain, 34, a rickshaw puller in Guwahati who hails from Lawdong village in Assam’s Udalguri district, his wife Sahera Begum, 26, and their two minor children (Ages 7 & 5 years). In June, 2019, on a false charge[Read More…]
Australia’s Foreign Minister, Marise Payne, said little in the statement from her department, which was a good thing, as it might have been dangerously useful. The finding of a UK court on whether Julian Assange would be extradited to the United States was made “on the grounds of his mental health and consequent suicide risk.” She does not care to[Read More…]
“Rescue us from the sub-jail – what you call the media ‘facilitation’ centre,” reads a sign held up by a pair of, what you, JatiIndia — my name for this country of jatis/castes — call “anti-national” hands. Who qualifies as a so-called anti-national? Anyone who resists and exposes JatiIndian supremacy within the boundaries of the country, and in occupied Kashmir.[Read More…]
There was a hope in some quarters after Judge Vanessa Baraitser ruled on Monday against an application to extradite Julian Assange to the US, where he faced being locked away for the rest of his life, that she might finally be changing tack. Washington has wanted Assange permanently silenced and made an example of – by demonstrating to other journalists[Read More…]
History, while not always a telling guide, can be useful. But in moments of flushed confidence, it is not consulted and Cleo is forgotten. A crisp new dawn can negate a glance to the past. Having received the unexpected news that Julian Assange’s extradition to the United States for charges of breaching the Espionage Act of 1917 and computer intrusion[Read More…]
The barrister-brewed humour of Edward Fitzgerald QC, one of the solid and stout figures defending a certain Julian Assange of WikiLeaks at the Old Bailey in London, was understandable. Time had worn and wearied the parties, none more so than his client. Fitzgerald had asked for water, but then mused that its absence could hardly have been as bad as[Read More…]
On January 4, 2021, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser gave a ruling wherein she blocked Julian Assange’s extradition to the US under Section 91 of UK’s Extradition Act (EA) 2003, citing health reasons. The US government has decided to appeal this decision. Section 91 of EA 2003 prohibits extradition if “the physical or mental condition of the person is such that it would be unjust[Read More…]
UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association Clement Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression Irene Khan, and Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Mary Lawlor wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2020 expressing grave concern over[Read More…]
The unexpected decision by Judge Vanessa Baraitser to deny a US demand to extradite Julian Assange, foiling efforts to send him to a US super-max jail for the rest of his life, is a welcome legal victory, but one swamped by larger lessons that should disturb us deeply. Those who campaigned so vigorously to keep Assange’s case in the spotlight,[Read More…]
A British judge on Monday rejected the United States’ request to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to face espionage charges, saying he was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions. District Judge Vanessa Baraitser rejected allegations that Assange is being prosecuted for political reasons or would not receive a fair trial in the United States. But[Read More…]
To Secretary National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) N.Delhi Sir, I refer to the distressing news report (https://indianexpress.com/article/north-east-india/assam/assam-nrc-detention-centre-7128303/) on how four members of a rickshaw puller’s family in Assam, unable to secure ready legal assistance, suffered gross violation of their basic human rights, when they were erroneously called “foreigners” in Assam under the Foreigners Tribunal Act, 1941, Foreigners Tribunal Order, 1964 and[Read More…]
The large scale destruction of lives and livelihoods in 2020 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in India and its inept handling by the government has been accompanied by another sort of destruction, much more deliberate and calculated. It is the destruction of the democratic rights organizations (DROs) of India, as part of a vicious plan of the BJP government to[Read More…]
The odds are stacked against Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks publisher who faces the grimmest of prospects come January 4. On that day, the unsympathetic judicial head of District Judge Vanessa Baraitser will reveal her decision on the Old Bailey proceedings that took place between September and October this year. Despite Assange’s team being able to marshal an impressive, even astonishing[Read More…]
Written by Surabhi Agarwal, Sandeep Pandey and Kushagra Kumar Sudhir Dhawale, a writer, poet, artist, perennial protestor and a Dalit leader, was arrested and jailed in mid-2018. He remains in jail charged under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and assorted Indian Penal Codes accused of instigating violence at Bhima Koregaon event on 1 Jaunary, 2018. Ironically, the UAPA sections under which[Read More…]
The outrageous murder of Right to Information (RTI) activist Mr Ranjan Kumar Das signals new waves of authoritarian ruling class onslaught on democratic movements in Odisha. The state government has failed to protect the lives of RTI activists. Ranjan was murdered near his village Beruan in the Kendrapara district of Odisha on 31st January 2020. Like his friends, family, fellow[Read More…]
The UNHRC Resolutions 30/1 of 2015 and 40/1 after so much hard work, negotiations and after extension for six years have now produced zero achievement and the endless sufferings of the Tamils and Muslims continues. The Presence of Military at a ratio of one soldier to four civilians [01 : 04 [1 soldier to 4 civilians] Tamils are really under[Read More…]
The forthcoming 46th UNHRC Sessions in February/March 2021 holds the key to uphold accountability, justice and human rights in Sri Lanka while halting Sri Lanka’s history of evasions and denials of its obligations to comply with and implement the recommendations in the 30/1 of 2015 and 40/1 of 2019 Resolutions. It has so far successfully resorted to devalue and delay[Read More…]
In 2016, a Supreme Court Judge asked the state of Maharashtra, “Do you want to extract a pound of flesh?” The statement was directed against the state for contesting the bail plea of Delhi University Professor G. N. Saibaba. Saibaba was arrested in 2014, a justification for which was to prevent him from committing what the police called “anti-national activities.”[Read More…]
Children belong in schools, not workplaces. Child labor deprives them of their right to go to school and leads to intergenerational cycles of poverty. According to the 2011 national census of India, there are 10.13 million child laborers in India. Despite the gradual decline in the rates, children are still being used in severe forms of labor. The continuing persistence[Read More…]
France has been almost regularly featured in the front pages of newspapers across the world, but for reasons that is unexpected from a liberal country like itself. Under the leadership of President Emanuel Macron, France has been taking various steps in recent times undermining human rights — something which have been gradually spoiling the country’s image as the torchbearer of[Read More…]
Indian origin Srilankan Tamil community, who were repatriated and settled in a remote Katchal Island in Andaman and Nicobar, are on relay hunger strike for the past one month, demanding proper resettlement and basic livelihood facilities, which were denied to them for the past five decades. Around 5.25 Lakh Indian-origin Srilankan Tamils, who were repatriated to India based on Srimavo-Shastri[Read More…]
Manual scavenging is the age-old unfortunate practice of cleaning, carrying, and disposing human excreta from dry latrines or sewers into the disposal sites. Despite prohibitive legislations in place, a government survey from 2019, carried out across 170 districts, found that over 54000 people actively engage in the practice. In 2019 alone, 110 people died while cleaning septic tanks and sewers.[Read More…]
No person in the world would tout the practice of manual scavenging to be beneficial to society or a desirable outcome to be pursued. Many people would feel nauseated just by thinking about the activity. With an exceedingly low approval amongst the masses, one would think that manual scavenging would have been eradicated from the nation by now. The reality[Read More…]
None would ever have imagined that an octogenarian Stan Swamy would face such a harsh treatment for his committed work for the Adivasis of Jharkhand. When the governments of the world over honor activists who work in tiring circumstances and devote their time to areas far away from their places than we must realise that it is not for money[Read More…]
An Analysis of a decade of arrests, detentions, summons, interrogations and show-cause notices against journalists in India 2010-20 The year 2020 has been a bad one for journalists in India. The Covid-19 pandemic has caused illness and death, and the lockdown resulted in salary cuts and loss of livelihood due to mass retrenchments effected by media houses. The killing and[Read More…]
On December 10, we celebrated Universal Declaration of Human Rights ‘Who will police the police’ is a big question for which the world could not give any answer till today. But Supreme Court on 2 December 2020 tried to find a solution to this problem in CCTV cameras, which probably can police the police. On December 10, we celebrated Universal[Read More…]
Written by Priyanka Preet, Sandeep Pandey, Kushagra Kumar Gautam Navlakha is a famed author, civil rights activists, human rights activist, journalist, an Editorial Consultant at the Economic and Political Weekly, probably the most internationally well known social sciences journal published out of India, the Convenor of the International People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir and the Secretary[Read More…]
Written by Nilkantha Mandal, Sandeep Pandey and Kushagra Kumar All his life he fought valiantly to defend the rights of the people belonging to marginalized sections of society who were persecuted by the State or people who would stand up for their rights and consequently were targeted by the ruling elite but in the end he paid a price for[Read More…]
Dear Father Stan Swami, It would be silly for me to start by hoping you are well, for I know about the state of your ill health and the complete disregard of the prison authorities in this respect. However, I have been moved to write to you by the Xmas season that is upon us. I am saddened that due[Read More…]
