This year, the National Human Rights Commission is celebrating its thirty-first year of establishment. It was founded on October 12, 1993 at par with the UNDHR-1948 for the protection and promotion of human rights in the country. Though India took forty five years to realise the importance of UNDHR but it has justified effectiveness of the commission in the protection and promotion of human rights in the country at different periods of time.
It is apparent that, there is an increasing trend in the human rights violation issues at global, national, State and local levels. Likewise, the concerns for the protection of human rights from both the State and civil societies have also developed across the globe. It is argued that this happens due to improvements in legal literacy including pro people governance across the globe. However, violations of human rights cases are easy to understand but hard to define and realise.
For a layman, human rights violation means suffering of human beings due to Government’s negligence and its failure to extend supportive hands to the victims. Relevance of this idea is debatable as it is hard to know whether both the Government and the governance are absent, defunct, paralysed or ill-motivated.
Historical evidences tell that, human rights violations occur to justify the supremacy of power, to get success in the wars and to take revenge against the enemies. Looking at the gross violation of human rights in the Second World War, both humanitarian and legal supports from different countries have come forward to protect the rights of the people in different forums to combat the human rights violations in different grounds in formal ways. Afterwards, there have been corresponding improvements in the numbers and capacities of NGOs at international, national and regional levels addressing the different dimensions of rights in different countries.
In Indian societies, religion, caste, gender and poverty-based exclusion and discriminative practices continue to play an important role and have been rationalised by the names of sacred customs and traditions. Minorities, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women were historically and systematically excluded from different rights like social interaction, education and upward mobility. They often face violence and brutality by the majorities, upper castes and male counterparts, besides the so-called creamy layers of the society. By the name of the developmental projects, the indigenous communities have been displaced from their ancestral homes and areas.
Due to acute poverty, the Dalits and Adivasis have been compelled to migrate to the cities for their livelihood, where they have been facing both physical and psychological tortures at the work places. Therefore, neither the rural areas nor the urban setups are fit for them. In addition to these problems malnutrition, infant mortality, starvation, witch hunting, domestic violence, attacks on Dalits, tribes, women and minorities, electrocution deaths, custodial deaths etc became the front news of almost all the regional and national dailies in India. In the above context, it is important how to give justice to all with an understanding of human rights and effectiveness of the NHRC.
The NHRC has no power of execution or contempt but through its recommendations, it has achieved milestones in protecting human beings especially the downtrodden. It has established its own identity through its work and achievements. The autonomy of the commission derives inter-alia from the method of appointment of its chairperson and members, their fixity of tenure and statutory guarantees thereto, the status they have been accorded and the manner in which the staff are responsible to the commission including its investigative agency. Though the NHRC has a crucial role to play in ensuring effective and vibrant justice delivery mechanism but in majority of the human rights violation cases, the NHRC has been involved through third-party interventions. As a statutory body, it has established a number of ‘thematic issues’ to address violations of particular rights.
It is felt that the mechanisms, functionaries and resources at the disposal of this body are minimal. There is no uniformity in monetary compensation to the victims of violations of human rights issues. Even in many cases it has not sent Special Investigation Teams (SITs) to the gross violation of human rights areas and it believes in the Action Taken Reports (ATRs) of different Government authorities.
Due to the widespread media activities, the human rights bodies, defenders and organisations have developed their sensitivity towards the protection and promotion of human rights. Globally, the NHRC has taken many exemplary steps with regard to respect for human rights and human rights principles which has brought real and tangible differences in the service delivery mechanisms and people’s lives in the country.
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