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Unit 30: Brief Historical Background of Human Rights with Special Reference ...

the right relating to life, liberty, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed by the Notes
Constitution or embodied in the International Covenants and enforceable by courts in India".
"Human rights", as defined in the sub-clause (d) of Clause 1 of the Human Rights Protection Act
of 1993, is extremely restrictive and does not adhere to the international instruments; so
restrictive, in fact, that it goes against the very spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights.
For example, while ratifying the International Covenants on 27 March 1979, India expressed its
reservation to Article 9 of the ICCPR relating to preventive detention. The delegation from
India stated, "With reference to article 9 of the ICCPR, the Government of the Republic of India
takes the position that the provisions of the article shall be so applied as to be in consonance
with the provisions of the clauses (3) to (7) of the article 22 of the Constitution of India. Further,
under the Indian legal system, there is no enforceable right to compensation for persons claiming
to be victims of unlawful arrest and detention against the State." However, the Supreme Court
of India in recent judgements has been attempting to broaden the scope of compensation.
30.2.1 Human Rights Education
Over the years, the government has taken very few steps to increase human rights awareness at
either the institutional level or informal level. This has been one of the major contributing
factors to persistent human rights violations, particularly by law enforcement officials, who are
not given any human rights training.
The National Council for Teachers Education has introduced a self learning module on "Human
Rights and National Values" on 11 March 1996 to train the teachers on human rights. The
National Human Rights Commission also organized a seminar on Human Rights Education on
16 February 1996 in collaboration with Canadian Human Rights Commission. The National
Human Rights Commission in cooperation with the National Council of Educational Research
and Training has brought out a source book on human rights eduction. The NHRC's programme
evoked mixed reaction. Although, human rights activists welcomed the NHRC's initiatives, it
has not been modeled as to attract the students.
However, human rights eduction of the law enforcement personnel is yet to be comprehensively
discussed. On 6 February 1996, personnel of several para-military forces at a debate asserted
that undue stress on adherence to human rights would make them inactive thereby crippling
anti-terrorist operations. Organized by the National Human Rights Commission, in collaboration
with the Border Security Forces, the debate on "Security forces observing human rights are
better equipped to combat organized violence" evoked divergent views with speakers opposing
the proposition forcefully making the point that the language of love would not work with
terrorists.
Stating that para-military forces would be rendered ineffective if they were more worried
about human rights, the speakers said it had become a fashion to speak of human rights and its
violation. They emphasized that terrorism and organized violence could be annihilated only
through barrel of guns.
However, there were many who spoke the language of Gandhi and tried to bring home the fact
that long-term remedy for terrorism and violence lay in persuasive efforts and observance of
human rights. They said that by violating human rights short-term success might be possible.

30.3 The Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993

The Protection of Human Right Act, 1993 has been enacted pursuant to the directive under
Article 51 of the Constitution and also the commitments taken at Vienna conference. It defines
human right as the right relating to liberty, equality and dignity of the individual guaranteed
by the Indian constitution as embodied in the fundamental rights and the International covenants.

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