Donald Trump’s Travel-ban, which was first issued in January 2017, was a blessing in disguise for many, who perhaps would have ended in similar situation to those kids on the southern border. It is written in the Atlantic (June 19, 2018) that when the children are separated from their parents, they’re sent to facilities where they are kept in chain-link[Read More…]
Sudihrbhai (name changed) is a tea vendor in Ahmedabad and since the time first curfew was imposed he has been struggling to survive. Now when the country has opened up, his earnings are no where near the pre-lockdown levels. Earlier he used to make about Rs. 500 on daily basis but now it is less than Rs. 200. People like[Read More…]
It was 9 pm when Banarasi Mushahar, 55 was sitting with family friend Rampreet Nat picked up his night meal to go to the agricultural land he was guarding for the last seven years. In the typical village terminology, it is called Seermai which means an arrangement where in lieu of your work for guarding or agricultural work, the owner[Read More…]
The number of figures extolling the merits of Britain’s Westminster system and how it supposedly embodies a glorious model of democracy are too numerous to mention. This is despite exploits by the government of Boris Johnson, marked by the appointment of unelected advisers with enviable, unaccountable powers and a record of assault on Parliament’s scrutineering functions. “As the government blunders[Read More…]
Governments that issue press releases about the abuse of human rights tend to avoid close gazes at the mirror. Doing so would be telling. In the case of Australia, its record on dealing with refugees is both abysmal and cruel. It tends to be easier to point the finger at national security laws in Hong Kong and concentration camps in[Read More…]
If you cannot modify something you have to destroy it completely and rebuild. We need to destroy the whole caste system – Mr. Bezwada Manual Scavenging: a heinous practice While scrolling through YouTube, a documentary made by Samdish Bhatia on Manual scavengers in Mumbai stunned me. Immediately, multiple questions were in front of me. What is manual scavenging & why[Read More…]
Introduction Over the past nine months, the entire news and social media has been flooded with reports of rising cases of Covid-19 and the impact it has had on India’s economy. Millions of people lost their jobs or were forced to take pay cuts. Migrants were forced to walk hundreds of kilometers back home and economic activity in rural areas[Read More…]
The jingoist nation and nationalism have got weaponized by the political class to destroy dissent and polarize people. The mass frenzy has accomplished complete derationalization and inversion of meanings where destroyers of the nation become deshbhakts (patriots) and selfless servers of people become deshdrohis (traitors). As I see my India being ruined, it is with a feeble hope that I[Read More…]
The intellectuals whose release we are demanding are those who have stood firm against the oppressive and communal attacks waged by the Modi government on Indian society. They have made huge sacrifices, and are now braving a life in prison but they have never shied away from their duty to speak truth to power and communicate this truth to the[Read More…]
A Nomad is a community member who regularly moves from one place to another without any fixed habitat. Known as the wandering community, the members of nomadic tribes were generally entertainers and transporters historically. The Denotified tribes (DNTs), a part of a wandering community, are the tribes that were originally listed under the ‘Criminal Tribes act’ of 1871. Currently, there[Read More…]
Human Rights Day is observed on December 10 every year. It is the day when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adapted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. The document is made available therewith in more than 500 languages and is the most translated document in the world. ‘Recover better – stand up for human rights’ is the[Read More…]
As we celebrate the International Human Rights Day, it is worthwhile to ask if a missing soldier of the country has any of rights that we commemorate with fanfare. This might sound an insulting query in a country which swears by the breath, life, and death of its soldiers. This is rightly so, for, the soldier is the cream of[Read More…]
On the death anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar – the architect of the Indian constitution – South Asian activists came together to raise their voices against growing repression of religious minorities and political dissidents in the world’s so called largest democracy. Organized by the Indians Abroad for Pluralist India (IAPI) on Sunday, December 6, the rally was called in response[Read More…]
In November, 67 Adivasi, Dalit and human rights activists were booked by the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana police under UAPA and charged with sedition for alleged “maoist links”. In late-November, police officials in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana booked 67 Adivasi, Dalit and human rights activists under the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and under sedition charges for alleged “maoist[Read More…]
