*The PUCL demands the closure and halting of investigation of the NIA FIR, RC-01/2023/NIA/LKW, based on which raids in 8 locations of 5 districts of UP were undertaken today* *All the devices and books of Seema Azad, National secretary of the PUCL and similarly of others seized by the NIA be returned immediately* *PUCL demands from the MHA to stop[Read More…]
Since the morning of 5th September 2023, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has been raiding the offices of Bhagat Singh Students Morcha (BSM) in Benaras Hindu University. Simultaneously, NIA has raided the homes of Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) State President Seema Azad, her partner and advocate Vishwavijay, advocate Soni Azad and organiser of a workers’ organisation Ritesh Vidyarthi[Read More…]
In the continuing assault on Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan, on 28.08.23, Nitin, an activist of Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan has been arrested after being implicated in a false case. This is the latest in a series of attacks by the Madhya Pradesh government against Jagrit Adivasi Dalit Sangathan over the past few months. The Sangathan, in addition to campaigning for[Read More…]
Provocative incidents are being instigated with the help of local police so that the protesting villagers could be arrested. Even though Adivasi people of these areas do not want development, the so called ‘Vikas’ is knocking at their doorstep – to destroy their land, forests and hills, above all, their livelihood We, on behalf of ‘Ganatantrik Adhikar Suraksha Sangathan, Odisha’ strongly condemn[Read More…]
In a stirring speech to his fellow lawyers on the occasion of Independence Day, Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, underscored the importance of eliminating the barriers to accessing justice and said the history of the Indian judiciary has been the history of the daily struggles of the Indian people…He said the “law exudes human interest and responds positively to[Read More…]
SUB: Withdrawal of UAPA cases against leaders, activists and supporters of the movement led by Niyamgiri Surakhya Samiti and unconditional release of Krushna Sikaka. On 5th August, 2023 two youth activists, namely, Krushna Sikaka (village Patangpadar) and Bari Sikaka (village Lakhpadar) of Niyamgiri Surakhya Samiti (NSS) had been to Lanjigarh haat of Kalahandi district. Their purpose was to meet villagers[Read More…]
The 94-year-old Ayinoor Vasu, a veteran communist, trade union leader and human rights activist has been arrested and sent to jail on July 29, 2023 in connection with a protest against the extrajudicial killings of two Maoists activists in Kerala seven years ago. The jailing of the nonagenarian activist better known as Vasu Ettan (Vasu the elder) in a seven-year-old[Read More…]
Convenor of Upakuliya Jami o Jangal Surakhya Samiti (Coastal Land and Forest Protection Committee) and leading activist of Sipasarubali Land Rights Movement, Comrade Batakrushna Swain, was released after two years from Puri Jail in Odisha on July 22, 2023. After being detained under 19 serious criminal charges and the National Security Act (NSA), Comrade Batakrushna Swain finally got bail in[Read More…]
India has a very rich tradition of opposing wrongly arrested persons, going back to the days of the freedom movement, when hundreds of thousands of freedom fighters including such legendary leaders as Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Bhagat Singh, Badshah Khan and Subhash Bose were arrested time and again by colonial rulers. Despite all the repression and cruelty of colonial rule,[Read More…]
PUCL Demands from the Manipur Government: Stop Criminalising Human Rights Work! Respect the fundamental rights of citizens to conduct Fact Finding Enquiries and publish their reports for public discussion. Immediately withdraw FIR against Annie Raja, Nisha Siddhu & Deeksha Dwivedi of NFIW for releasing Fact Finding report after Manipur visit. Drop all criminal charges against Prof. Kham Khan Suan Hausing[Read More…]
Imagine that you are incarcerated for 20 years of which you had spent 1400 days in a solitary cell having no contacts with anyone except your prison guard. Imagine that while serving the time in a federal prison you were viciously attacked by fellow inmates in which major parts of your body got burned and yet no investigation was conducted[Read More…]
Democrats worldwide should in no uncertain terms defend the freedom of Brazilian peasant Luzivaldo de Souza Araújo, 42 years old, and his brother Robélio, 30 years old.They are languishing behind in prison unjustly since 2019, being framed of staging a conspiracy, where the big landlords are in complete control of the region. Peasant Luzivaldo de Souza Araújo and his brother[Read More…]
by Dr Mohit Kumar Gupta & Ashish Kumar Singh Human Rights are the ‘legal soul’ of an individual. If perhaps they could be made ‘soul’ only. The violation of these rights in any of the ways, be it either their brazen negligence by the State machinery or any loophole in their enforcement through the court of law necessarily carries consequences[Read More…]
