‘Autonomy of human rights bodies in national interest’
19 Sept 2015 6:30 AM IST
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said that maintaining the autonomy of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the State Human Rights Commissions (SHRCs) is in the interest of the country and assured all possible cooperation from the Centre to make them more strong and effective.
Inaugurating a day-long meeting of the NHRC and SHRCs in New Delhi, he said that India has a long tradition of attaching importance to not only the human rights but also to the rights of all present in this universe.
He said that he fully agrees with the suggestion that in order to make the SHRCs effective, it is necessary to provide them with infrastructure, financial and human resources and would look in this regard into the recommendations of Justice GP Mathur Committee as well as the suggestions emanating from Friday’s meeting. Vacancies in the SHRCs should be filled.
Singh said that there should be no problem in moving the recommendation before Parliament for an amendment in the Protection of Human Rights (PHR) Act, 1993 for <g data-gr-id="22">constitution</g> of Human Rights Commissions in Union Territories also. Referring to some of the concerns on human rights, he said that the Centre is seriously looking into the problem of convicted prisoners languishing in jails even after completing their sentences and is trying to find out ways to solve it.
Holding it as an inadequacy of the system, Singh said the Centre is issuing advisories to the State Governments to release the prisoners who have completed their sentences.
The Home Minister also expressed serious concern over human trafficking and urged upon all the stakeholders to sit together and prepare an elaborate Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to stop this menace. He also said that some people tend to give importance to the rights of a terrorist over the right of the self-defence of the security forces and questioned, how can some armed persons force the Government to accept their demands?
Questions rights activists batting for terrorists
Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday raised questions over the tendency of human rights activists to bat for human rights of terrorists and convicted prisoners and not security forces as he referred to the hue and cry raised <g data-gr-id="53">over hanging</g> of 1993 Mumbai blasts convict Yakub Memon.
He said India has a healthy democracy but it does not mean that someone can hold the nation to ransom with guns in hands.
Addressing a conference of National Human Rights Commission here, Singh said Memon was executed after completion of all due judicial process.
“He was convicted by the highest court of the country - the Supreme Court. But in that case also some people tried to raise the issue of human rights. For a person like me, I failed to understand why such things are raised,” Singh said.
Next Story