We, as a group working towards achieving a safer and more just society for women, are writing this open letter to you in great dismay at some recent developments in Andhra Pradesh state. As you are aware, the alleged gang-rape case of 11 adivasi women of the Kondh tribe by 13 men of AP Special Police personnel during a raid[Read More…]
More than 40 million people worldwide are victims of modern slavery, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO). In addition, more than 150 million children are subject to child labor, accounting for almost one in ten children around the world. “Modern slavery is used as an umbrella term covering practices such as forced labor, debt bondage, forced marriage, and human[Read More…]
Another Iranian nuclear scientist has been assassinated. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed by an elaborately planned and executed ambush. The complexity of the attack and the resources required to carry it out strongly indicate a state actor. Fingers of blame quickly pointed at a likely assassin: Israel. The United States was probably in some form of collaboration since it is widely[Read More…]
Can demand of justice for rape survivors be called ‘anti-national’? Can providing food and shelter to Adivasi women who have come from remote areas to depose in a criminal trial mandated by the law be a crime? The present allegation of ‘anti-national’ against VS Krishna of HRF (AP and Telengana) and other human rights and dalit rights activist by the[Read More…]
To Hon’ble Justice (Retd.) H.L. Dattu Chairperson National Human Rights Commission of India New Delhi Email: chairnhrc@nic.in Cc Mr C. S. Mawri Assistant Registrar and Focal Point on Human Rights Defenders National Human Rights Commission of India New Delhi Email: hrd-nhrc@nic.in Re: Request to raise serious concerns over the ongoing crackdown on human rights defenders in India Dear Justice (Retd.) Dattu,[Read More…]
With 16,000 mosques damaged in recent years, the autonomous region of Xinjiang now has the lowest number of Muslim houses of worship since the 1960s Cultural Revolution (AFP) To persecute the Uyghur Muslims, the demolition of mosques across China in recent times has drawn an international outcry. It started with the detention of the Muslims in internment camps in Xinjiang[Read More…]
The jailed scholar and activist, who is being incarcerated by the world’s so called largest democracy, has been recognized as this year’s person by a Vancouver-based online magazine that covers alternative politics. Radical Desi has declared Anand Teltumbde as Person of the Year 2020 for being in the news after his arrest on trumped up charges. Teltumbde has authored many[Read More…]
Kerala on the 3rd of November has witnessed yet another instance of an alleged encounter between Maoists and the state police force. The incident occurred at the Bappanam Mala forest area that comes under the South Wayanad Forest Division, in the northern district of Wayanad. According to police, they were on regular morning patrol of the area, when the Maoists[Read More…]
Co-Written by Surabhi Agarwal & Sandeep Pandey A compassionate human being, always popular among his friends and colleagues because of his friendly nature and human sensitivity, 33-year-old Mahesh Raut, champion of the democratic rights of the marginalised Adivasi people of Gadchiroli, Maharashtra has been in prison for over 2 years now. He was arrested in connection with the violence on[Read More…]
When the state-power begins to fear the pen, tongue and lips, it resorts to undemocratic suppression of dissent National Investigation Agency (NIA) is again in the news for its actions! Like earlier times, this time also their targets have been individuals and organisations that are well-known as defenders of human rights. In the last few days, the NIA has[Read More…]
In Conversation with Michael Taylor, Director, Global Secretariat, International Land Coalition, Rome Michael Taylor is the Director of the global secretariat of the International Land Coalition (ILC). ILC is hosted by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a UN Agency in Rome, Italy. Michael is a citizen of Botswana, with a PhD in Social Anthropology. He has worked on[Read More…]
Background to Bhima Koregaon Event The 1818 Battle of Koregaon is of importance for Dalits. On 1st January, 1818, 800 troops of the British Army, with large number of Mahars, Dalit Community of Maharashtra predominant among them, defeated a numerically superior force of the Peshwa Baji Rao II. A victory pillar (Vijay Sthamb) was erected in Koregaon by the British, commemorating[Read More…]
A webinar was organised with major initiative of Indian Christians for Democracy on 25th October, Sunday, 2020 from 11.00 to 1.00 pm. Dr. Fr. Prakash Louis the founder of the Indian Christians for Democracy forum initiated, planned and executed this webinar. Roselle Solomon and Ranjan Solomon hosted the webinar. Dr. John Dayal moderated the webinar. The objectives of the webinar[Read More…]
It is good to see Jharkhand chief Minister Hemant Soren speaking so powerfully against the arrest of Father Stan Swamy. Many other voices are speaking against his arrest. The 81 year old Stan has been working in Jharkhand for years and has Center at Bagaicha has been a place for the Adivasis particularly those who have been victim of the[Read More…]
