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Human Rights

Petition - End the Scourge of Manual Scavenging – NOW!!!

Sat, 2012-11-03 14:27 — srinir
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This statement is based on a Seminar attended by representatives of Safai Karamchari Andolan, Republic Trade Union of India, Centre of Indian Trade Unions, Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradication Front; Advocates, Doctors and Health Activists; Faculty and Students of MIDS, IIT-M, New College, ACJ, MSE, Madras University among others. The discussion was one among many incidents happening across the country to support the struggle for abolishing manual scavenging and rehabilitation of manual scavengers. UPDATE: 23 Nov 2012 - Consolidated all signatures from change.org and comments..

Terrorism and Human Rights: Indian Experience with Repressive Laws

Thu, 2009-07-16 14:52 | B Jagannatham and G Haragopal

''The strength of the human rights depends on the depth of the law, vitality of the society, vision of the rulers, vibrancy of the institutions and use of discretionary powers. Terrorism is one part of societal experience, which calls for unusual abilities and creativity. If one presupposes that terrorism has its roots in human ‘‘unreason” or “irrationality” the solution should spring from human reason and creative political potential. The tragedy of the governance has been that instead of bringing in higher values into a terror-stricken society, the State and more particularly the law enforcing agencies are ending up imitating and imbibing terrorist methods and culture. This is the inevitable fallout of mechanistic confrontationalist approach to the national or international turmoil which in essence is political. That is the crux of the crisis of civilised governance.'' -G.Haragopal and B.Jagannatham write in EPW.

Source: 
Economic and Political Weekly

Fight against terror,shed double standards : Sitaram Yechury

Tue, 2008-12-23 08:56 | Sitaram Yechury
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You cannot have such double standards. If you want to fight terrorism, you have to create the atmosphere in our country where communalism cannot feed terrorism and terrorism cannot be used as an instrument for communal polarisation for political ends. We have to end that atmosphere, otherwise, we cannot fight terrorism in our country. That is one precondition. The other precondition is, you have to eliminate the sort of stark poverty, impoverishment and depravity that we find in large parts of our country. It is this poverty that creates and lays the basis; foundation, unfortunately, for such terrorist groups and activities to flourish.

CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Comrade.Sitaram Yechury's intervention on National Investigation Agency and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act in Rajya Sabha.Highlighting the human rights violations that were fostered by the erstwhile anti-Terrorist laws,Comrade.Yechury points out that the crux of the matter lies in the elimination of communal polarizations and poverty,which provides the fertile ground for the growth of terrorism.

Further Subversion in Gujrat 2002 cases:Statement issued by Citizens for Justice and Peace,Mumbai

Sun, 2008-12-21 08:34 | Citizens for Justice and Peace

A statement issued by Citizens for Justice & Peace which categorically refutes the media slander campaign against the organization and its General secretary,Teesta Setalvad.The statement highlights the subversion of the justice process in Gujrat 2002 cases,and the apathy shown by media towards it.

Rights for All, Chapter 6: Section 377 and Human Rights Violations

Sun, 2008-11-23 14:44 | Voices Against 377

The Government of India, in response to the petition calling for the decriminalisation of adult, consensual sex filed in the Delhi High Court by the Naz Foundation, stated that Section 377 IPC could not be challenged because Indian society by and large does not approve of homosexuality. In this assertion, the government has failed to recognize that the laws of this land are meant to protect and promote human rights of all its citizens, irrespective of what it claims to be the popular sentiments of the majority.

Source: 
Rights for All

Decriminalize Homosexuality, Repeal Section 377

Sun, 2008-11-23 14:26 | Pragoti
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The final hearings of the case in the Delhi High Court to decriminalise homosexuality and repeal Section 377 of the IPC are over and now the judgment is awaited. In spite of Ramadoss's very forthright public statement, Government of India adopted a very retrograde position on this arguing homosexuality is a 'disease'. Pragoti demands that this archaic, discriminatory and undemocratic law be repealed and that the Indian State stop interfering in consensual relationships between adults and persecuting people on the basis of their sexual orientation.

Open letter demanding overturning S. 377

Sun, 2008-11-23 14:18

From Vikram Seth, author; Swami Agnivesh; Soli Sorabjee, former Attorney-General; Aditi Desai, sociologist; Nitin Desai, former UN Under-Secretary General; Captain Lakshmi Sahgal, freedom fighter, Padma Vibhushan; Siddharth Dube, author, and many others. With a statement of support by Amartya Sen.

Source: 
http://p2.voicesagainst377.org/

Open letter to the Prime Minister Demanding Reading Down of S. 377

Sun, 2008-11-23 14:12

We write to you as child rights groups, groups working on issues of child sexual abuse, women's groups, sexual rights groups including groups working for the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, NGOs working on a range of issues including health and HIV /AIDs prevention, human rights groups and concerned citizens from across the country.

Open letter by Rhodes Scholars Demanding Reading Down of S. 377

Sun, 2008-11-23 13:37

[We] write in our individual capacity as Indian citizens with a commitment to public service and the fundamental principles of the Indian constitution -- liberty, equality, justice, and the dignity of the individual. We believe that it is clear what these principles demand of us today: to join the growing body of concerned citizens that calls for the decriminalisation of consensual sex between adults of the same sex by the reading down of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code.

Source: 
http://www.voicesagainst377.org/content/view/30/49/

Rights for All, Chapter 5: A Perspective from the Women’s Movement

Sun, 2008-11-23 13:24 | Voices Against 377

Section 377 and the government’s unwillingness to repeal it sums up the historical attitude of the Anglo-Saxon legal system toward non-procreative eroticism, usually going under the broad – if inaccurate – term “sodomy”. The Indian legal system has not only taken on this perspective, but has added on its own brand of prudishness.

Source: 
Rights for All