CASR vehemently condemns the raid on anti-displacement activist Damodar Turi, Jailed Journalist Rupesh Kumar Singh and Majdoor Sangthan Samiti (MSS) activists Bacha Singh, Nageshwar Mahto, and Sanjay Turi. On 2th May 2023, NIA raided the houses of several activists in various places of Jharkhand. The series of raid started early morning around 5 am , with the first house being[Read More…]
An unabridged version of the Presentation made in the 36th session of UNHRC Mr.President, I come from a Tamil culture which proclaims to the world யா A ஊேர யாவ¶A ேகளnJ “Yaadhum Oore Yavarum KeLir”, meaning “the world is one and all are my kith and kin”. I also come from a sub continent which is proud of its diversity. Diversity[Read More…]
“We the People of India” – the Preamble to our Constitution begins with the promise that it represents the entire country. The ground reality, however, represents a stark contrast. The very people the laws in the Constitution stand for are facing discrimination and violations of rights. The adolescent girls in the workforce are one such section. An interaction with young[Read More…]
A tribal woman was murdered after rape in Nagatoli village of Rohtas by forest department officials and later murdered. A huge contingent of tribal women and men thronged in the procession organized on the call of Kaimur Mukti Morcha demanding the arrest of the person responsible for the murders on Friday, March 24. The administration has banged every nail in[Read More…]
On the 18th of February 2023, Human Rights Lawyer Ansar Indori’s house was raided by NIA in Kota, Rajasthan. Ansar Indori has been targetted because he sought to provide legal defence and challenge an FIR (filed before the ban) against some former PFI members in Rajasthan High Court. Ansar has been working in civil rights field for a long time[Read More…]
Condemn the State’s undemocratic action of denying passage to CDRO Fact Finding Team for inquiry into Aerial Bombings in Chhattisgarh! Resist the attempt to create a war without witnesses in Chhattisgarh! Resist the attack on exercise of Democratic rights! A fact finding team of the Coordination of Democratic Rights Organisations (CDRO) comprising of 25 members from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West[Read More…]
People’s Union for Democratic Rights welcomes the findings of the report submitted by the District and Sessions Judge, Faridabad into the illegal detention and brutal torture of labour rights activist, Shiv Kumar in January 2021 by the Haryana Police. Part of the findings ordered by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in the petition filed by Shiv Kumar’s father in[Read More…]
In a clearly visible that, the word Universal Periodic Review (UPR) has been pronounced only by the UN member states and a few Civil Society organizations who work with the United Nations since 2008. Due to lack of awareness and exposure on the subject, neither the[Read More…]
It is the fall of 2022. Close to 33,000 delegates across the world are in Egypt. Not in Cairo, Giza, or Alexandria, but across the Gulf of Suez in Sharm El Sheikh. These delegates have failed to outnumber the 60,000 (reportedly, that is the number) incarcerated in their host’s prisons. If COP will ever be remembered, this one would be[Read More…]
The on-going high profile international get together of presidents and prime ministers, top leaders, policy-makers and experts at the climate change conference of COP27 at the Red Sea Resort at Sharm-al-Shaikh near Cairo in Egypt is turning out to be a big headache for General Abdul Fattah El-Sisi, president and dictator of Egypt, and all his miscellaneous generals and ministers[Read More…]
Baban Thoke is an activist of Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India (RWPI), who has been active in the Mankhurd-Govandi region of Mumbai for last many years. He was the candidate of RWPI in the 2019 Loksabha and Vidhansabha elections. Baban has operated as a commited democrat, who was a major participant in the movements related to CAA-NRC-NPR, student and youth[Read More…]
Time the ruling dispensation decides whether it is committed to rule of law and protection of rights of victims and survivors of heinous crimes or their perpetrators ? Truth has an uncanny ability of popping up suddenly when you are least aware of it. PM Modi and his closest confidant Amit Shah must be realising it of late. Thanks to[Read More…]
Article 21 which is Part III of the Indian Constitution secures both Right to life as well as the Right to personal liberty stating “no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to a procedure established by law”. These Rights, described by the Supreme Court as the heart of fundamental rights,are available to citizens and[Read More…]
The unfortunate and avoidable demise of jailed Kashmiri leader Altaf Ahmad Shah is really shocking, sad and speaks volumes about the continued insensitivity of the Indian Govt towards political prisoners. Despite an SC order to get him shifted from RML to AIIMS for renal cancer treatment, the Govt delayed this and killed the possibility of any effective treatment that could[Read More…]
