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India braces for UN scrutiny of human rights

India’s human rights record will be up for scrutiny at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday.

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NEW DELHI: India’s human rights record will be up for scrutiny at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday. A team of senior officials from South Block will be there to sit through the deliberations and defend India’s record.

Diplomats will have to do some serious defending, considering that Human Rights Watch (HRW), a US-based non-governmental organisation, is accusing India of serious rights violations.

Whenever questions of India’s record are raised successive governments in New Delhi have a stock reply. They point to the fact that India is a thriving democracy with an independent judiciary and a free press, not forgetting to mention the existence of India’s own national human rights commission to look into lapses. They maintain that India does not need intrusive scrutiny from other countries.

But victims of rights abuse in the country as well as well-known human rights outfits have a different perception. “India is a vibrant electoral democracy with an abysmal human rights record,” says Brad Adams, Asia director at HRW. “Victims of abuse in India are counting on the UN council to put maximum pressure on the government to address these problems.”

HRW goes on to say that while India cites secularism as the fundamental tenet of its constitution and talks of establishments aimed at protecting minority rights including its National Commission for Minorities, religious minorities continue to face discrimination and violence.

Adams backs it up with examples. In December last, churches and Christian homes were destroyed in attacks by Hindu militants in Orissa. Though such incidents have become common in Orissa few perpetrators are punished.

HRW also points to the government’s failure implement the Srikrishna Commission recommendations on the 1992-93 communal riots in Mumbai. Nor has effective action been taken against those responsible for the bloody carnage of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002.

“We don’t have to be embarrassed by our human rights record,” says a senior official, who will travel to Geneva for the hearing and who did not wish to be identified. “In a vast country of over one billion some lapses can occur but the important thing to note is that the government is doing its best to plug loopholes.”

The Human Rights Council will look at the records of all 192 member states of the UN. Earlier a country could be dragged before the UN body in Geneva only when a resolution was sponsored by another country. The process was kicked off on Monday, with the UN body scrutinising Bahrain and Ecuador.
g_seema@dnaindia.net
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