NHRC-SHRCs meeting begins at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi (20.02.2020)

New Delhi, 20th February, 2020

Mr. Justice H.L. Dattu, Chairperson, NHRC today inaugurated the NHRC-SHRCs meeting at India habitat Centre, New Delhi. NHRC Members Mr.Justice P.C. Pant, Mrs.Jyotika Kalra, Dr. D.M. Mulay, Secretary General, Mr Jaideep Govind, Chairpersons and Members of SHRCs and officers of NHRC and SHRCs were present.

Justice Dattu said that there is a need for us to work in synergy to promote, protect and propagate the human rights of the people, in particular, the vulnerable sections of the society, identify bottlenecks and systemic failures impeding their growth and contribute to their well being. He said that set up under the Protection of Human Rights Act, both the National and State Human Rights Commissions have become prominent actors in the human rights arena today for their vital role in promoting and monitoring the effective implementation of international human rights standards at the national and state levels, thereby, enabling Governments to fulfill their constitutional and international obligations.

Giving an insight into some of the latest initiatives of the NHRC to expand its outreach and make it more accessible to the people for redressal of their issues of rights violations, he called upon all the SHRC’s to consider appointing a Focal Point like NHRC to ensure that the complaints of human rights violation of human rights defenders get priority.

Justice Dattu urged the State Commissions who are yet to join NHRC’s HRCnet Portal to avoid duplication of complaint registration on the same issue and suggest contemporary issues for research to improve the living standards of the marginal people, who are facing various hardships due to uneven economic prosperity amongst the citizens of the country.

He also called upon the SHRCs to associate themselves closely with the NHRC in the ongoing monitoring of the implementation of the UN mandated recommendations of third Universal Periodic Review, UPR, accepted by the Government of India for improving human rights situation in the country. He expressed the hope that this meeting besides ensuring greater synergy between the National and State Human Rights Commissions, will also be useful in devising measures for bringing greater efficiency in the functioning of the Commissions, as well as plug the existing gaps in human rights protection and promotion framework in the country.

Earlier, welcoming the participants, NHRC Secretary General, Mr. Jaideep Govind said that the Commission has taken several initiatives to collaborate with SHRCs including linking them with its HRCnet portal for complaint management and also with its library. It is also extending all possible support to them. He said that linking of online complaint filing system with over three lakh Common Service Centres, spread throughout the country, as well as efforts to collaborate with the wide network of NSS, NYKS, NCC, Red Cross, All India Radio and Doordarshan will go a longway in building awareness about the importance of the promotion and protection of human rights.

Besides the inaugural session, in the XI Sessions of the meeting, there will be presentations on key issues of human rights, related laws, implementation mechanism and present situation. These include, among others, Rights of Women, Surrogacy Regulation Bill, Human Rights Courts, Rights of Persons with Disability, Right to Food, Rights of Refugees, Migrant and Child Labour, Health including Mental Health, Corona Virus issue, Police and Prison Reforms, Criminal Justice System, Torture & Terrorism, Right to Education, Human Trafficking, Rights of internally displaced persons, LGBTI, Rights of Refuges, Business, Environment and Human Rights, Panchayati Raj Institutions and Local Governing Bodies, NGOs and Human Rights Defenders, Utilization of Common Service Centres and common areas of Interest between NHRC-SHRCs.

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