NHRC’s month long summer internship, 2019 begins (16.05.2019)

The month long summer internship programme of the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC, India began at Manav Adhikar Bhawan, New Delhi today on the 16th May,2019. 50 post graduate level interns, mainly from law and social sciences streams, from 19 States/UT have been shortlisted to participate in this training programme. Inaugurating it, Mr. Justice P. C. Pant, Member, NHRC said that it is heartening to know the response of so many students to enroll themselves for this covetous human rights training programme from different parts of the country over the years.

He said that the need of the hour is to create a human rights culture in the country through the path of education and building awareness and this internship programme of the Commission signifies this aspect. He expressed the hope that the interns would make the best use of this opportunity to understand various facets of human rights and related challenges so as to contribute in creating a human rights culture. He said that the powers of the NHRC are limited but despite this it has been instrumental in getting relief to thousands of people, who were victims of human rights violations.

Tracing the concept of the evolution of human rights through various milestones before and after 539 B.C. to the acceptance of Magna Carta in 1215 AD, French Revolution and Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, Justice Pant also threw light on how the acceptance of the Paris Principles by India in 1991-92, necessitated the formation of the National Human Rights Commission on the 12th October, 1993 under the Protection of Human Rights Act passed by Parliament.

Earlier, Mr. Jaideep Govind, Secretary General, NHRC gave an overview of the functioning of the Commission and its various wings. He said that the Commission has a very robust complaint handling system. With innovations, the methodology is getting better by the day. The Commission is also in the process to help people track the disposal of their complaints through information technology enabled systems on its website and recently introduced HRCnet Portal. In order to reach the last mile, the Commission has linked its online complaint filing system with over three lakh Common Service Centers in different parts of the country. He also threw light on the Commission’s investigation, research, training wings and how through international engagements, it is recognized as an “A” status NHRI by the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions, GANHRI.

Dr. Sanjay Dubey, Director, NHRC said that it is 33rd internship programme. Underscoring the importance of the Commission’s internship programmes, he said that human rights as subject encompasses various aspects. He said that the effort would be expose the interns to all of them who he said would also have to appreciate that no rights come without duties. In addition to organizing lectures of eminent subject specialists on various aspects of human rights, the Commission also organizes field visits to prisons, police stations NGOs for the interns. The interns are guided to choose some issues of human rights for brief research and study to write dissertations.

Mr. Prabhat Singh, DG(I), Mr. Surajit Dey, Registrar (Law), Dr. Ranjit Singh, Joint Secretary (P&A), and other senior officers of the Commission were present on the occasion.

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