Jailed under-trial leader Altaf Ahmad Shah (66) is dead. His death does not come as a surprise. By the time Mr Shah was diagnosed with advanced renal cancer on 30th September at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RMLA) and shifted to AIIMS on 5th evening, it was already too late. The doctors at AIIMS could not begin treatment because Mr. Shah[Read More…]
Altaf Ahmad Shah, a political undertrial prisoner lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail since 2017, is currently battling for his life in Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML), Delhi. His cancer diagnosis, its metastasis and other organ related deterioration was done on September 30, in the same hospital. Since October 2, Mr Shah has been on a ventilator in RML. The hospital[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…]
Siddique Kappan got bail from the Supreme Court. This is so good and relaxing. I met Siddique Kappan many years ago. He is a very honest person. Sending them to jail was and is a crime in itself. Yogi Adityanath’s government disobeyed the law and completely engaged in hatred towards Muslims. But why has Kappan suddenly got this vine? About[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…]
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…]
The execution of four well-known democracy activists by the military junta in Myanmar in June 2022 has angered and incensed those who cherish freedom and justice all over the world. The four , Phyo Zeyar Thaw, Kyaw Min Yu, Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw have become immortalised in the noble struggle of the Myanmar people for their dignity[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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
A most qualitative gathering of around 1000 persons was organised by the BKU (Ugrahan) on human rights day at Tikri border on December 10th, portraying the neo-fascist penetration in the nation. The unity of democratic forces from civil liberties organisations was most positive, with the integration of several intellectuals and few activists of the Peoples Union for Democratic Rights, Delhi.[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…]
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…]
“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…]
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…]
Single party rule at the centre has come after a gap of around three decades. Three decades ago the roles were in a reverse configuration from the present. The political party that was then in the opposition is in power today. And the party in the opposition today was the sole custodian of power at that time. However, there[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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
“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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
On 40th anniversary of police firing on tribals in Indravelli in Adilabad let us rekindle their spirit with the ascendancy of proto –fascism today. It was one of the blackest days in the history of the third world proving the utter farce of democracy in India which is morally resurrected in other forms today. All genuine democrats dip their blood[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…]
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…]
(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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
It is outrageous from the beginning that she was arrested and prosecuted instead of investigating the physical assault against her… The sentence shows the status of the Egyptian judiciary today, which is largely in the service of the political interests of the government, rather than assisting in delivering justice.” — Amr Magdi, Egypt researcher at Human Rights Watch, Middle East Eye,[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…]
Sedition, said Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, was the “prince among the political sections of the Indian Penal Code designed to suppress the liberty of the citizen”. He said this in the context of the British colonial administration’s use of this section (124A) against many freedom fighters, including himself and Tilak. And while pleading guilty as charged, he said it was his[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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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 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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
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…]
Stop the witch-hunt of academics and activists in the name of Bhima Koregaon! Immediately release all political prisoners! The Campaign Against State Repression (CASR) condemns the summons by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to Dr. PK Vijayan and Rakesh Ranjan, faculty members in Delhi University, in connection with the Bhima Koregaon-Elgaar Parishad case yesterday. Following the recent arrest of Delhi[Read More…]
