Basics of Human Rights
Basics of Human Rights
Topics issues: the UN Convention against Torture, preventing discrimination and violence against women and girls, members of religious minorities, and Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, caste-based discrimination prevention of religious violence and measures to avoid excessive use of force by security officers.
religious violence, arbitrary deprivation of nationality, indigenous peoples’ rights and women’s rights. Laws that discriminate against Muslims and LGBTI community, such as the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act.
freedom of expression and assembly, human rights defenders,attacks against journalists and human rights defenders, , right to health, right to privacy. laws that threaten the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, such as the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act and Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules,
right to health, right to privacy, religious violence, arbitrary deprivation of nationality, indigenous peoples’ rights and women’s rights.
the national and state human rights commissions and the increasing dilution of their powers and independence.
Download of full report: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10vR6paivcXU5p_CynvGGpIZU75Z-rsT2/view https://issuu.com/napmindia/docs/final_report_22_july
The report provides the historical context of the settlement, details about the legal cases and the Supreme Court’s orders, a description of the multiple demolitions that have taken place, their impact on the settlement’s residents and the human rights violations that have emerged
The panel members who heard the testimonies about Khori Gaon were of the view that this is a human rights disaster of massive proportions, hence entirely unacceptable
The other high-end developments like hotels and farmhouses on PLPA land should be treated the same way as Khori Gaon; they should be demolished simultaneously. If the high-end developments are not considered encroachers, then the urban poor’s settlement should also not be destroyed; instead, Khori Gaon should be allowed to exist in its current location.
Download full report: http://sanhati.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Undertrials.in_.Jharkhand.pdf
Excerpts: from Deprived of Rights over Natural Resources, Impoverished Adivasis get prison.
..Adivasis are being hunted as Naxalites in their own homeland... structur
al and cultural violence that produce of more of the same and additional direct violence of torture, bloodshed and killing. While they form a vicious circle of a rotten socio-cultural system that reproduces itself, the ruling elites, who benefit disproportionately from the present state of affairs, are unable even to recognize and acknowledge the rottenness and their causes.
Such a state of affairs might further worsen the situation instead of reforming the system to reduce conflicts in the long run.
In such a context, the state apparatus has been approaching this extremely complex issue of simmering insurgency arising out of long-standing, unresolved, genuine grievances by a narrowly perceived security centric approach which is flawed...This approach of the state only help aggravates the troubles of Adivasis in rural areas who would be picked up from their homes and villages with false allegations of being Naxalites or being involved in LWE often based on misinformation and bias against Adivasis.
Consequently, impoverished Adivasis come to bear multiple burdens of being falsely implicated in criminal incidents that occur due to those involved in armed criminal gangs aided by the state that cannot easily be traced and controlled by the police/CRPF
.. the most deprived sections of Adivasis have adhered to their alternate imaginations of a more egalitarian, democratic, authentic and less exploitative relationships with the other and with the natural environment. However, given the onslaught of the so-called, “modern” capitalist mainstream
values, the extinction of Adivasi societies, their cultural values and legacies of egalitarianism,
pure reciprocity, symbiotic relationship with the nature, etc. are imminent. Their distinct, more
sustainable socio cultural, political and economic values and systems, although labelled as
“primitive,” have increasingly been recognised as a solution to the impending catastrophe of environmental pollution and ecological imbalances, and a corrective to the onslaught of
destructive capitalist mainstream..
A meaningful expression of such solidarity must show itself in the emergence of a more organised people’s democratic rights movement for
1. legal and financial aid to all alleged Naxalite under-trials ..
2. “welfare measures,” such as distribution of cheap food materials
3. an alternate development paradigms based on Adivasi ethos.. realistic people-cantered, village-society and agriculture oriented small scale labour intensive. All this will work if people’s meaningful and equal participation
4. Work towards the re-enactment of PESA.. Panchayat level with their democratically elected representatives will manage institutions of primary education, health centres, the public distribution system, etc. And take the control of all natural resources
5. arrangements to redistribute the so-called “wastelands”.. restore all pieces of land belonged to Adivasis illegally appropriated by non-Adivasis, at least, during post-independence period.
6. Make sure that no Adivasi will be displaced from his/her homeland
7. Ensure that the trees in the forests, and the water in ponds, lakes, streams and rivers and the bauxite on the mountains remain undisturbed and the subsoil minerals are utilized more sustainably and equitably for the welfare of all, with priority for the people in whose landthey are found and not for the profit of a handful of greedy industrialists, politicians and their agents.
8. Supreme Court of India in 2014 has ruled that “police officers are liable for prosecution on being found guilty of filing false charges against any
individual despite knowing his or her innocence. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/punish-cops-who-file-false-charges-sc/articleshow/29226094.cms. People’s Movements and Human Rights Activists need to work for innocent undertrials most of whom are languishing in jails just because they do not have access to the legal system.
Prime Time With Ravish Kumar: Defense Workers to go on strike from 19th July against the hiving off Defense pRoductions centres into smaller units. Despite the new Ordinance https://youtube.com/embed/lSbDEvWzfoU?start=87&end=845
Defence service workers barred from strike https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/defence-service-workers-barred-from-strike/article35073372.ece July 1, 2021
The Law Ministry late on Wednesday notified an Ordinance that prohibited employees engaged in essential defence services from taking part in any agitation or strike. The Essential Defence Services Ordinance 2021 comes in the backdrop of major federations affiliated with the 76,000 employees of the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) making an announcement that they would go on indefinite strike from July 26 in protest against the government’s decision to corporatise the OFB.
From S Sen:
Any impediment to the big garage sale of ordinance factories - factories producing armaments for the Indian military, would be dubbed "anti-national" and dealt with accordingly.
Towards that end, an ordinance has been promulgated on the June 30th.
(Ref.: <https://prsindia.org/billtrack/the-essential-defense-services-ordinance-2021>.)
To frustrate the strike call, from July 19th, by all workers organisations - including the three national federations out of which one is associated with the BJP, to oppose the government's corporatisation move.
(Ref.: <https://youtu.be/dkT_QAhww3I> and <https://youtu.be/j4Wl012ffbo>.)
Yet another opportunity for a powerful pushback.
It has to be taken up with all the seriousness it deserves.
<<Essential defence services include any service in: (i) any establishment or undertaking dealing with production of goods or equipment required for defence related purposes, or (ii) any establishment of the armed forces or connected with them or defence. These also include services that, if ceased, would affect the safety of the establishment engaged in such services or its employees. In addition, the government may declare any service as an essential defence service if its cessation would affect the: (i) production of defence equipment or goods, (ii) operation or maintenance of industrial establishments or units engaged in such production, or (iii) repair or maintenance of products connected with defence.
...
Persons commencing or participating in illegal strikes will be punished with up to one year imprisonment or Rs 10,000 fine, or both. Persons instigating, inciting, or taking actions to continue illegal strikes, or knowingly supplying money for such purposes, will be punished with up to two years imprisonment or Rs 15,000 fine, or both. Further, such an employee will be liable to disciplinary action including dismissal as per the terms and conditions of his service. In such cases, the concerned authority is allowed to dismiss or remove the employee without any inquiry, if it is not reasonably practicable to hold such inquiry.
All offences punishable under the Ordinance will be cognisable and non-bailable.>>
HUMAN RIGHTS AND POLICING: Landmark Supreme Court Directives & National Human Rights Commission Guidelines
Researched and Written by Mandeep Tiwana Edited by MajaDaruwala
https://www.humanrightsinitiative.org/publications/hrc/humanrights_policing.pdf
Judgements:
Registration & Investigation of Offences
Arrest and Detention
Handcuffing / Chaining
Bail and Bonds
Compensation
National Human Rights Commission Guidelines
Code of Conduct for the Police in India
U.N Code of Conduct for Law Enforcemen Officials
'Where Will We Go?' SC Order to Demolish Khori Village Leaves 1 Lakh Residents Crying for Help https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMpNa-oy1T8
Jun 23, 2021 Quint goes to Khodi and speaks to people..
