Dominic Xavier is puzzled by the NIA's campaign against Leftist activists and intellectuals and wonders if we will ever get to know the truth behind all these arrests.
'This insanity must stop. Or else, the State will lose its legitimacy in the eyes of the people. Then, the Maoists will have achieved their purpose of discrediting not just the State, but democracy itself.'
Interestingly, India had objected to the establishment of a UNHCHR when it was proposed by the US at the Vienna Conference on Human Rights in July 1993 and the whole proposal was remitted to the General Assembly in New York because India and others said that the whole issue should be examined in detail, says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan, who had led the Indian delegation for negotiating the terms of the HCHR.
Human rights activist Irom Chanu Sharmila, who has been charged with the offence of attempt to commit suicide by fasting, was on Monday released from judicial custody.
After Kashmir Singh, leading Pakistani rights activist Ansar Burney has found another Indian on death row, Karpal Singh, languishing in a jail in Punjab province since 1992.
In a move that could benefit Indian death row prisoner Sarabjit Singh, leading Pakistani rights activist Ansar Burney on Thursday asked President Pervez Musharraf to convert all death sentences in the country to life imprisonment. "This is an issue on which we have spoken several times during our meetings and an issue on which I have already sent several appeals," the former human rights minister said.
Irrespective of all the criticism that he is facing in America, Ahmadinejad's meeting with Dr Singh looks almost certain, sources have revealed.
Fearing a threat to his life, blind Chinese human rights activist Chen Guangcheng has appealed to United States lawmakers to ensure that he would be allowed to leave his homeland for America.
Dozens of UK-based Baloch and Sindhi protesters gathered outside the Chinese embassy in Londonand held a protest against Pakistan and China.
'In this assembly election, Muslims here will vote for one who works, but also one who safeguards their identity.' 'Their existence is more important they feel, than a faulty light meter. So yes, a Muslim representative will make a difference.'
With his appointment as AG, the many constitutional law matters that are pending before the Supreme Court will receive specialised attention.
Lata Ramgobin, who is the daughter of noted rights activists Ela Gandhi and late Mewa Ramgobind, was also refused leave to appeal both the conviction and the sentence by the Durban Specialised Commercial Crime Court.
The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought response of the Centre on the plea of Greenpeace activist Priya Pillai against her "offloading" from a flight to London at the Delhi airport.
Maoists were getting encouragement from civil society and support of well-minded citizens was required to stem the menace, West Bengal Governor M K Narayanan said on Friday."The Maoists are getting the upper hand in people's mind because they are getting encouragement from a section of civil society," Narayanan said. "We need the support of well minded citizens so that matters don't go out of control," he said.
Google, whose unofficial motto is 'Don't be evil', is at the receiving end today.
Three years after Google stepped into China, it is on the verge of closing operations.
Google on Wednesday threatened to shut down its operations in China after uncovering hacking attempts into email accounts of Chinese human rights activists, terming it as "highly sophisticated".
She said she no longer believes that her fast will lead to the repeal of the 'draconian' AFSPA but she will continue the fight.
An Indian national imprisoned in a jail in Lahore has died of tuberculosis, Pakistan authorities said on Thursday, after leading human rights activist Ansar Burney claimed that the death had occurred in 'suspicious' circumstances. Mushtaq Awan, the Superintendent of Kot Lakhpat jail, said Indian national Suraj Singh was mentally deranged and had died on Wednesday of tuberculosis. Singh, a resident of Jaipur, was arrested a year ago.
Apart from leopards, a wide range of species of flora and fauna is found in the Aarey forest, an 1,800 acre area termed as the city's 'green lung', located in suburban Goregaon and adjacent to the Sanjay Gandhi National Park.
All 'right-thinking citizens' should rally behind Setalvad, they said.
The IT ministry sources said they have received a reply from WhatsApp and are studying it, and that a view on it will be taken soon.
The 22 crew members, including six Indians, of Egyptian merchant vessel MV Suez will reach Karachi before being sent back to their respective countries, Pakistani human rights activist Ansar Burney has said. Burney, who has played a pivotal role in securing the release of the crew, hoped the return of the Indian sailors would be a "gift" to India. Besides the six Indians, there are five Pakistanis and one Sri Lankan among the crew.
Rights activist Asma Jahangir has criticised Pakistan's powerful spy agency Inter Services Intelligence for attempting to turn the country into "ISIstan" by controlling the security and democratic dispension.
Human rights activist Binayak Sen, who was convicted for sedition and recently granted bail by the Supreme Court, has underlined the need to have a public debate on contours of the controversial law.
The NHRC said that it has received several complaints regarding the ongoing farmers' protest.
Swamy's counsel said there was negligence on part of the Taloja prison authorities, who failed to provide immediate medical attention to the Jesuit priest.
Dr Shiv Chopra, the 75-year-old, Canada-based microbiologist and well known human rights activist, was in India recently in connection with the release of his latest book, Corrupt To The Core - Memoirs Of A Health Canada Whistleblower, which is about how corruption in government endangers public food supply.
A peace delegation from Pakistan on Thursday suggested the military regime in that country might not yet be over yet and singled it out for maintaining close ties with terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. Attending a round table conference in New Delhi, the delegates referring to terrorism pointed out that the "monster that was created has outgrown its inventors".
Leading rights activist Ansar Burney, who was the Human Rights Minister in Pakistan's caretaker government, will visit India next month to meet the family of Sarabjit Singh and gather any evidence about his innocence and to trace Pakistani prisoners in Indian jails. Burney said he would go to India on April 2 at the invitation of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.
Observing that the "mishandling" of the issue of Ajmal Iman's nationality by the government had brought bad name to Pakistan, leading human rights activist Ansar Burney has demanded the immediate resignation of Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik.
The envoys of member-nations of the council, which has often condemned human rights violations in member-states, have been very clear that the issue is not likely to come up during the meetings, and some have even questioned whether it posed a threat to international peace and security, a yardstick for council action. The Chinese diplomats said the issue did not come up in the council on Monday, maintaining it does not pose threat to international and peace and security.
Many of the stories, the pictures going out of India worldwide lately with these provocative processions, taunting of Muslims, bulldozers targeting mostly their properties, the sweeping 'othering' of a community of 200 million are painting the front pages and TV screens in the democratic world. That is where most of the friends we covet lie. Soon enough, these will also make our vital friends among the Muslim nations, from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, uneasy. The best time for course correction is now, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
Professor Illina Sen, the wife of human rights activist Binayak Sen, said that she was not planning to leave the country, and the couple did not need "certificate of patriotism" from anyone.
The Union home ministry on Thursday recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the affairs of the Indian arm of the global NGO Oxfam for alleged violation of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, sources said.
Clude Arpi salutes the Nobel prize committee for giving the peace prize to jailed Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobo.
Retired bureaucrat S R Sankaran, who had played a crucial role in bringing the Maoists and Andhra Pradesh government together for the first ever direct peace talks six years ago, passed away on Thursday after a brief illness.
P V Bakthavatchalam will be part of the international panel of lawyers being constituted to defend Saddam Hussein.
An Indian fisherman died of an electric shock in a jail in the Pakistani port city of Karachi on Monday prompting a leading human rights activist to demand an inquiry into his death. Fisherman Bhagwan Das, who was being held in Landhi Jail in Karachi, died of an electric shock he suffered while switching on a washing machine, officials said.
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