Undoubtedly, sports and physical activities are essential for our mental and physical wellbeing. But how can a sport help in addressing sexual and reproductive health issues of the youth, and social ills like sexual and other forms of gender-based violence? It looks somewhat incredible. Well Grassroot Soccer, an adolescent health organization, seems to be doing exactly that. It has leveraged[Read More…]
Fidelity could not just be about sex. I picture to myself as an activist young woman, bright, ambitious. Because, your womb has taken a precious stead in the universe. Sometimes, I think not to come out from this place. But, your love doesn’t let me stay inside your womb. Because, you want to show something that you have already been[Read More…]
PUCL Welcomes the NHRC directions to the Chhattisgarh Government, Ordering one lakh rupees compensation to those wrongly booked and illegally arrested. The PUCL welcomes the decision of the NHRC against the State of Chhattisgarh on its complaint number 667/33/20/2016 filed in 2016, which directs the Government of Chhattisgarh to pay compensation of Rs. one lakh each, to 13 members of[Read More…]
After Prof. G. N. Saibaba’s arrest a 17-person Committee for the Defence and Release of Saibaba was constituted to expedite his bail and also that all his legal and constitutional rights stay protected. With the arrest of Prof. Hany Babu, member of this Committee on 28 July, 2020 and the subsequent raid on 2 August, 2020 at his house by[Read More…]
Context “Freedom only for the supporters of the government, only for the members of one party – however numerous they may be – is no freedom at all. Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently. Not because of any fanatical concept of “justice” but because all that is instructive, wholesome and purifying in political freedom[Read More…]
We have been in a state of lockdown for two months. It has been a very harsh time for lakhs of our citizens, who have lost work, possessions, and been left hungry and homeless. Dalits, adivasis and the working Bahujan poor are the worst affected, with women amongst all communities having to bear the brunt of hunger, unemployment, illness,[Read More…]
A Joint Statement by the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances, Asian Human Rights Commission, International Federation for Human Rights and Odhikar on the occasion of International Week of the Disappeared 2020 Dhaka/Manila/Hong Kong/Paris, 25 May 2020: To commemorate International Week of the Disappeared (the last week of May), the Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), the Asian Human Rights Commission[Read More…]
Co-Written by Ramzy Baroud and Romana Rubeo Fatou Bensouda, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), has, once and for all, settled the doubts on the Court’s jurisdiction to investigate war crimes committed in occupied Palestine. On April 30, Bensouda released a 60-page document diligently laying down the legal bases for that decision, concluding that “the Prosecution has carefully[Read More…]
News related to encounters is quite common, particularly from conflict prone areas in the country. These often get reported from areas such as Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Nagaland, Assam and Manipur. Sometimes the news related to encounters become controversial. There is an official version which describes these as ‘genuine encounters’. On the other side, human rights organizations based on certain factual errors[Read More…]
The recent summoning of Chhattisgarh officials by the National Human Rights Commissions (NHRC) for abuse of power is significant due to the expectations from human rights protection institutions in the country to deliver on their mandate. However, concerned officials may never appear before the commission to explain their conduct indicating a steep decline in human rights protection regime in the[Read More…]
Co-Written by Shobha Aggarwal & Dr. P.S. Sahni 11 August, 1992: ABVA organized the first ever protest demonstration in India condemning police atrocities on gay people, at Police Headquarters, New Delhi Twenty-five years ago in November-December 1991, the AIDS BhedbhavVirodhiAndolan (AIDS Anti-discrimination Movement, ABVA) brought out the first Report titled ‘Less Than Gay’ on the status of homosexuality in India,[Read More…]
The PUCL strongly condemns the decision of the Government of India to nominate active politician and Vice President of the BJP, Sh. Avinash Rai Khanna, as the member of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), for a post that has been kept vacant by the Government for the last two years. This decision is another sinister attempt by the present[Read More…]
I won’t be wrong if I comment that our Indian Jails have been a haven or a temporary home to many of the guilty, under trials and also to those, against whom the system has failed to prove the charges thereby spending their years of sorrow within the confines of darkness and doom. When prison population goes beyond its authorized[Read More…]
