Are Rights Going Wrong Way?
By Ravishankar Panda
UNCHR 'concerned' over Iraqi prisoners' status
May 06, 2004, The United Nations Commission on Human Rights expressed \"serious concern\" over
the \"uncertain\" legal status of many detainees being interrogated in Iraq and asked the Coalition
Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Governing Council to clarify the legal status of each person.
Rediffmail/News
New charges of Iraqi prisoner abuse; Rumsfeld to testify before Congress
May 07, 2004, Washington, New charges of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by the US-led occupation force
emerged as US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld prepared to testify before Congress, a day
after President George W. Bush was forced to apologize for the first time for his troops.
Channel News Asia
Historical Background
There had been several instances in the history when an autocratic ruler was dethroned by the
people led by some activist/activists as a result of dissents rising because of atrocities of the king or
violation of social ethics. Such an example is Nanda king was dethroned by Chandragupta Maurya
under the guidance of Chankya.
The concept of human rights has existed under several names in European thoughts for many
centuries, at least since the time of King John of England. After the king violated a number of ancient
laws and customs by which England had been governed, his subjects forced him to sign the Magna
Carta, or Great Charter, which enumerates a number of what later came to be thought of as human
rights.
In the late 1700s two revolutions occurred which drew heavily on this concept. In 1776 most of the
British colonies in North America proclaimed their independence from the British Empire.
In 1789 the people of France overthrew their monarchy and established the first French Republic.
Out of the revolution came the \"Declaration of the Rights of Man.\"
The term natural rights eventually fell into disfavor, but the concept of universal rights took root.
Philosophers such as Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill, and Henry David Thoreau expanded the
concept. Thoreau is the first philosopher who used the term, \"human rights\" in his treatise, Civil
Disobedience. This work left extreme influence on individuals like Leo Tolstoy, Mahatma Gandhi,
and Martin Luther King. Gandhi and King, in particular, developed their ideas on non-violent
resistance to unethical government actions from this work.
For the last part of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century, though, human rights
activism remained largely tied to political and religious groups and beliefs. Revolutionaries pointed at
the atrocities of governments as proof that their ideology was necessary to bring about change and
end the government's abuses.
Human Rights: Taking Shapes
On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Following this historic act the assembly called upon all
member countries to publicize the text of the declaration and \"to cause it to be disseminated,
displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without
distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.\" It is the first multinational
declaration mentioning human rights by name, and the human rights movement has largely adopted
it as a charter.
\"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with
sticks and stones.\" Albert Einstein

The United Nations Charter, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and UN Human Rights
covenants were written and implemented in the aftermath of the holocaust, revelations coming from
the Nuremberg war crimes trials, the atomic bomb, and other horrors smaller in magnitude but not in
impact on the individuals they affected. A whole lot of people in a number of countries had a crisis of
conscience and found they could no longer look the other way while tyrants jailed, tortured, and
killed their neighbours.
Over the years combinations of these concerns and others led to formation of other human rights
groups. Among them were groups which later merged to form Human Rights Watch, the first of them
being Helsinki Watch in 1978. Regional human rights watchdog groups often operated under
extremely difficult conditions, especially those in the Soviet block.
Other regional groups formed after military takeovers in Chile in 1973, in East Timor in 1975, in
Argentina in 1976, and after the Chinese Democracy Wall Movement in 1979.
Recognition for the human rights movement, and Amnesty International in particular, grew during the
1970s. Amnesty gained permanent observer status as an NGO at the United Nations. Its reports
became mandatory reading in legislatures, state departments and foreign ministries around the
world.
United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR)
The main themes addressed by the Commission are: the right to self-determination; racism; the right
to development; the question of the violation of human rights in the occupied Arab territories,
including Palestine; the question of the violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms in any
part of the world; economic, social and cultural rights; civil and political rights, including the questions
of torture and detention, disappearances and summary executions, freedom of expression, the
independence of the judiciary, impunity and religious intolerance; the human rights of women,
children, migrant workers, minorities and displaced persons; indigenous issues; the promotion and
protection of human rights, including the work of the Sub-Commission, treaty bodies and national
institutions; and advisory services and technical cooperation in the field of human rights.
One of the most important tasks entrusted to the Commission has been the elaboration of human
rights standards. In 1948 it concluded work on the landmark Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Since then it has developed standards relating, inter alia, to the right to development, civil and
political rights, economic, social and cultural rights, the elimination of racial discrimination, torture,
the rights of the child and the rights of human rights defenders.
All States that accept these standards are obliged to implement the rights they entail and to report
regularly to international bodies set up to monitor their compliance.
Where problems are identified, the Commission can take action to address them. It regularly
requests the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to provide assistance to
Governments through its programme of advisory services and technical cooperation in the field of
human rights. This assistance takes the form of expert advice, human rights seminars, national and
regional training courses and workshops, fellowships and scholarships, and other activities.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, a part of the United Nations
Secretariat, provides secretariat services to the Commission on Human Rights and to other human
rights meetings. The Office is located in Geneva, Switzerland.
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
In India National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), an autonomous body, supervises the cases of
violation of the basic rights of a citizen. Justice JS Anand is presently chairperson of the
commission. NHRC came into existence in 1993 after the National Human Right Act 1993 with
Justice Rangnath Mishra as the first chairperson.

Roles of NHRC
• Inquire, suo motu (on its own) or on a petition presented to if by a victim or any
person on his behalf, into complaint of
i. violation of human rights or abatement thereof or
ii. negligence in the prevention of such violation, by a public servant;
• Intervene in any proceeding involving any allegation of violation of human rights
pending before a court with the approval of such court;
• Visit, under intimation to the State Government, any jail or any other institution under
the control of the State Government, where persons are detained or lodged for
purposes of treatment, reformation or protection to study the living conditions of the
inmates and make recommendations thereon;
• Review the safeguards provided by or under the Constitution or any law for the time
being in force for the protection of human rights and recommend measures for their
effective implementation;
• Review the factors, including acts of terrorism that inhibit the enjoyment of human
rights and recommend appropriate measures;
• Study treaties and other international instruments on human rights and make
recommendations for their effective implementation;
• Undertake and promote research in the field of human rights and the efforts of non-
governmental organisations and institutions working in the field of human rights
• Spread human rights literacy among various sections of society and promote
awareness of the safeguards available for the protection of these rights through
publications, the media, seminars, and other available means; Hum
an Rights in India
By large human rights situation is not very bright in India. Terrorism, communalism and casteism are
the major factors that make the human rights situation worse. Moreover legal illiteracy makes the
common people afraid of claiming their rights. Communal violence, under custody deaths, sexual
harassment and misbehaviour with lower caste women, child labour, bonded labour, misuse of acts
like POTA, unethical behaviour of armed forces in the terrorism affected states like Jammu and
Kashmir, north-eastern states are only a few examples that occur every other day in the country.
The human rights situation in the rural area is grim in comparison to the urban ones because of
prevailing traditional social differences. The caste based politics and power oriented politician is
changing the social equation against the minorities in the rural areas where they live under constant
fear.
One thing for sure that media has made the people more aware about the various atrocities made by
the authorities. Though the government takes action but the slow judicial process does not
encourage the people to come forward in protest. NHRC is working to improve India's image in the
international arena but politically motivated incidence like Godhara which keep on happening
blackens the shining India's face.