India has signed a global convention against torture, re-elected itself to the UN Human Rights Council, and yet left a complaint about custodial death unaddressed for ten months. Something is broken.
Six years after a father and son were brutally tortured and killed in custody, a trial court has finally convicted nine Tamil Nadu policemen. But amidst a breakdown of accountability institutions across India, what does the future of custodial violence in India look like?
I did not know that this visit would inaugurate the longest battle of my life’: Henri Tiphagne on 14 years of fighting the FCRA regime
MAY 21, 2012, was the day. It was a Monday morning, and like any other busy day in our office, our colleagues were darting through the corridors. Advocates rushing to the courts, fact-finding teams getting geared up for their field investigation, our human rights education team returning from training and our Help Line unit, as always, busy with their clients. I, like any other day, was trying to hold everything together.
International Law & World Affairs
When the guardian falters: What the NHRC downgrade means for the Indian masses
The downgrading of NHRC captured perfectly the many qualms civil society has had with how the institution has been run for several years. It is also a reflection that concerted, organised efforts by civil society actors on the international stage can be productive in holding our institutions accountable, especially the ones meant to rein in state excesses.
On the ground, the interactions of people with disabilities with courts, policing and prison infrastructures and the fundamental lack of will to effectively implement the RPWD Act, show that reframing access to justice as a disability issue will require serious, concerted efforts