“I make videos, that’s my tool, I believe this is one of the significant ways to raise the voice of the voiceless,” the man behind a remarkable work on recording, editing and publishing the stories of the victims of suppressed society across Asia, has started narrating. Amila Sampath, a young journalist hailed from the southern part of Sri Lanka[Read More…]
I’ve written often about our Iraqi refugee friend and his oldest son from Baghdad. I will call them Mohammed and Ahmed. They made the torturous flight last year from Baghdad to Kurdistan and then across Turkey. They were on three Greek islands before permission was granted them to continue their trip. They passed through several countries at the time the[Read More…]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdC3iS1kGkI I am 16 years old, a student of a government school in Muzaffarpur in Bihar. For the last few days, everyone wants to know why I was beaten so mercilessly and why I kept silent for so long. Well, I am exhausted and frustrated from repeating my story time and again – for the cops, for my classmates, for[Read More…]
Maldives has finally decided to quit the Commonwealth, the oldest political organization, an organization of 53 countries and presently a transformed institution since the time of imperialism , a group of voluntarily organized nations about which Pt. Nehru had said that ‘it is an organization which we can join or leave at our own free will.’ Maldives perhaps had learnt[Read More…]
Days after the Jharkhand police opened fire on farmers protesting land acquisition for coal mines by the National Thermal Power Corporation in Badkagaon, Hazaribagh, on 1st October 2016 resulting in several deaths, the demonstrators are still shocked at what they claim was the excessive use of force by the administration.
Sukli Hemla of Palnar village (Bijapur) remembers that as a widowed woman, she had done everything to save her son when he would fall ill during his childhood. But when on July 5th 2016, the security forces tied his hands and dragged him away, while they were together working in the rice fields, she could do nothing to save him.[Read More…]
Unable to pay the ambulance drivers INR 1500, or around USD 22, a young mother was forced to sit out the night with her child’s dead body outside a hospital in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district. This happened less than two weeks after a nationwide outrage over the ordeal of a tribal man named Dana Majhi thousands of kilometers away, in[Read More…]
Our dreams of Justice and Democracy is only becoming more extinct every day. By neglecting the civil right and enforcing atrocious terror laws, the state is exercising despotism over the lives of the citizens. These laws were established in 1857 to suppress the struggles of India’s First War of Independence. These were the terror laws that were cooked by the[Read More…]
I thought of giving the more provocative title of—Are you a racist or casteist, here is a simple test for you—but decided to go with the more sober title that you see. Most of us do not want to be painted with a racist or a casteist paint brush and would not express such brash opinions even if we harbor[Read More…]
The team concluded that the tragic death of the two young workers was preventable and was caused due to the negligence of the employers – Anna University in its capacity as the principal employer and Kavimeena Rubber Products in its capacity as the direct employer.
PUCL (People’s Union For Civil Liberties) condemns the actions of the Bengaluru Police in foisting a case of sedition, creating enmity and other charges against Amnesty International India and unnamed staff for holding a meeting on 13th August, 2016 in Bengaluru on human rights abuses in Kashmir in which families of victims participated. From the statement of Amnesty it is[Read More…]
It all goes back to April, when the Papua New Guinea Supreme Court found the Manus Island detention facility, ostensibly directed and run by the Australian government, in breach of the PNG Constitution. By the order of the court, “Both the Australian and Papua New Guinea governments shall forthwith take all steps necessary to cease and prevent the continued unconstitutional[Read More…]
It was first time in the Indian history, when the Indian State had officially accepted the historical injustice committed to the Adivasis and other forest dweller communities, and promised to right the historic wrongs by recognizing their traditional rights over the forest and forest land under the Scheduled Tribe and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006,[Read More…]
On 15 August, a First Information Report was reportedly registered against Amnesty International India with regard to an event held on 13 August, based on a complaint filed by an ABVP representative. The allegations mentioned in the complaint are without substance. They are preventing the families of victims of human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir from having their stories heard. And preventing civil society organisations from enabling these families to exercise their constitutional right to justice
