Report on State Level Training Program for Human Rights Defenders

 Introduction

Human Rights Defenders (HRDs) are ordinary citizens of the country, who are determined to defend the democratic rights or civil liberties in the society. Mostly coming from the disadvantaged or marginalized class, their fight represent the urgency for establishment of rule of law. The presence and need of HRDs have been widely acknowledged by the governments across the world, at least in public for playing a pivotal role in building a just society.  However, in reality HRDs are deliberately suppressed, harassed and threatened by the state and non state actors for opposing and questioning their unlawful activities. The United Nations has acknowledged the role of human rights defenders in establishing a stronger democratic society. 

 Human rights defenders in India play a legitimate and essential role in protecting basic rights, monitoring implementation of right based programmes and strengthening democratic institutions. Charges against them are often politically motivated and intended primarily to discredit and stigmatize them individually and as a class. Unfounded criminal charges and other forms of harassment are damaging HRDs in many ways.

This came to the fore when the HRDs shared their plights at a two-day State-level training programme on 8-9 December 2012 at the CYSD,Bhubaneswar,Odisha,India organized by Human Rights Front(HRF) a coalition forum of HRDs, HR agencies and peoples’ organisations in the State, in association with National Human Rights Commission(NHRC) New Delhi.

Mr. Manoj Jena, Chairperson of HRF facilitated the two days program. Hundred of  defenders from different field throughout the state participated in the training.

Both the NHRC and the HRF have initiated a few programmes to develop the capacity of human rights defenders, mediapersons, Government officials and other key players in Odisha for promotion and protection of human rights as Manoj Jena said.                                                  

  

Objectives of the training was to..

• Create Mass Awareness on SPEAK RIGHTS
• Strengthen capacity of Human Rights Defenders  
• Share challenges for human rights defenders in Odisha
• Train on techniques of fact finding, Monitoring, Documenting & Intervention of a case
• Account effective functioning of Human Rights Institutions (HRIs)
•  Build up State wide Human Rights Defenders’ Network
•  Create & Run a State level Human Rights Index Monitoring Cell
• Advocate for a domestic law for HRDs

 Day 1 ( 8^th December 2012)

Issues Covered       

• Overview on forms of Human Rights violations in Odisha
• Understanding human rights and its violations
•  Challenges or risk faced by HRDs
• Role & Responsibilities of HRDs
•  Delivering good governance : The role of human rights defenders
•  Fact Finding, Monitoring , Documentation & Intervention 

Dr. Bikash Das, who heads the Committee for Legal Aid to Poor (CLAP) a pioneer legal aid organisation of the State, had focused on the basic of human rights and the instruments to protect the human rights defenders. He also explained the international standards on human rights with the various covenants relates to it. Sky is the limit for a defender, if we can internalize over a case, then nothing to fear to fight against it as he suggested.

The NHRC core member of NGOs Mr.Baghambar Pattnaik shared his bonded labour encounter experience and appealed to the activists to utilise the human rights institutions in an effective manner as part of his lecture on roles and functions of human rights institutions.

Mild animals are killed where wild animals are protected, said Sanyasi Behera, the secretary of Odisha Association for Blind from his experience on case studies. Reasonable accommodation for disabled or handicapped is essential, he added. He lamented the govt. apartheid policies towards different able persons, how a disable person deprived in various quota system or reservation in the present context.

While Mr Dhirendra Panda an eminent defender of the State clarified about the wide range of violations happening in the State especially challenges facing by HRDs, the right to life, liberty, equality & dignity of the individual guaranteed by the constitution which are enforceable by the courts in India. It is said that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity & rights (Art 1), no one shall be subject to torture(Art 5),  no one shall be subject to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile(Art 9), right to work(Art 23), right to education(Art 26), prohibition of traffic in human beings and forced labour(Art 23) but these laws and rules are not followed often it has been violated by the State actors.