Introduction PUCL organised a virtual Press Conference on 21st October, 2020 to condemn the illegal arrest of Fr. Stan Swamy of Jharkhand and 15 other activists in the Bhima Koregaon case. The Press Conference was to create a platform for different civil society groups and political parties to jointly condemn the brazen abuse of UAPA by the Central Government[Read More…]
NEW DELHI, October 20: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has appealed to the Government of India to safeguard the rights of human rights defenders and NGOs, and their ability to carry out their crucial work on behalf of the many groups they represent.In a statement issued in Geneva on Tuesday, Bachelet expressed regret at the tightening of[Read More…]
Standing for justice is bad news for the powers that be. That is why the arrest of the 83-year old Jesuit Stan Swamy had to come sometime because he has fought for justice all his life. But when it really came it shocked those who know him. It had to come because shooting the messenger of justice is basic to[Read More…]
Dr. G. N. Saibaba, a professor in Delhi University, is incarcerated under the draconian UAPA since 2014 and is in Nagpur Jail. He has 90% disability and this prolonged suffering in jail, under an abysmal condition with inadequate medical treatment, has produced grave physical ailments including gradual paralysis of his arms due to neglect. Repeated denial of parole or[Read More…]
Dear Rachael Maskell MP, I am William Nicholas Gomes; I am your constituent and a human rights activist and freelance journalist. I am writing about the Indian Jesuit priest and human rights defender, Fr Stan Swamy SJ, who has been taken into custody by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India for alleged Maoist links. Fr Stan is 83 years old[Read More…]
Abstract Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1948 is a basic and most significant document. It is not only about indivisible, inalienable, basic human rights. Several people in South Asia discredit human rights as the foreign, Eurocentric, or Western and the male concept, however, in contradiction, this piece argues that firstly, the human rights as proclaimed in the UDHR is[Read More…]
CDRO is shocked to hear the news of the arrest of Father Stan Swamy in connection with the infamous Bhima-Koregaon (BK) case. We note with disgust that Father Stan Swamy is the latest victim of the witch hunt operation carried out by the BJP-government in the name of BK case. It is a well-known fact today that the NIA,[Read More…]
On October 8th, a day before the deadline for filing the charge-sheet in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad case elapsed, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested the 83-year-old Jesuit priest and veteran tribal rights activist Father Stan Swamy. He was forcibly taken from Ranchi to Mumbai and produced before the Sessions Court on October 9th. Alongside this, the NIA presented a[Read More…]
We are going through one of the most dismal times in the history of post-independence India. Anyone who resists, anyone who speaks for the greater common good, for truth and justice, is getting hounded. Hate campaigns are unleashed against them or they are implicated under fabricated charges and thrown into prison. At present, it is extremely unfortunate that many academics,[Read More…]
The Universal Declaration for Human Rights [UDHR] was adopted on 10th December 1948 by the United Nations at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris. The UDHR contains thirty Articles. Articles 1 and 2 outline the philosophical claim of the UDHR and emphasise that human beings are born free in equal dignity and are entitled to all rights and freedoms without[Read More…]
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL INDIA HALTS ITS WORK ON UPHOLDING HUMAN RIGHTS IN INDIA DUE TO REPRISAL FROM GOVERNMENT OF INDIA The complete freezing of Amnesty International India’s bank accounts by the Government of India which it came to know on 10 September 2020, brings all the work being done by the organization to a grinding halt. The organisation has been compelled[Read More…]
On 18 August 2020, Bahujan journalist Prashant Kanojia was arrested by Uttar Pradesh police. He is being held in custody over a tweet he had forwarded, which he had immediately deleted upon learning that it contained fake news. This is a routine social media behaviour that one observes on the platform almost every day. However, this was used as a[Read More…]
Hany Babu was my M.Phil supervisor from 2017-19 in the Department of English at Delhi University. I was working on conceptions of citizenship, broadly speaking. Whenever my analysis veered off into being too abstract or ahistorical, he invariably reminded me of the concreteness of the term and it’s efficacy. Yes, its efficacy; for him it was always a concept that[Read More…]
By Atul and Sandeep Pandey Arun Ferreira is a civil rights activist and human rights lawyer. He has been behind bars since June 6, 2018, when he was arrested in connection to the Bhima Koregaon event held earlier that year. Like many other activists, he was slapped with Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, sedition and other anti-terror related offenses allegedly for[Read More…]
MAHILA KISAN ADHIKAAR MANCH (MAKAAM) or Forum for Women Farmers’ Rights condemns and expresses deep concern over the increasing incidence of violence, harassment and atrocities against adivasi and other traditional forest dwellers especially women forest dwellers in Uttarakhand. The Forest Rights Act 2006 proclaims the responsibility of the state to defend and uphold the rights of Adivasis and Other Traditional[Read More…]