The human rights violations on Abdul Nasar Maudany still remain as a deep question on the functioning of Indian democracy. He was arrested on August 17, 2010, adding him as the 31st person `accused’ to be involved in the Bangalore blast case of 2008. Maudany’s name was not there in the first list of the accused persons. However, it was[Read More…]
The atrocities of Pakistan in the Balochistan are well known at the global level. To save its skin it has shifted the blame n the neighboring country like India. Its coercive methods have adversely impacted the local Baloch leaders and the common fellows along with the human right activists and all those who protest against such atrocities. The recent incident[Read More…]
The Australian ABC TV Four Corners program has revealed shocking CCTV images of mostly Aboriginal children being horrendously abused, assaulted and tortured by prison guards in a juvenile detention centre in Australia’s Northern Territory (NT). Australia has been shocked. The Coalition Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull set up a Royal Commission to investigate the matter but this (a) involves the complicit[Read More…]
Wonderful, the news were flashes while stating that you are cleared for the release! But the questions arise over and over. 14 years or otherwise 5110 days of your life was behind the bars with no charge in the Guantanamo prison, one of the most deplorable and ruinous places in present days. Then, they have “cleared” you. Do we need[Read More…]
“What we’re changing is a culture in an organisation within the youth detention system and I think we’ve come a long way in that time.” Adam Giles, NT Chief Minister, ABC News, Jul 26, 2016 It was an image that would not have been out of place in the sickly procession of pictures that came out of Abu Ghraib and[Read More…]
I’m hoping these comments will bring some analysis to 5 seemingly innocuous but misguided words: “Not all cops are bad” and “good cops versus bad cops”. If you’re in the company of someone who says this or posts this on social media, and if you have seen and heard this as much as I have lately, then perhaps it’s time[Read More…]
Irom Sharmila, the iron lady of Manipur, who was on hunger strike for the past 16 years has decided to end her fast and contest election. The 44-year-old told a district court in Manipur today that she will end her fast on August 9. She also told the court that she wants to marry. Sharmila is expected to contest the[Read More…]
He was the kingpin of the whole affair by suggesting it. In December 2015, the US Republican presumptive nominee for President, Donald Trump, came up with that daft suggestion which seems so utterly devoid of informed meaning. Ban Muslims from entering the United States and the phenomenon of terrorism would somehow be abated. His prepared statement was characteristically dramatic in[Read More…]
New Delhi, July 16 : National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) condemns this complete arbitrary arrest of environmental activist Piyush Sethia, who has been a crusader for several national level issues including Bhopal Gas Survivors, rights of adivasis and founder of Salem Citizen Forum. He has worked hard to change the face of the city Salem by organising citizens led[Read More…]
The new “Unicef report, 2016—Assisting Refugee Children,” detailing the fate of children in war zones and those forced to flee, was released at the beginning of this month. It describes the horrific consequences, for children and young people around the world, of wars and civil wars lasting years and even decades. According to estimates made by Unicef, the UN’s children’s[Read More…]
In the early morning of July 5th, 37 year-old father of five, Alton Sterling, was shot in both his chest and his back by law enforcement officers outside a convenience store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Following this tragedy, on the night of July 6th, a 32 year-old father, Philando Castile, was brutally slain with 4 to 5 shots by a[Read More…]
Imagine a war that goes on for almost six decades. A war that nobody notices, even though it would be counted as the thirteenth longest war in human history. This is a conventional war, where ‘enemy’ territory is looted, its women are raped, its men killed. With only one difference. In this war, the enemy, technically, belongs to the same[Read More…]
Hardly a day goes by without news of a police killing. And each time we hear from scholars and observers that the police is too militarized. No doubt! In 2014, I was flattered to have been approached by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Shasta Chapter to be their keynote speaker to address Government Secrecy, Drones, and Militarization. After each[Read More…]
This is not the first time that innocent blood is being spilled in Odisha or in India in the name of containing Maoism. PUCL has consistently alerted the public that in the name of ‘encounters’ often innocent people are being killed by the security forces, and innocent poor Adivasis are being arrested after branding them as ‘Maoists’.