NAPM https://www.counterview.net/2021/06/apex-court-order-to-evict-ex-mine.html
Why the Haryana Govt Must Not Evict One Lakh Residents of Khori Gaon https://thewire.in/urban/khori-gaon-haryana-urban-poor-eviction
The demolitions of over 6,500 homes are scheduled to take place just when the monsoon arrives and we are still in a pandemic where most of the population is not vaccinated. Haryana is under partial lockdown till June 21.
The residents of Khori Gaon are the working class of NCR. They perform a range of services that keep it moving. The early residents were quarry workers who got stuck in a vicious cycle of debt to the quarry contractors. Over the years, urban poor who have been displaced from various bastis in Delhi to make way for urban development projects have also settled here. A large group also comprises low-income families who have migrated from the neighbouring states in search of jobs.
But in the Khori Gaon cases, the government has claimed that this densely packed human settlement on 120 acres is essential for forest conservation in the state. Lt. Col. Sarvadaman Singh Oberoi, who has filed several cases on forest conservation, states that the human cost of reclaiming this forest land will be the highest in the Aravalli. His broad estimates show that this will lead to the displacement of 600 people per acre and the loss of primary residences of poor people.
“There are more than a hundred farmhouses in the Aravalli forest areas running commercial or religious enterprises in villages like Mewla Maharajpur, Ankhir and Anangpur. The human cost per acre of reclaiming aravalli forests in these areas will be negligible.
https://mediaindia.eu/society/sc-order-puts-10000-families-in-faridabad-at-risk/
From BK Fb:Full power to people’s struggle for their right to housing! Women along with other residents gheraoed the officials to protest forceful demolition without rehabilitation in Khori village in Faridabad/Delhi. Tens of thousands of families facing eviction threat after the Supreme Court directed the governments to demolish decades old settlements for forest conservation efforts by completely disregarding the right to housing.
Right now farmer leaders have reached on the spot to hold maha panchayat in support of the workers who are on the verge of loosing their only shelter. We stand in solidarity with workers-farmers unity!
Ladenge Jitenge! https://www.facebook.com/discover.bilal/videos/532952871475824
Settled Habits, New Tricks: Casteist Policing Meets Big Tech in India by Ameya Bokil, Avaneendra Khare, Nikita Sonavane, Srujana Bej and Vaishali Janarthanan https://longreads.tni.org/stateofpower/settled-habits-new-tricks-casteist-policing-meets-big-tech-in-india may 2021
Extracts:
The digitisation of already biased police records, extensive surveillance systems, predictive policing through interlinked databases and the complete absence of a regulatory framework have led to the creation of a parallel digital caste system which denies the fundamental freedoms of specific marginalised communities.
he contemporary Indian police have continued with this legacy. First, Indian society continues to be ordered by the caste system; second, the idea of hereditary criminals still occupies the mind and structure of the Indian police, largely comprising members of oppressive castes; and third on the grounds of expediency that hold as true now as they did during British colonial times.
Individual Indian states have adopted legal provisions concerning ‘habitual offenders’ (HOs) and maintained the surveillance systems designed under the CTA. The hereditary criminal of the past is now placed in the more palatable administrative category of the HO, which remains ill-defined and therefore gives the police vast discretionary powers. These provisions, while apparently neutral, are still selectively used against the same communities that were targeted in colonial times.
The government and the tech industry maintain that [digital] systems will allow for ‘objective’, ‘smart’, algorithm-based detection of criminal hotspots and predictive policing. In reality since these databases are fed by the police’s centuries-long caste-based system of preventive surveillance and predictive policing there is no possibility of objectivity or lack of caste bias.
Since state governments are free to tweak CCTNS as they please, several states have been collecting biometric details (iris scans, facial prints, etc.) of HOs and even first-time offenders. A senior police officer in Bhopal claimed that the CCTNS is being used in Madhya Pradesh as a repository of all criminals.
The state’s inability to self-regulate its use of technology is amply demonstrated by the ham-fisted introduction of the Aadhaar, a ‘unique identification’ number linking biometric information and various databases necessary for accessing welfare programmes, setting up bank accounts, purchasing SIM cards, and paying income tax, among others until the Supreme Court directed the government to regulate and limit its mandatory use for specific public services.
