Rights convention raises major demands

A huge convention of human rights organizations in New Delhi recently outlined four major demands before the government to heal the wounds of the torture victims. Attended by human rights experts, activists, lawyers, journalists. Doctors and academics, the national convention in the capital asked the government to ratify the convention against torture which has been pending since 1997.

The convention further demanded a new bill to in Parliament to prevent the torture incorporating within it the recommendations of the Select Committee of Parliament. The human rights bodies demanded a comprehensive statutory scheme to repair and rehabilitate the torture victims. Finally the convention said that New Delhi must facilitate the visit of the special rapporteur on torture whose request has been pending for many years. According to a press statement, Organsing Committee convener Babloo Loitongbam said, “as India is signatory to the Convention against Disability, that also addresses the issue of disabilities caused by torture, a logical and necessary corollary is that India immediately ratifies CAT.

There is now strong evidence of widespread impunity for illegal and appalling actions as a primary means of investigation when in custody and control of state actors and of torture being used as a means of coercing and subduing dissent amongst voiceless and vulnerable populations. These include large sections in the North Eastern region, Jammu and Kashmir, migrant labour, construction workers, unorganised workers, Adivasis and indigenous peoples, Dalits and India’s religious minorities who bear the additional burden of being often wrongfully associated with acts of terror, he said.