In Ethnic America, Thomas Sowell observes, “American pluralism was not an ideal with which people started but an accommodation to which they were eventually driven by the destructive toll of mutual intolerance in a country too large and diverse for effective dominance by any one segment of the population. The rich economic opportunities of the country also provided alternative outlets[Read More…]
Police fatally shot an African-American in the early hours of Saturday in Houston, Texas. The man, identified by media as Alva Braziel, was reportedly shot ten times after he pointed his gun at law enforcement. The shooting took place at about 12:40am on Cullen. According to the police, they spotted a man on the road with a revolver. When they[Read More…]
In continuing war on its own people security forces in Kandhamal district of Odisha state in India killed six poor Adivasi and Dalit labourers. Four others have been seriously injured by CRPF firing in Malapanga forest under Tumudibandha police limits. They were returning from Balliguda ,( the block and Sub-Divisional head quarter of their village Gungudmaha under Parampanka G.P) with[Read More…]
In a historic ruling, Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice U.U.Lalit of the Hon’ble Supreme Court have spoken out in favour of democracy. The judgment came on a plea by hundreds of families in the north-eastern State of Manipur for a probe by a Special Investigation Team into 1,528 cases of alleged fake encounters involving the Army and the[Read More…]
Months of single-minded work since the formation of Persecuted Prisoners Solidarity Committee last year, could yield some encouraging results, especially on February 20 and May 30 when veteran leader of the revolutionary women’s movement in the country and founder of Nari Mukti Sangh, Comrade Sheela Marandi walked out of jail in after a long spell of persecution, and was last[Read More…]
Philando Castile, another African-American, a 32-year-old school cafeteria manager, was killed during a traffic stop near St. Paul, in Falcon Heights, Minnesota where his distraught girlfriend broadcast his final moments in real time on Facebook. As blood soaked through Castile’s shirt Wednesday night, his girlfriend, Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds, began broadcasting live video to her Facebook page, saying on camera that[Read More…]
Chelsea Manning, the military whistleblower serving a 35 year sentence, was rushed to hospital after reportedly trying to take her own life. According to media reports Manning, who us being held at in a cell at the US Military Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, was taken to hospital early on Tuesday morning. CNN said that it was believed that[Read More…]
Two major news stories here in the U.S., both chilling, point out how readily U.S. authorities will murder people based on race and the slightest possibility of a threat to those in places of power. On July 5th Baton Rouge police killed Anton Sterling in a Louisiana parking lot. Sterling was a 37-year-old Black father of five selling CDs outside[Read More…]
Frederick Douglass was asked to speak on July 4,1852 to commerate the Declarationof Independence. He pointed out that the Declaration of Independence was not a declaration with any meaning for slaves or ex-slaves, nor was the constitution a document for black people, only white people. That isa thought expressed and asked by black prisoners today, who number more than the[Read More…]
Frederick Douglass, one of the most brilliant minds in history, had many praises for the US and its founders. However, he experienced the nation more fully than any of them, beginning his life a victim of the totalitarian fascism they practiced and promoted, and ending it a statesman and a friend of President Lincoln. Thus his understanding and analysis of[Read More…]
(PHOTO: Albert enjoys a canoe ride in Austin, TX.) Since Albert’s release on his birthday, February 19th, a few short months ago, he’s been really busy… After nearly a month of visiting with family and friends in New Orleans sharing more birthday cake than he’s been able to consume in over forty years, Albert has been catching up with his[Read More…]
Last month, Hyderabad police registered a case against Prof. Kancha Ilaiah for writing an article in a Telugu daily, entitled ‘Is God not a democrat’? The article questioned inequality in society and discussed concept of god. For doing so the professor was reproached for insulting sentiments of a community and charged for promoting enmity between different religious groups under section[Read More…]
The PUCL is deeply concerned at the growing caste atrocities on dalits by the upper caste communities in the state, particularly in the rural areas. Of more concern is the deliberate inaction by the government machinery in providing protection to the dalit communities and making a mockery of the Prevention of Atrocities Act (1989). The recent incident in Kamagarh is an example of this. On 3rd June, 2016, eleven dalit houses were burnt down allegedly by the upper caste (Sabarna) of the village Kamagarh of the eponymous Panchayat in the Aska Block of Ganjam District.
