Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | NHRC turns 25 -- and that's pretty much all it has achieved -Apurva Vishwanath

NHRC turns 25 -- and that's pretty much all it has achieved -Apurva Vishwanath

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Oct 18, 2018   modified Modified on Oct 18, 2018
-ThePrint.in

India’s rights watchdog NHRC — labelled ‘toothless tiger’ — is swamped with cases but has little resources to address them. This, despite an ‘A’ rating from UN body.

New Delhi:
On paper, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which turned 25 last week, is a success story.

In February, the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI), a UN body based in Geneva, re-accredited India’s apex rights watchdog with the ‘A’ status, a perfect score.

Cases are resolved within months and compensation is granted in 90 per cent of them, so say NHRC statistics.

Yet, on closer inspection, the ‘impeccable’ record starts to unravel.

Much of the complaints that come to the commission are dismissed even before a preliminary hearing, and critics argue that the NHRC shies away from contentious cases with political implications.

Short-staffed and inadequately funded, the watchdog also lacks the required infrastructure to handle India’s civil rights violations.

Such is the situation, that its own chairperson, former chief justice of India H.L. Dattu, himself has called the NHRC a “toothless tiger”.

It’s an assessment that the Supreme Court agrees with: Last year, while hearing cases relating to alleged encounter killings in Manipur, the court observed that there is “no doubt that it (NHRC) has been most unfortunately reduced to a toothless tiger”.

But on its 25th year anniversary, NHRC highlighted its long list of achievements — disposal of more than 17 lakh cases, payment of more than Rs 1 billion to victims of human rights violations, carrying out over 750 spot enquiries of human rights violations, apart from conducting over 200 conferences to spread awareness of human rights across the country.

As part of the anniversary celebrations, the Modi government has released a commemorative stamp and the NHRC has released a documentary highlighting its achievements.

The documentary refers to its interventions in the 2007 Nandigram violence in West Bengal and Salwa Judum-related incidents in Chhattisgarh as important milestones in developing India’s human rights.

The NHRC also states that its role has been significant in combating encounter killings and custodial deaths. The commissions’s guidelines in 1997 mandates every custodial death and encounter killing be reported to it within 24 hours.

On its 25th anniversary, ThePrint analyses the key structural issues plaguing the NHRC.

Please click here to read more.

ThePrint.in, 16 October, 2018, https://theprint.in/governance/nhrc-turns-25-and-thats-pretty-much-all-it-has-achieved/132716/


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close