Joachim Ruecker is the current president of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Appointed in January this year, he is the first German diplomat to hold the office. Ruecker has held
Dabur India, TATA Steel, GAIL, Oil India, Jindal Steel, Ambuja Cement and Glaxosmith Consumer Healthcare are among top 10 Indian companies doing responsible business. The other compa
The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), a United Nations body of independent human rights experts, has adopted its ruling on Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, announcing his depriv
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), where I spent a decade studying and researching hi
On their way to independence, the Muhammad Ali Jinnah-led Muslim League chose to create a separate nation on the basis of religion. While Pakistan was conceived under the two-nation theory as a hom
2014 – ghar wapsi; 2015 – cow slaughtering; 2016 – anti-nationalism. This has been the year-wise growth in India under the slogan of ‘achche din’. With the trampling o
Kanhaiya Kumar has captured the imagination of many with his measured, calm and yet witty words during his speech Thursday night and the press conference on Friday. He was ‘trending’ on
Dear daughter, You asked me about the JNU episode the other day. For
Here is an anecdote of 2007 vintage. A well researched book on the history of Gujarat’s maritime trade with central Asia was being released. The small audience in the hall was largely made up
The government of India has tabled the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016 in the Lok Sabha. The proposed legislation seeks to give a lega
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has always been a bastion of the left. Decades ago, people in power saw to it that JNU moved on the left beat. Recently, JNU students (and possibly some unidentifi
Leilani Farha is UN’s special rapporteur (SR) on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context. Sh
Of late, we’ve been hearing a lot about the charges of sedition, anti-nationalism, anti-democratic, being levelled against the students of JNU commemorating Afzal Guru and Yakub Memon. The qu
The Amnesty International India report ‘Blackout in Bastar: Human Rights Defenders Under Threat’ describes how journalists, lawyers and activists have been harassed, attacked and locked
There is no dearth of government policies and programmes to ensuring food for all; questions can be raised only about their effective implementation, says National Human Rights Commission chairpers
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to the ministries of communications and information technology and ministry of health, calling for a report in the wake of allegations
For the past two months Ghaneshwar Yadav, a native of Bihar, has been working as a daily wage labourer in New Delhi’s Okhla area. With a few clothes tucked into a tattered plastic bag, Yadav
We must discuss the fundamental issues of governance affecting the day-to-day life of the people, find out the drawbacks and try and show the way forward, believes justice HL Dattu, chairperson, Na
Assessing human rights situation in the country, NGOs, officials from various ministries and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) have made several suggestions to bring improvements in the c
Growing population and corruption are the two main hindrances in the way of good governance towards the development of India, said justice HL Dattu, chairperson, National Human Rights Commission (N
NHRC’s 2012-13 annual report, which was put in the public domain earlier this month, shows that cases of human rights violation increased to 107,655 from 95,174 in 2011-12. As
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is waiting for a hearing in the Supreme Court on October 26 as it seeks more powers. Its restricted recommendatory and advisory role could be further enh
A UN human rights expert has issued a strong statement accusing the US security forces of using “increasingly militarised response” against North Dakota pipeline protestors, and called
Sociologists usually don’t make news, but Nandini Sundar has received a fair amount of media coverage in recent weeks for two reasons: just as her book, ‘The Burning Forest - Indi
Kerala Governor P. Sathasivam, who is a former chief justice of India, has suggested that an amendment in the Protection of Human Rights (PHR) Act will make National Human Rights Commission (
Police in India often bypass arrest procedures and torture suspects in custody to death, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Monday. At least 591 people died in police custody i
In 2012, families whose loved ones were killed by security forces in Manipur decided to fight the injustice and formed the Extra-Judicial Execution Victim Families Association. They moved the supre
The union cabinet has approved a new scheme for promotion of rural housing in the country. The government would provide interest subsidy under the scheme. The interest subsidy would
Taking suo motu cognisance of a news report of the death of over 500 tribal girls in the Maharashtra state-run ashram schools, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice
Masooma Ranalvi, a victim of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), has submitted a petition signed by 85,000 people to National Commission of Women against this practice. She started Speak out
The “Forum of Concerned Citizens for Naliya Incident” sent a fact-finding team to Kutch on February 20. The members of the team were Dineshbhai Sanghvi, Meenaks
The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted the report of India’s human rights record review on May 9. There were 250 recommendations by 103 countries that had taken the floor five days earli
Readers will recollect the dastardly attack on CRPF personnel that occurred in Chhattisgarh on April 24, 2017. Left-wing extremist (LWE) groups attacked a team of 90 CRPF personnel who were sanit
Media trials, under the guise of debates, have become the new normal today. These ‘media debates’, which seem more like screaming matches, completely overlook the nuances of the issue b
“I am from a poor family” written with red paint on a yellow background outside homes that draw ration under the NFSA in Rajasthan’s Dausa district is a clear case of human righ
The seventh round of the Syria peace talks will begin on July 10 in Geneva which will be convened by the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura. Violence and persecution in places l
Lucknow, September 15 The Uttar Pradesh Police releases official data on crime control under the new dispensation of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Reveals that
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken suo motu cognizance of an alleged fake encounter of a 27-year-old gangster Sumit Gurjar in Greater Noida on October 3. Notices
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken a serious view of the “life-threatening high pollution” in Delhi/NCR, and has sought reports, within two weeks, from various union
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to the chief secretary of Punjab and the secretary of union ministry of health for a detailed report within six weeks on the situation
Taking note of media reports about the mysterious death of a rape victim’s father who was in custody at a jail in Unnao, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to the
The Fortune magazine has named three Indians – lawyer Indira Jaising, industrialist Mukesh Ambani and architect Balkrishna V Doshi – among the world’s greatest fifty leaders.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken suo motu cognizance of media reports about the Maharashtra government informing the state assembly that 639 farmers had committed suicide in th
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to the Maharashtra government, taking note of the arrest of five human-rights activists from different cities. Maharash
Jenine di Giovanni, a reporter who was a first-hand witness to the destruction in Bosnia, Chechnya and other places, wrote: “In the aftermath of any war or genocide, healing and reconciliatio
“The 21st century is the century of human mobility and migration. We can no longer think about our economies, societies or cultures without thinking about human mobility.”
Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the new president of Sri Lanka, won the November elections that were held amid continued polarization in the island nation. As defence secretary, he had led the government&rsquo
In a rare development in Sri Lanka’s history, two siblings are now at the helm of the island nation’s affairs. While the younger brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is the new president, elder
An image that captured the plight of migrant labourers leaving cities and walking to their homes on foot – the image of a woman walking on, pulling a suitcase behind her on which her child is
Even as public health authorities have been struggling hard to meet the unprecedented crisis, the Covid-19 has also exposed glaring weaknesses in the system, and it is the National Human Righ
Fifty-seven minor girls have tested positive for the novel coronavirus at a state-run children’s Shelter Home in Kanpur district of Uttar Pradesh, with five of them pregnant and one HIV posit
As the Amnesty International downs the shutters on its India operations, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has taken suo motu cognizance of the matter and sought the home secretary’
Pitta Rajani, 28, and her family from Kandriga in Vijaywada faced severe difficulties during and after the lockdown last year and had to take a loan of Rs 20,000 from Soubhagya , a moneyl
The 1971 war between India and Pakistan lasted for 13 days. India flagged victory and the eastern part of Pakistan was separated from it, becoming Bangladesh. In that war 93,000 soldiers of Pakista
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), in its 2022 Annual report, has recommended to the US State Department that India be designated a ‘Country of Particul
Does the concept of sedition have a place in modern democracies? This question became more relevant when the apex court recently put the country`s colonial-era sedition law on abeyance stating that
