Srinagar: “It is hard to take someone seriously if they won’t even grace you with a response.” 

That was United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Mary Lawlor, to Article 14 throughout an interview, performed over e mail, referring to the federal government of India’s lack of response to communications despatched by Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

Lawlor, 70, stated India’s response charge to the OHCHR was solely 37.5% since she took over because the Special Rapporteur in May 2020, with a response to 10 of 16 communications, looking for the federal government’s response on points associated to threats and police motion towards human-rights defenders.

The most up-to-date OHCHR communication with the federal government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on 26 April 2021, concerning the threats against and attack on a Tamil Nadu human rights defender with disabilities, Ramachandran (who seems to make use of one title).

Lawlor additionally referred to the regulation used (here, here, here and here) towards many human-rights defenders, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, 1967, and the way its obscure definitions of “unlawful activities” and “membership of terrorist organisations” provides discretionary powers to State companies and permits “arbitrary enforcement with weak judicial oversight”. 

“As a result,” stated Lawlor, “those critical of Government policy, such as human-rights defenders, have been disproportionately targeted under its provisions”.

Lawlor, stated although the conviction charge for these charged beneath the UAPA was “incredibly low” (3 %), it permits for human rights defenders to be held with out bail for prolonged durations of time with little proof. 

“Women human rights defenders Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal were arrested in May 2020 and placed in pre-trial detention under the UAPA,” stated Lawlor. “They were held for a year before a judge ruled that the allegations against them did not meet an offence under the Act. Even still, when bail was eventually granted last June, police waited two days before releasing them.”

Lawlor, at the moment an adjunct professor of enterprise and human rights at Ireland’s Trinity College in Dublin, grew to become a UN Special Rapporteur on 1 May 2020, following a United Nations Human Rights Council decision.

She had beforehand labored extensively with and on the scenario of human-rights defenders. In 2001, Lawlor based Front Line Defenders, a global basis for the safety of human-rights defenders in danger. It operates on 5 continents and has received a number of world recognition (here and here) for its work. As government director from 2001-2016, Lawlor represented Front Line Defenders and performed a key position in its growth. Edited excerpts from the interview:

A collection of studies (here, here, here and here) from world wide have warned that Indian democracy has been eviscerated and that the nation is sliding in direction of a totalitarian state. Do you share these considerations?

I’ve a particular mandate to advertise and shield the work of human rights defenders [HRDs], so I can’t communicate for the scenario of democracy in India generally. Though I’m very involved that human rights defenders have been criminalised for statements which might be essential of the Government within the area of human rights. Everyone is aware of that free speech is crucial to democracy, and the complete enjoyment of the rights of all. 

In 2020, you spoke of the distinction between a terrorist and a human rights defender and the way peacefully defending the rights of others isn’t a criminal offense. India, you stated, “must stop criminalising the exercise and defence of human rights”. In 2021, you said India didn’t shield human rights defenders and stated you had been “appalled” by how these like Jesuit priest Stan Swamy had been handled. As we enter 2022, do you see any enchancment or hope?

We mustn’t ever hand over hope. It is tempting to surrender or to present in, however we mustn’t ever despair, even once we are hit by nice loss just like the dying of Father Stan Swamy.

This yr I’ll proceed to interact with the Indian authorities every time I’m made conscious of HRDs in danger there.

My report back to the UN Human rights Council this March [2022] shall be on human rights defenders working to stamp out corruption. But final October India didn’t reply after I expressed my concern to the federal government about police attacking journalists who had allegedly caught them eliciting bribes from truck drivers. I need to work with India. When anti-corruption Human Rights Defenders can do their work all of us profit.

In your communications to the federal government of India, you could have typically raised considerations not solely about human-rights defenders however concerning the growing misuse of preventive detention and different legal guidelines, such because the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), 1967, towards dissenters? How has the federal government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded to those considerations? 

You can discover all communications and responses at https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/.

You’ll discover that the federal government has solely responded to 10 communications of the 16 I’ve written or joined since taking on this mandate in May 2020. That’s a response charge of solely 37.5%. It is tough to take somebody significantly in the event that they received’t even grace you with a response.

As a particular United Nations Rapporteur, you could have incessantly expressed your concern (here, here and here) on varied points associated to human rights in India and elsewhere by way of statements and letters to the federal government. I’ve two associated questions: how do different nations reply whenever you write about such considerations; and does the dearth of response from India frustrate you?

Some nations reply on a regular basis, some by no means reply, and others reply among the time. Some nations reply however their letter provides no new info or accepts no duty for the alleged human rights violations.

Response charges will be an indicator of the state’s dedication to openness and dialogue with my mandate. In this sense, India isn’t doing effectively, and I reiterate my willingness to work with them. But lack of response doesn’t essentially imply that States aren’t listening, and you will need to not let lack of responses discourage us from persevering with to advocate for the rights of HRDs.

The police and the National Investigative Agency in November 2021 arrested  distinguished Kashmiri human rights defender Khurram Parvez, who has labored on human rights points in Kashmir with the UN, whose unbiased human-rights specialists, together with your self, called for his “immediate release”. Was there any response, and what’s it that you simply or the UN do when the federal government doesn’t reply, whether or not within the case of Parvez or anybody else?

In this case I’ve not despatched an official letter to the federal government, so they don’t seem to be obliged to reply instantly, although I’ll proceed to interact on Khurram Parvez’s case and publicly name for his launch.

