News Alerts – India

In the next academic year, students in government and aided schools will not just be welcomed with payasam and sweets, but they will also be told about gender rights. Director of public instruction (DPI) intends to make gender and human rights and gender sensitization a regular feature of school learning.
“We have lessons in social science and Malayalam on these issues. But it has to be integrated in the school curriculum in such a manner that it becomes a part of classroom teaching and activity,” said DPI director A Shahjahan.
To ensure this, DPI has asked the expert committee on state school curriculum to integrate gender sensitivity and rights in the syllabus that will be implemented in schools from academic year 2014-2015.

There is widespread outrage at the weekend arrest of Kanpur-based cartoonist, Aseem Trivedi, on charges of sedition, with his supporters alleging that it is politically motivated and that he is being punished for backing Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption campaign.
The Mumbai police arrested Mr Trivedi, a member of the India Against Corruption or IAC, on Saturday based on a private complaint filed by a lawyer in December last year that he had put up banners mocking the Indian Constitution during an Anna Hazare rally in Mumbai. He has also been charged with posting seditious and obscene content on his website, which has been blocked. Cartoons like one where the activist has altered the three-lion national emblem in a satirical depiction to highlight corruption have attracted the sedition charge. Mr Trivedi has been remanded in police custody till September 16.

In the wake of the detention of 12-year old Faizan Sofi by Jammu and Kashmir Police, the civil society on Saturday staged a candle light sit-in here seeking upgradation of juvenile justice law and an end to juvenile detentions in Kashmir.

Speaking on the occasion, noted Supreme Court lawyer and founder Director of Human Rights Law Network, Colin Gonsalvez said that Jammu and Kashmir Government has failed to comply with the Apex Court directions on the child rights.

India should accept the recommendations by United Nations member states at the UN’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to address the country’s most serious human rights problems. During the September 2012 session of the UN Human Rights Council, India will submit its responses to the 169 recommendations made at its second review on May 24, 2012.
The wide-ranging recommendations call upon India to ratify multinational treaties against torture and enforced disappearances, repeal the much-abused Armed Forces Special Powers Act, impose a moratorium on the death penalty, introduce an anti-discrimination law, and protect the rights of women, children, Dalits, tribal groups, religious minorities, and other groups at risk. The Indian government has promised a “comprehensive response” to these recommendations.

Human rights campaigners will lobby the AGM of controversial mining firm Vedanta in London today over alleged ongoing abuses in the Indian state of Orissa.

The Asian Centre for Human Rights has alleged that the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) is communalizing the riots in Assam.

In a release, ‘National Commission for Minorities: Communalising Assam Riots?, the Asian Centre for Human Rights has stated that the mandate of the NCM as per the National Commission of Minorities Act, 1992 is the protection of religious minorities notified by the Government of India.

Guess which state of India fares the worst when it comes to human rights violations? Well, the dubious distinction goes to Uttar Pradesh. But Delhi’s record is not shining either. The national Capital occupies the second place, though the gap between the two states is pretty wide.

This has come to light from the Action Taken Report (ATR) of the Union Home Ministry (MHA) on the National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC) report for the year 2009-2010.

Shillong, May 31: India’s apex human rights panel Thursday said it has no jurisdiction to recommend to the state governments to repeal the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), but has asked them to consider review of the controversial legislation.
“The state governments have to take a decision to repeal the act as it is a policy decision. The NHRC has, therefore, never recommended for its repeal,” National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairperson Justice (retd) KG Balakrishnan told journalists here Wednesday night.

NEW DELHI (SANA): A senior United Nations (UN) Rapporteur has called for repeal of controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and Jammu and Kashmir Disturbed Areas Act (DAA) and Public Safety Act (PSA). “AFSPA allows the state to…

Srinagar, (SANA) A year after the visit of United Nations Special Rapporteur Margaret Sekaggya, another Rapporteur is visiting JK on a fact-finding mission. The Rapporteur has been charged by the UN Human Rights Council to examine situations of extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.

The UN Rapporteur, Christof Heyns, is scheduled to arrive on the fact-finding mission on March 26 along with his team. Talking to Greater Kashmir over phone, Rajiv Chandran, National Information Officer of UN at New Delhi said that the Rapporteur would stay in JK for one and a half day.

“The team is visiting seven cities including Jammu and Srinagar during their trip to India on invitation of Ministry of External Affairs, GOI,” he said.