Allahabad High Court pointed out how the detention of Dr Kafeel Khan was bad, not based on material, without reading the complete text of speech against CAA, and ordered his release. The Supreme Court requested the Allahabad High Court on August 11, to decide the question of release of Kafeel Khan, as early as possible. A campaign to release[Read More…]
Paramilitary groups continued to pose by far the biggest threat to Colombia’s community leaders and human rights defenders last year, says a newly released report. In its annual report, Somos Defensores (SD), a human rights organization, registered a drop in assassinations of social leaders from 155 in 2018 to 124 in 2019, but an increase in death threats that went[Read More…]
September 15. Central Criminal Court, London. Today, witnesses appearing in the extradition trial of Julian Assange fleshed out some points touched upon the previous day: the fate awaiting the WikiLeaks publisher in the US prison system, and the political nature of process. Before commencing, Judge Vanessa Baraitser was a touch peeved. She noted that one defence witness who took the[Read More…]
The first of PUCL Maharashtra’s series of discussions on the impact of the lockdown on civil liberties, examined the rights of prisoners and the responsibility of the State to ensure the safety of all its citizens. The speakers for the session were Maja Daruwalla, Board Member and Senior Advisor, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative and Mihir Desai, Senior Counsel and Convenor,[Read More…]
Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K, he knew he had done nothing wrong but one morning, he was arrested. These opening lines of Franz Kafka’s classic novel, The Trial, published just over a century ago, in 1925, still ring true. Joseph K, the novel’s protagonist, is cashier at a bank. On his 30th birthday, two unidentified agents arrest[Read More…]
The recent order by the Supreme Court 3-judge bench that threatens the homes and livelihoods of an estimated 48,000 families living along 70 km of railway tracks because they were “encroachments which are there in the safety zones,” has understandably raised many concerns. To place this order in context it is necessary to understand the trajectory of the courts and[Read More…]
The fine circus that is British justice resumed at London’s Central Criminal Court on September 7, with the continued extradition proceedings against Julian Assange. Judge Vanessa Baraitser was concerned that approximately 40 individuals had received remote video access they apparently should not have. “In error, the court sent out orders to others who had sought access. I remain concerned about[Read More…]
To The Honorable Chairperson National Commission for Scheduled Tribes New Delhi Dear Sir Sub: Online harassment and caste violence against Dr. Murmu Dr. Maroona Murmu is an Associate Professor of the Department of History, Jadavpur University. In the Brahmanical landscape of academia in West Bengal, she is one of the few Adivasi women to have catapulted into success and prominence.[Read More…]
We have come to know that our dear friend and comrade Dr Partho Sarothi Ray, Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), has been summoned by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in connection with the Elgar Parishad-Bhima Koregaon case. He has been asked to present himself before the investigators in Mumbai on 10 September at 11am. Partho[Read More…]
On this coming Father’s Day I want to salute three fathers whose sons, who have not broken Australian law, were and are betrayed by the Australian government: Terry Hicks the father of David Hicks incarcerated in a cage in Camp X-ray Guantanamo Bay for 5 years; John Shipton the father of Julian Assange who is presently incarcerated by the British[Read More…]
Co-Written by Atul and Sandeep Pandey Rona Wilson is a prison rights activist who has been in jail since April 2018 and denied bail several times. The Pune Police raided his home in Delhi on April 17, 2018, and arrested him subsequently for his alleged role in the Bhima Koregaon violence in January that year. A few months later, the[Read More…]
In India’s dark history of human rights violations, 28th August 2018 has become a very important day. On this day, Sudha Bharadwaj was arrested by Pune police from her home in Faridabad. On the same day, Gautam Navlakha from Delhi, Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves from Mumbai and Varavara Rao from Hyderabad were also arrested. Although Gautam Navlakha was granted[Read More…]
On September 7, Julian Assange will be facing another round of gruelling extradition proceedings, in the Old Bailey, part of a process that has become a form of gradual state-sanctioned torture. The US Department of Justice hungers for their man. The UK prison authorities are doing little to protect his health. The end result, should it result in his death,[Read More…]
Over 70 organizations and several individuals from around the country endorsed the call initiated by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties to conduct protest actions from August 28 to September 5, considering the deterioration in Civil Liberties in the recent past. This call was given marking August 28 as the day when two years ago, 5 human rights activists –[Read More…]
