-Scroll.in India has defaulted on its international obligations by interning people in detention centres and depriving them of their right to nationality. More than a year since the final list of Assam’s National Register of Citizens was released on August 31, 2019, the government has neither formally notified it nor issued orders to reject it. This has left the 1,906,657 excluded persons and their families in a state of excruciating uncertainty. Without...

-The Hindu A group of 100 volunteers from various fields have teamed up with lawyers to arm economically and educationally weak people with knowledge about their rights against victimisation Guwahati: Aditpur has not been known for academics. But this village, about 20 km from western Assam’s Barpeta town, is teaching the Constitution of India to “doubtful” Indians who have never heard of it. Local activists and youth had on December 20 opened a...

-Hindustan Times The anti-CAA protests, the defiance of migrants, and now the farmers’ stir show that the everyday practice of democracy is a powerful corrective in the face of arbitrary and unilateral State decisions Three events defined India’s political landscape in 2020. The protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the migrant labour crisis that unfolded as workers defied lockdown orders and asserted their rights, choosing to walk home in the face...

-CaravanMagazine.in The South Asia Collective, a group of human-rights activists and organisations, recently published “The South Asia State of Minorities Report 2020: Minorities and Shrinking Civic Space” by the South Asia Collective. The report examines minority rights and the narrowing of space for human-rights defenders in light of increasing majoritarianism across the region. Its chapters, on Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, conclude that three basic freedoms—the constitutional...

-Frontline.in Interview with Nikhil Dey, rights activist and founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan, on 15 years of the Right to Information Act. India’s Right to Information (RTI) Act, which was promulgated in 2005, is considered one of the most advanced and powerful pieces of rights legislation in the world. Although an evolved law that forces governments to become more transparent and accountable, almost every regime has shown reluctance to uphold...