Indian Border Security Force (BSF) personnel routinely gun down cattle smugglers and other civilians crossing the border with Bangladesh despite negligible evidence of any crime, says Human Rights Watch (HRW) from America.The New York-based rights group disclosed this in its 81-page report titled `Trigger Happy: Excessive Use of Force by Indian Troops at the Bangladesh Border” released on the eve of Human Rights Day (December 10).“The BSF - responsible for...
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Don't shoot messenger for revealing uncomfortable truths by Julian Assange
WIKILEAKS deserves protection, not threats and attacks. IN 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News, wrote: "In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win." His observation perhaps reflected his father Keith Murdoch's expose that Australian troops were being needlessly sacrificed by incompetent British commanders on the shores of Gallipoli. The British tried to shut him up but Keith Murdoch...
More »Manipur: Irom Sharmila completes 10 years of fasting by Kishalay Bhattacharjee
On the world's longest hunger strike, Irom Sharmila has completed ten years of fasting over Human rights abuses in Manipur and promises to continue. Silently but forcefully, she is highlighting the rarely reported decade-long insurgency in Manipur and the government's response to it with Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), something she opposes. Irom Sharmila Chanu is a poet, a writer and an activist. She was brought to the jail ward of...
More »Throwing off the yoke of manual scavenging by Vidya Subrahmaniam
The obnoxious practice will continue in one form or the other, as long as the government and society treat certain so-called menial jobs as the preserve of one community. On November 1, a unique journey will come to a ceremonious end in Delhi. Earlier this month, five bus loads of men and women headed out from different corners of the country with one slogan on their lips: honour and liberation for...
More »Promoting right to education among priorities for new UN independent expert
The United Nations independent expert on the right to education today outlined his priorities, promising to pay attention to gender equality in education, look into quality with a special focus on improving conditions for teachers, and explore innovative education financing mechanisms. Kishore Singh, who was appointed as UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education by the UN Human Rights Council in June, said he would also look into ways of...
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