In most of the cases, the human rights institutions function is not satisfactory said Mr Pradip Pradhan, a known RTI defender and convenor of Odisha Soochana Adhikar Abhiyan. He explained his experience working with Odisha Information Commission where most of the cases closed without valid reasons. Since few years, the RTI defenders of the state have been harassed, tortured or intimidated both by state and non state actors. He has given few RTI activists case studies and suggested few things how to monitor the human rights institutions for playing a effective role.

 Mr Chandranath Dani, an Advocate with well versed with human rights laws took a practical class on fact finding, monitoring, documentation and intervention. He thoroughly taught about the various sources of information (primary and secondary), how and whom to be fact finded (victim, perpetrator, witness, officials), the process of monitoring of case and where to intervene it(legal and meta-legal intervention)  He was assisted by District Human Rights Monitor of HRF Mr Somnath Pattnaik. The participants were divided in groups and task was given how to write a statement basis on a case as fact-finded.

The first day program ended with vote of thanks .

Day 2 ( 9^th December 2012)

Issues Covered

• Role of NHRIs/SHRIs for safeguarding Human Rights
• Redressal Mechanisms ( Domestic & International)
• Use of ICT for making urgent appeal and documenting evidences;
• Follow-up Action Plan

The theme for this year’s International Human Rights Day (December 10) was ‘My Voice Counts’, but in real sense the voice of the human rights defenders (HRDs) who have been fighting for justice and individual rights to the poor people is being increasingly suppressed, may it by the State or non-State powers

With every passing day, torture and harassment against human rights defenders is on the rise in the State indicating a red signal for democracy. The activists fight for the poor people protecting their rights and in the process many times, face hurdles from the State administration, including the police and local goons. So, stringent law should be adopted for human rights defenders’ security and for providing them a legal framework to fight as per the provisions of the Constitution said Manoj Jena, Chairperson of HRF while memorizing the importance of the 9^th December he further said the day is being observed as International Human Rights Defenders day as for the first time UN passed a resolution in General Assembly to adopt a 20 points declaration on human rights defenders.

Though India signed the UN Declaration 1998 for human rights defenders, it is not ratified yet and even the whistleblower protection Bill is yet to be passed. “So, either the UN Declaration is to be ratified or the protection Bill, which is already drafted, should be passed at the earliest,” he demanded. 

Attending the programme, NHRC National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Focal point for Human Rights Defenders Mr. Anil Kumar  Parasar said the number of cases is on the rise in Odisha. Till now nearly 5,000 cases has come to NHRC from Odisha while the figure is expected to touch 6,000 in the current financial year which is not a good sign in a democratic set-up.

The NHRC is the only human rights institution of the world who establishes a focal point for human rights defenders said Mr Parashar. He briefly narrated the roles and functions of NHRC especially the intervention mechanism.

He also appealed to the defenders to put pressure on the State Government so as to make the State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) more effective by recruiting adequate manpower and providing proper infrastructure and financial support.

He made it clear that the SHRC and the NHRC are individual entities with their independent jurisdictions. However, he assured to extend all kinds of support to the State-level human rights institutions for creating more awareness at the grassroots level.

Dr. Lelin Raghuvanshi, eminent international HRD and the executive director of Peoples Vigilance Committe on Human Rights (PVCHR) Varanashi, UP stressed the urgent need to create a human defenders’ network at the national level to address the issues quite fast and effectively which would be more helpful towards the society. He also suggested using modern technology and internet to intervene the cases.

The last session brought out a concrete road map of defenders network in odisha by the defenders themselves with the following plan of actions, which was also presented to Mr AK Parashar who represented from NHRC.

Follow-up Action:                

§  Formation of District level defenders committees

§   Increase number of Trained Human Rights Defenders

§  Monitoring functions of human rights institutions

§  Endeavour to address every right violated

§  Accelerate  Human Rights Index Monitoring Process 

§  Translation of various education and communication materials in regional language.

§  Publishing of  State annual human rights status report