 The Annual Report of Human Rights for the year 2007, was released on May 23, 2007. The report was released simultaneously across 21 centres in the country, including Mumbai. The report was divided into two parts, a large book that highlighted the violation of Human Rights across the Asia Pacific region, and a smaller India specific booklet.
The panel included Sanjeev Poojary, the regional director and Amit Murugkar, a member of the Mumbai Group of Amnesty International. The chief guest was Shabana Azmi, an actor who is known for her outspoken nature as member of the Rajya Sabha, and as the Chairman of Niwara Hakh, a group fighting for slum dwellers rights.
The report was released by Shabana Azmi. Throughout the launch, Azmi emphasized on the fact that India did not have clear rehabilitation laws, and that it desperately needed to amend the laws that related to land acquisition. The incorporation of rehabilitation laws within the framework of
the land acquisition law was a pressing need.
Azmi said, �It is important for the citizens of the country to take alleged rapes to an international level so that they can get the desired attention.� She commended the works of Chetna, the NGO that works towards bettering the lives of rape victims, and SEWA headed by Ela Bhatt. In her speech, she also mentioned the need for the strict implementation of the Convention for the Elimination of the Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in India.
Keeping in mind the number of people displaced for infrastructural projects, in the last few years, Azmi questioned the need for such a sort of �progress�. Referring to the SEZ issue, Azmi said, �It is unfair to ask the farmers to sell their land at market rates as they do not understand the consequences. What are the grounds on which they are giving their land?� She highlighted that it was their right to be made a part of progress and that the people to be rehabilitated should be well paid for their contribution. Azmi mentioned that forty organisations were working towards providing their suggestions to the government about incorporating rehabilitation within land acquisition laws.
In 1984, the government had passed a bill to make rehabilitation an official part of the land acquisition laws, but it was not made into a law. Azmi questioned the need for large dams and the shifting out of tribals from areas that they called home. �Shifting tribals from their homes is causing health problems for women and children. They should be allotted rights and nobody should be allowed to violate these indigenous people under the United Nations Convention for Indigenous People,� said Azmi.
Azmi also focused on the AIDS epidemic. She said that it should be made mandatory that people were educated about the disease so as to prevent people from chaining victims outside their homes and beating them up. Finally, she said that the true challenge of Amnesty was to coax people to take these reports seriously, and force their respective governments to take stringent action towards implementing them.
Snajeev Poojari, the Regional Director, read excerpts from the report on India. �The world is living in an atmosphere of fear. People are deprived of their basic human rights,� he said. He blamed the US as the main perpetrator of violence. He raised the issue of fake encounters in Gujarat and the killing of innocents all over the globe. He referred to projects of infrastructure, SEZ, beautification and large dams as a �betrayal of basic human rights.�
The report has widely criticised the government for not repealing the authoritarian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in Manipur. It refers to the constant abuse of human rights in the states of Jammu and Kashmir and the seven sisters of the north east.
It raises the issue compensation from Union Carbide. The report has also highlighted the subject of capital punishment mentioning that the Government of India sentenced 40 people to death in 2006, although no executions were carried out. Amnesty International is known for its fight against capital punishment the world over. It raised the question of the safety of civilians with reference to the Mumbai train blasts.
In full perspective, the report seeks to move the Indian government in working to make the country a place safe for everyone to live in, with dignity, respect and their basic human rights. It
requests the government to stop �grossly undermining Human Rights in India.�
| 
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home