The Karnataka police have arrested BP Mahesh Chandra Guru, a professor in the journalism department of Mysore University and a well-known Phule-Ambedkarite writer. Professor Guru had made some sharp comments against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union HRD minister Smriti Irani at a function organized in the university recently to pay tributes to Rohit Vemula. He had also allegedly insulted[Read More…]
A senior Iranian regime judiciary official has issued the final confirmation of the death penalty for three Ahwazi rights activists, with another four sentenced to between 25 and 35 years in prison, as well as exile. Gholam-Hossein Mohsen Eie’I, the First Deputy Head of the Iranian regime’s Judiciary, confirmed the sentences in an interview with the regime-affiliated Moj News[Read More…]
By Dr. P.S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Chairman, All Parties Hurriyat Conference has appealed to the people to observe solidarity with the Kashmiri prisoners on Friday the 17 June, 2016. Geelani has called the continuous imprisonment of pro-freedom leader Masarat Alam Bhat since 2010 as extremely cruel. He lamented the silence of the State Government as[Read More…]
A presentation made at London School of Economics on 16th June 2016 in the conference organised by Federation of Ambedkarite and Buddhists organisations, UK in collaboration with London School of Economics to commemorate 100 years of Dr Ambedkar’s association with London School of Economics. It is a privilege to be able to speak to you on this historic occasion to[Read More…]
From Education to Incarceration 
Tunakataa! Saying ‘No’ to Capitalism and Imperialism in Kenya 
Rising Islamophobia and Communal Discord: An Alarming Trend in BJP-Ruled States 
Speak Truth to Power and Pay the Price! 
USA’s Wars Took 12 Million Lives in The Last 25 Years 
US to send long-range ATACMS missile to Ukraine 
In Jawan, Shah Rukh Khan makes us an offer we can refuse 
Nijjar affair poses an existential dilemma 
On the Brink of Famine 
Appeal to withdraw the notification for the public hearing for the proposed Sijimali Bauxite Mining Project 
“Making a thriller from grain” 
Key Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) Likely To Collapse In 2025-2095 
Global Biofuel Alliance at G20: Land vs Water vs Food Security- Has the government addressed the trade-offs? 
The Nijjar Murder and Indian Government’s alleged “involvement”: Reactions and Reflections 
France Will Pull Out Its Diplomats And Military From Niger, Says Macron 
Imperial Footprints in Africa: The Dismal Role of AFRICOM 
Hunger in Africa has its roots in a History of Colonialism and Neo-colonialism 
The Climate March: Magnificent and Misdirected 
Imagining a Progressive Pentagon 
“Lost Voices of Fentanyl” Rally at the White House 
Indian Government Must First Evict Dalai Lama & his Followers before Admonishing Canada for Separatist Activities 
Peasant-rebels: lineages of insurgency 
Mission to Free Assange: Australian Parliamentarians in Washington 
Bayer-ICAR Collaboration Raises Serious Concerns Regarding Indian Farm Policy 
Place of Minorities as Allotted by Savarkar, Golwalkar and Upadhyaya 
What is in the name? Attempt to stop the usage of ‘India’ by the Government 
Poona Pact: A Reappraisal 
Hate Speech Inside Parliament: Reaching a New Low 
Criminal Justice And Freedom of Speech 
75,000 Climate Protesters Marched In New York With Demand To End Fossil Fuels 
On the Dark Side of the Moon.. 
Avoiding the War on Terror would have saved over 10 million lives at home and abroad 
The Angertainer Steps Down: Rupert Murdoch’s Non-Retirement 
Climate Emergency Update, September 2023 
My appeal to Meta’s Oversight Board: Palestinian political and resistance organizations & individuals are not “terrorists” as classified by Israel 
Artificial Intelligence: Profit Versus Freedom 
How Can We Understand the Passage of Time? 
Pre- and Post-Soviet Language Policy in the East-Baltic States 
Breadcrumb 
Three Indian Movies win TIFF 2023 Awards 
My Amma (Malayalam word for Mother) passed away on August 22, 2023 at 3.10 AM. It is always difficult to deal with the passing of a parent, that too one’s mother. I thought the grief would go away. No it didn’t. All those bitter sweet memories won’t go away. At night I lie awake for hours. My friend, guide and[Read More…]