And when any authorities doesn’t reply to a communication, I’ll publicly name them out for it. And at first of yearly, a report is produced that appears at authorities responses to communications within the earlier yr.

The OHCHR makes communications confidential for 60 days, to present the federal government time to answer the allegations. They ought to respect this lodging and have interaction in dialogue, so we will work collectively to stop the erosion of human rights.

Can you touch upon how India has traditionally responded to human rights considerations raised by UN Special Rapporteurs? What has been the development beneath the present authorities and was it any totally different with the earlier authorities?

I can solely touch upon what has occurred since I took up the mandate in May 2020, and with a world mandate it’s tough to trace tendencies over lengthy durations of time in all nations. Luckily, all communications and replies are publicly out there, and this is able to be an attention-grabbing examine for somebody to conduct, and which I’d be very fascinated about studying.

Quite a few peace activists, college students and different dissenters who took half within the protest towards the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, are in jail dealing with quite a lot of felony costs, together with terrorism.  The Indian authorities says the protestors instigated riots in New Delhi in 2020. Have you taken up their case with the federal government, and, if sure, what has been the response? 

Other UN specialists and I’ve raised repeated considerations with the federal government of India concerning the Citizenship Amendment Act, and the retaliation towards human rights defenders who rally peacefully towards it. In June 2020, I wrote a communication to the Government about 11 HRDs who had been dealing with judicial proceedings linked to their peaceable participation in anti-CAA protests, together with pregnant lady human rights defender Safoora Zargar. Unfortunately, the Government’s response is temporary and repeats the declare that the HRDs had been engaged in incitement or execution of violent acts.

There has currently been a flood of hate speech by Hindu extremists towards Muslims and Christians, together with latest calls to arms towards Muslims. Many have described such calls (here and here) as a precursor to genocide, citing the examples of the previous Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Nazi Germany. Do you see any parallels?

This is likely one of the areas outdoors the remit of my mandate on human rights defenders.

There is an apparent dichotomy, many say, concerning the authorities’s reluctance to behave towards Hindu extremists calling for genocide and the alacrity with which protestors and peace activists have confronted felony circumstances and prolonged jail phrases beneath the UAPA, which in fact makes bail nearly not possible. Would you agree that the federal government has been adopting a partisan strategy?

The UAPA’s obscure definition of ‘unlawful activities’ and ‘membership of terrorist organisations’ provides discretionary powers to State companies, and would facilitate its arbitrary enforcement with weak judicial oversight. As a end result, these essential of presidency coverage, equivalent to HRDs, have been disproportionately focused beneath its provisions.

Though the conviction charge for these charged beneath the UAPA is extremely low, it permits for human rights defenders to be held with out bail for prolonged durations of time with little proof. Women human rRights defenders Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal had been arrested in May 2020 and positioned in pre-trial detention beneath the UAPA. They had been held for a yr earlier than a choose dominated that the allegations towards them didn’t meet an offence beneath the Act. Even nonetheless, when bail was finally granted final June, police waited two days earlier than releasing them.

You have carefully monitored the scenario of Jammu and Kashmir (J&Okay), which was stripped of its particular constitutional standing in 2019, after which there was a gradual erosion in free speech and democracy (here, here and here) In 2021 alone, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) have issued 5 joint communiqués to the federal government of India on UAPA, freedom of expression and arbitrary administrative modifications. What now?

My position is confined to advising governments on the scenario of HRDs, not on the standing of areas. Though in fact, HRDs from minority teams are sometimes at extra danger of retaliation for his or her human rights work. They will be focused for his or her faith, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identification, or different attribute and as a part of my mandate, I prioritise these HRDs who discover themselves in essentially the most weak conditions.

Over the previous few years, civilians in J&Okay have accused police of killing their kin in faux or contested encounters and even utilizing them as human shields, with troopers and police nearly by no means dealing with prosecution. What would you count on the federal government of India to do, ideally? 

I’m solely involved with circumstances involving HRDs, however wherever HRDs are being attacked, it’s the authorities’s duty to conduct a full, neutral investigation into the incidents with a view to bringing the perpetrators to account. One of the principle the reason why we see the identical violations taking place time and again is due to authorities failure to correctly examine. Impunity for violations fuels their proliferation. Quite a few civil society organisations launched the Esperanza Protocol final December, offering sensible steerage on learn how to finish the cycle of impunity, which I totally help.

Following the revocation of J&Okay’s restricted autonomy, a number of modifications had been made within the former state. Over the final two years, the Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission, the native human rights physique, has ceased to exist. This week, even the Press Club of Kashmir was shut down.  How does this case have an effect on the reporting of human rights and your monitoring? 

These are disturbing developments, which may have critical impacts to HRDs looking for safety and redress for human rights violations domestically. However it doesn’t, and won’t, cease info on violations towards HRDs from reaching my workplace. HRDs study to adapt even within the face of nice adversity, and they’ll discover methods to proceed their important work with the UN, and, after sustained collective efforts, realise their hopes for a greater future.

Democratic decline, in fact, isn’t distinctive to India. We’ve seen the identical happen, in various levels, in Turkey, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Brazil and quite a few different nations that had been, partially or wholly, democracies. To what do you attribute the erosion of the values of freedom and democracy?

This can also be outdoors the remit of my mandate.

(Muhammad Raafi is an unbiased journalist primarily based in Srinagar.)