Excerpts from “Strangers to Justice: A Report on Foreigners in Indian Prisons”, authored by Palak Chaudhari and Madhurima Dhanuka of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, international non-governmental organization:   The report is based on responses received to Right to Information (RTI) requests CHRI sent to all state prison departments between … More Problems faced by foreign nationals in Indian prisons at every step of criminal justice process

By Sanjay Parikh* Freedom of speech and expression is the most fundamental and most precious among all other human rights, on realization of which alone the other rights become meaningful. UN Human Rights Committee (in General Comment no. 34 on Article 19: Freedom of opinion and expression) had said that: “Freedom of expression is a … More Today the basic question is not just of freedom of speech, but also freedom after speech

By Sheshu Babu* While the general condition of prisons and the prisoners is pathetic, those suffering disability is horrific to say the least. The basic right to life (Article 21 of the constitution) is mostly violated in dealing with prisoners who are handicapped. The Veena Sethi case in the early 1980s brought to light the … More How basic right to life is being violated, especially while dealing with handicapped prisoners

In an interesting move, the Philippines government has taken off several names of human rights defenders (HRDs) from the terrorist list. A vulnerable group, HRDs world over is being persecuted, as the Frontline Defenders Analysis Global 2018 Report suggests. The top five countries that have highest number of HRD deaths are Columbia, Mexico, Philippines, Guatemala … More Broader unity in international community needed to defeat efforts to criminalize HRDs

By Neha Dabhade, Irfan Engineer, Suraj Nair, Siddhi Pendke* As per newspaper reports, the number of communal incidents all over India in 2018 has been the lowest in the past four years. The Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS) monitors reports of communal incidents in five newspapers every year. In 2018 the number … More Communal incidents in 2018 may have gone down, but mob lynchings, hate crimes are up

By Advocate Sanjeev Sirohi*  It has to be stated right at the outset that in a much awaited judgment, the Delhi High Court finally ending the years of nail biting suspense has finally delivered its historic verdict in Zulfikar Nasir & Ors v State of Uttar Pradesh & Ors in CRL.A. 574/2015 & Crl.M.A. No. … More Hashimpura: Judgment must be delivered in such sensitive cases in shortest possible time

A recent Amnesty International India report, “Between Fear and Hatred: Surviving Migration Detention in Assam” say that as on 25 September 2018, there are 1,037 people detained for being ‘irregular foreigners’ in detention centres housed inside prisons in the Indian state of Assam . Many do not know what crimes have led to their incarceration. … More Assam’s “foreigners” face indefinite detention in overcrowded prisons, are kept with convicts