The need to use technology has been furthered through the myth that tech is neutral in the prevention of crime and curbs the problem of human bias, when all that these systems do is essentially digitise the casteist targeting of communities through the nebulous category of HOs. There is scant reflection on what such a digitised caste system implies, who is responsible for designing it and how it reproduces and reifies hierarchies that are inimical to the criminal justice system.
the real aim of surveillance and the unchecked powers it gives to the police is to maintain political hegemony and a very strict, hierarchical social order. Thus, surveillance policing allows for the marriage of profit-making corporations and authoritarian regimes. The social control they seek to maintain is, in turn, in accordance with the casteist social control already enforced by police surveillance.
extract from a discussion on Framers.. not giving up on the value of AI but putting in value.. https://youtube.com/embed/9bZUZNDwdC8?start=1610&end=2071
From S Sen: 19th April 2021
Apart from its relentless push towards a "Hindu Rashtra" - with all its concomitant effects, the regime is also too obsessed with minting money. The Rafale "deal" and the PMCARES fund are just too major and all-too-blatant illustrations. (One excellent analysis of how the watchdog institutions are now reduced to playing second fiddle to the regime in pursuance of its twin objectives, in terms of a case study of the Rafale "deal": < https://m.thewire.in/article/government/the-rafalisation-of-india>.) The vaccine approval business is yet another - though not all that stark. But, the end result is loss of too many human lives. Reports of monumental undercounting of deaths are pouring in from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. (Ref.: <https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=481472826454126>, < https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=443543233608642&id=100038589066792>, < https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ahmedabad/wait-for-final-rites-get-longer-as-crematoriums-across-gujarat-overburdened-7272440/lite/> and <https://youtu.be/UkM4vqjbCts>.) The Leaders of the regime have the scantiest regard for human lives. News has just come in that, at least, four journalists covering the West Bengal poll who, in the process, had recently come in contact with Amit Shah have reported covid +ve (ref.: < https://drishtibhongi.in/2021/04/19/4-journalists-covid-19-positive-after-interview-with-amit-shah/
Two candidates have died. Yet, the BJP opposed the compression of the poll schedule as demanded by the TMC and the EC has duly obliged. (Ref.: < https://m.timesofindia.com/india/ec-not-to-club-remaining-bengal-phases-tmcs-request-declined/amp_articleshow/82105469.cms
.)
There has been unprecedented priority given to sanitation under the Swachh Bharat Mission since 2014? By 2019, the government had already spent over Rs 57,000 crore to build nine crore toilets. Researcher and activist Sheeva Dubey, who has been studying the condition of sanitation workers in Mumbai since 2015, says money has been spent on infrastructure but not on people who are involved in the process of cleaning....
Centre for Policy Research fellow Arkaja Singh.. recalls a case when three sewerage workers died in April 2017 in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar. Though the sewerage line belonged to the Delhi Jal Board, it distanced itself saying that the workers had not been contracted either by the DJB or its contractor. “There was no liability proved for anyone except for the workers who died,” she says. -Why one sanitation worker continues to die every five days in Swachh India by Himanshi Dhawan.. Ironically while India was under lockdown, sanitation workers were expected to continue working whether it was to dispose of hazardous waste like masks, PPEs of patients or cleaning drains and pipelines in housing societies.
SLOW ADOPTION OF BOTS
People continue to do this hazardous work despite technological advancements. In 2018, Kerala-based startup Genrobotics developed a robot to clean septic tanks and manholes. Priced at Rs 40 lakh, the robot can be customised to fit each city’s manholes and unclog 10 a day without any human intervention.
3 Sanitation Workers Suffocate To Death In Sewer In Delhi's Lajpat Nagar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdwTOVlM1UE
'Stop Killing Us': Hundreds Gather in Delhi to Protest Sewer Deaths https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ek2Eq62q5Y
Bezwada Wilson, manual scavenging activist, India https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOqn5htg7to
India's manual scavenging problem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHOup9Qy7nU
Meet Bandicoot India's new robot that can end manual scavenging https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VChT60sTZSU