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India jeopardizes Commonwealth human rights

[TamilNet, Monday, 14 March 2011, 15:51 GMT]
The report of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) for 2010 titled Easier Said Than Done, raises disturbing questions on India’s track record in human rights, particularly in an examination of India’s voting pattern at the UN Human Rights Council, said leading Indian media The Statesman on Sunday. The report lambastes India for making pre-election pledges to the Human Rights Council in order to get elected and then not keeping those promises. India has strongly opposed the efforts by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to call for independent inquiry on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka and secondly to provide assistance to countries for transitional justice, The Statesman said citing the CHRI report. The Commonwealth Day is celebrated on Monday.

The CHRI report also points out the disturbing fact that when it comes to voting on resolutions on Myanmar and Sri Lanka, India has tried to shield the two countries from international scrutiny.

“Many in India have pressed the government to take up the issue with the Sri Lankan government but India’s voting pattern makes one suspect if India is making any real effort on the question of alleged human rights violations in Sri Lanka,” said The Statesman feature by Simran Sodhi.

CHRI is based in New Delhi and is sponsored by Commonwealth Journalists Association, Commonwealth Lawyers Association, Commonwealth Legal Education Association, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, Commonwealth Press Union and Commonwealth Broadcasting Association.

The CHRI report 2010 documents and discusses the domestic as well as international human rights behaviour of those Commonwealth countries elected to the UN Human Rights Council.

External Links:

The Statesman:

Report questions role played by C’wealth nations on human rights