Volume
2 Issue 5 The
Human Rights Magazine
December-January 2004
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Tribal Forest Interface - Logic of Survival
The Inspector General of Forests, in a letter to the Chief Secretaries of the state governments ordered the summary eviction of all encroachments. The important challenge before the nation today, is to find a way in which both the forest and its people can survive with dignity.
Questions About A Road
Road development today is considered a completely acceptable and all-pervading proposition. The Andaman Trunk Road, however, threatens the autonomy, culture, privacy and freedom of the Jarawa indigenous community.
Unequal Access to Justice
Experiences and lessons of seeking justice in the courts on behalf of tribal communities and individuals in general, and regarding mass displacement in particular.
Lessons from Mutanga
Injustice in God's Own Country: The Adivasi uprising in Kerala. Police brutality against adivasis asserting their rights. The article highlights how parliamentary democracy and the political system have failed to uphold the constitutional rights of Adivasis.
Driven To Bondage And Starvation
Adivasi migrant labour - a disaggregate and unprotected workforce. It is this cheap labour that has been subsidizing India's march to modernization, whose availability is ensured through an annual cycle of starvation and bondage.
Customary
Law Truimphs In South Africa
The Constitutional Court of South Africa in 2003,
in a historic judgement, ruled that the indigenous people of the Richtersveld
community had both communal land ownership and mineral rights over their
territory, thus bringing customary law on par with common law.
PESA' and the Illusions of Tribal Self Governance
The Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled
Areas) Act 1996 (PESA) upholds participatory democracy at the level of
the gram Sabhas, but state lawmakers are unwilling to ratify it, arguing
that the people are not capable of governing themselves.
Land that rightfully belongs to the tribals of the Pachwara panchayat of Amarapara block is being usurped by the government and two private companies for coal mining.
Judgements
On
Arresting Women
The recent Supreme Court judgment overturning the
decision of the Bombay High Court in the Christian Community Welfare Council
petition on what the police must and must not do while arresting women
raises many fears and doubts.
Women
A
Rape Victim Speaks
The survivor of a heinous rape describes her horrifying
ordeal, and speaks out on her long struggle against the perpetrators in
the face of state complicity in perverting justice.
Labour
Workers'
Suicides and Their Perpetrators
Report of the joint fact finding committee into the
deaths of Anant Dalvi and Akhtar Khan, two workers of the Tata Electric
Companies' project in Trombay.
An Ideal Law: But Only on Paper?
A critique of the Goa Children's Act, 2003. The Goa Children's Act,
2003, is the first comprehensive Act that takes into account not just the
welfare & best interests of the child but also the rights of the child
as per the UN 'Convention on the Rights of the Child'. However, the good
intentions behind the act are nullified by the hastily laid out plan of
action. Judiciary & Polity
Intimidated Witnesses and Victims: Treated with Hostility
In August 2003, the Union Cabinet cleared an amendment bill that prescribed stringent punishment for witnesses who turn hostile, turning a blind eye to the fact that witnesses and victims face serious threats and harassment.
Judiciary: A P Chapter
While judges may disagree amongst themselves, these disagreements should not be made public, as this compromises the exercise of their power.
Environment
Dealing with Sand Mafia in UP
Even though the Uttar Pradesh government has launched
a Rs 300 crore project to bring the Ganga back to its original course
along the ghats of Kanpur, indiscriminate mining of sand on the five-kilometre
stretch in the Jajmau area is causing the river to go further away from
the shores.
Education
A
Meaningless Bill on School Education
The Draft Free
and Compulsory Education for Children Bill, 2003, is certainly not aimed
at giving quality education to poor children.
Race
The
Other Face of America
Blacks, coloured people and immigrants not
only get a raw deal in American society but also find themselves victimised
by the official administration and judicial system.
Other
issues:
