Bring a draft law on Torture before Parliament as a top priority and announce its commitment to the UN Convention against Torture (UNCAT) CHRI Urges Centre
By: S.A.Anjum Sadiq
The CHRI has strongly condemned the Police brutality meted out by the Sathankulam police in which Father and Son died in the police custody.
The Executive Committee of CHRI chaired by former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habeebullah issued a statement on the recent torture and deaths of Shri Jeyaraj and Bennix.
The murderous police assault, unending beatings and brutal torture which caused the death of two innocent traders, a father and son, in the city of Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu, is an acute demonstration of a broken criminal justice system and failure to effectively uphold legal protection against police abuse.
The incident underlines afresh the urgent need for institutional correctives within the policing system in this country and underlines the acute need for India to enact a strong law to prohibit and prosecute torture and custodial death, in fulfilment of its legal obligations, both national and international, to guarantee/protect right to life. India remains among a handful of countries yet to ratify the UN Convention against Torture (UNCAT).
These are issues on which it has proclaimed a commitment including at the UN Human Rights Council, in 2017, in the memorable words of a former Attorney General, who proclaimed that “Ours (India) is a land of Gandhi and Buddha … The concept of torture is completely alien to our culture and it has no place in the governance of the nation.”
Yet, we note the report by the National Human Rights Commission the previous year which declared that “custodial violence and torture continue to be rampant in the country. It represents the worst form of excesses by public servants entrusted with the duty of law enforcement.” The National Campaign against Torture said in its report released June 26, the international day to honor victims of torture, that a total of 1,731 people died in custody in India during 2019.
The Committee stated that the said incident is an acute demonstration of a broken criminal justice system and failure to effectively uphold legal protection against police abuse.
The reason for the detention and death of the men – that they were keeping their stores open beyond the authorized hours – is another example of the impunity with which police and government authorities have been functioning across jurisdictions during the pandemic, where restrictions on freedom of movement, assembly and expression have been enforced arbitrarily.
Furthermore, the committee pointed out that India remains among the handful of Countries (25) yet to ratify the UNCAT, while a total of 170 countries around the world have already ratified it including China and Pakistan.
The Government of India, especially its Ministry of Home Affairs, which oversees issues related to security and police, needs to engage seriously with the UNCAT which India had signed as far back as 1997. India has since pledged several times to ratify it, including as recently as 2018.
[Read Press-Release]
