HRW World Report 2012: Disappointing Year For Human Rights In India

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HRW World Report 2012: Disappointing Year For Human Rights In India
1/23/2012 8:26 AM ET

(RTTNews) - The Indian government during 2011 failed to hold rights violators accountable or to carry out effective policies to protect vulnerable communities, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in its World Report 2012.

The government took no action to repeal the widely discredited Armed Forces Special Powers Act, disregarding the recommendations of political leaders and advisers, the New York-based rights watchdog said in the report released on Monday.

It also accused the Indian government of ignoring the urgent need for police reform despite widespread complaints of torture and unlawful killings as well as deplorable working conditions for police personnel.

"The Indian government took few steps to prosecute abusive soldiers, undertake needed police reforms, or bring an end to torture," said HRW Asia Director Brad Adams. "Internationally, India missed opportunities to be a leader at the United Nations Security Council and Human Rights Council in protecting the rights of vulnerable people abroad," he added.

In its World Report 2012, HRW assessed progress on human rights during the past year in more than 90 countries, including popular uprisings in the Arab world that few would have imagined. Given the violent forces resisting the "Arab Spring," the international community has an important role to play in assisting the birth of rights-respecting democracies in the region, HRW said in the report.

In India, violence in Jammu and Kashmir State dropped significantly during 2011. The State human rights commission's investigation of 38 sites in north Kashmir and the discovery of 2,730 unmarked graves was a good first step for providing justice to the victims, the HRW said. While the government maintains that most of the bodies are those of unidentified Pakistani militants, many Kashmiris believe that victims of fake "encounter killings" or enforced disappearances may also have been buried in those graves.

The government belatedly addressed the epidemic of killings on the Indo-Bangladesh border by the Border Security Force (BSF). Although the government ordered restraint and provided rubber bullets to reduce casualties, there were continued reports of torture leading to deaths and other abuses by BSF soldiers. No BSF soldiers have been prosecuted for the unlawful killings of over 900 Indians and Bangladeshis over the past decade.

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's call for 'zero tolerance' of abuses by the armed forces has been undercut by the near zero progress in holding the abusers responsible," Adams said. He called on the Indian government not to "allow the Army to hide behind claims about troop morale or operational needs as an excuse for impunity."

Residents of areas facing a Maoist insurgency, which in 2011 was active in nearly 80 districts across 11 Indian States, complained of being squeezed between state security forces and Maoist rebels. Security agencies carried out numerous arbitrary arrests and were accused of many instances of torture. The Maoists frequently demanded shelter and information from villagers, who were then punished by security forces for collaborating with the rebels.

"While the government agrees that the Maoist movement is rooted in failed government policies and speaks of winning hearts and minds, it allows the security forces to commit abuses with impunity," Adams said. "At the same time, the Maoists claim to speak for the marginalized yet punish anyone who might disagree with their violent methods."

The government adopted long overdue measures to compensate rape victims and revised its medico-legal protocols to exclude the humiliating "finger" test to investigate rape cases, the HRW report said.

Yet the government did little to address the widespread problems of "honor killings," dowry deaths, and sexual violence. A further decline in India's sex ratio because of sex selective abortion and other abuses against girls and women points to the economic and social disparities that lead families to prefer sons over daughters, and the government's need to expand educational and economic opportunities for women. The failure to extend maternal health care programs to all mothers below the age 19 or with more than two live births also reflected poorly on the government's commitment to protect women.

The Medical Council of India took an important step in 2011 by recognizing palliative care as a medical specialty. But more than half of government-supported regional cancer centers still do not offer palliative care or pain management, even though more than 70 percent of their patients need it.

Internationally, although India served on both the U.N. Security Council and Human Rights Council, it let opportunities pass to support independent, international investigations into conflict-related abuses in Sri Lanka and Myanmar. The report blames India for remaining silent on even the gravest abuses instead of using these memberships to show leadership to protect human rights abroad.

"India is now watched closely for signs of responsible global leadership," Adams said, adding that "its silence on human rights violations by abusive regimes because of its reluctance to interfere in the so-called 'internal affairs' of other countries sits uncomfortably alongside its international human rights commitments and its self image as a rights-respecting nation."

by RTT Staff Writer