UN High Commission dwells for repeal of AFSPA

Imphal, March 25 : Speaking at a Conference organised by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), New Delhi on March 23 during her first ever visit to India since her appointment, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay has among others, called for the repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), a communique of the Human Rights Alert (HRA) signed by its Programme Executive, Basantkumar Wareppa conveyed.

"India should repeal those dated and colonial-era laws that breach contemporary international human rights standards.

These range from laws which provide the security forces with excessive emergency powers, including AFSPA, to laws that criminalise homosexuality.

Such legal vestiges of a bygone ere are at odds with the vibrant dynamics and forwards thrust of the large sectors of the Indian polity," Mrs Pillay was quoted as saying.

The UN High Commissioner was also reported to have discussed laws like AFSPA during her meeting with the External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister, P Chidambaram, the HRA statement said.

During her two-day trip to India, Navanethem Pillay had also visited several National Institutions, met various civil society organisations, Human Rights Activists and NGOs from across the country.

Attending the high profile meeting on March 22, Executive Director, Human Rights Alert, Babloo Loitongbam had also highlighted an overview on the state of affairs of human rights in North East India, particularly on Manipur, the press statement of HRA said.

According to a dispatch of the deliberation of Babloo Loitongbam on the occasion, the HRA Executive Director had underlined the continuation of insensitive and high-handed approach will aggravate the already simmering armed conflicts thereby exacerbating the already acute human rights and humanitarian situation in the NE region, while highlighting the upshots of AFSPA, 1958 and the abuse of rights on civilian population in the name of counter-terrorism or struggle for self-determination perpetrated by both the state and non-state armed groups.

Despite all major UN treaty bodies and the Government of India's own committees' recommendations for the repeal of AFSPA, the Act is still at large, Babloo highlighted.

Referring to the provisions laid down in the UNHR Committee, the rights activist also submitted that the problems in areas affected by terrorism and armed insurgency are essentially political in character and that the approach to resolving such problems must also, essentially be political while calling for the facilitation of an objective assessment of the human rights situation in the North East region by Special Rapporteur on the indigenous peoples.