Address by Shri K.R. Narayanan, President of India at the `Human Rights Day’ function on Monday, December 10, 2001

I am happy to participate in this function organized by the National human Rights Commission to celebrate the Human Rights Day. It is said that, “the history of human rights is the history of human struggles’. The twentieth century will be remembered as a century of war and violence interspersed by struggles for human rights. Ordinary and deprived people, women and excluded groups, and other sections of society exploited for centuries have now been awakened and are demanding their rights as human beings. Recently over 100 Nobel Prize winners assembled in Stockholm have issued an appeal in which they emphasized that the most profound danger to world peace would stem from the legitimate demands of the world’s poor and disenfranchised majority.

The Human Development Report 2000, which specially focused on Human Rights and Human Development, observed, “The rights perspective helps shift the priority to the most deprived and excluded, especially to deprivation because of discrimination”. What the Human Development Report observed in 2000 had become a central strategy of the National Human Rights Commission of our country since its inception in 1993. Apart from investigating numerous complaints of violations of human rights and suggesting corrective measures for their protection, the Commission has accorded top priority to preventive measures to safeguard human rights of our people. While participating in Human Rights Day celebrations last year, Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, Justice J.S. Verma, had observed, “Not only must the violation of human rights be taken care of, prevention of such violation was equally if not more important”. The National human Rights Commission has taken suo-motu actions in investigating complaints on human rights violations and recommended actions to remedy the situation.

It is said, “Of the many human rights failures today, those in economic, social and cultural areas are particularly widespread across the world’s nations and peoples”. In fact weaker sections of society suffer the most from such failures, which are at the root of serious social and economic problems faced by our society. The effective way to solve such problems and ensure civilized existence of our people is to guarantee human rights of the weaker sections of society in full measure. May I again quote Justice J.S. Verma’s observation that “Denial of empowerment to sections of society is a denial of basic human rights”. It is heartening that the National Human Rights Commission has oriented its policies and actions in this regard in a meaningful manner. Its demand for total abolition of scavenging by 2nd October 2002, its emphasis on implementation of government programmes meant for weaker sections of society, its stress on public health care and adequate nutrition for poor people, and above all its constant refrain that Central and State Governments adopt such policies which can empower weaker sections of society, are concrete examples of its efforts to look at human rights’ issue in a comprehensive manner.

I had referred to the observation that human rights perspective shift priority to the deprived and excluded. Women in our country and indeed in the world constitute the largest deprived and excluded group. Mahatma Gandhi compared the position of women in India to that of the slaves of the old. On Human Rights Day it is important to remember and reiterate that women’s rights are human rights. Women are now themselves launching movements to realize their human rights. Formation of self-help groups by women for economic empowerment, their large scale participation in the campaign for right to information and their active involvement in decision making bodies such as Panchayats through the provisions of affirmative action in our Constitution are heart warming examples of women’s movement for their rights. I do appreciate and applaud the vital steps taken by the National Human Rights Commission in championing the human rights for women. A perusal of its annual reports and its Human Rights Newsletters sharply brings out the important initiatives of the Commission in this regard. For instance in its Annual Report of 1998-99 it has observed, “There is a clear correlation between lack of literacy, especially of the girl child and infant mortality rates, malnutrition and adverse sex-ratio”. While dealing with the reported starvation deaths in Orissa, particularly in Kalahandi district of that State, the Commission underlined the point that functioning of the Public Distribution Systems should be made more effective and in this connection recommended that involvement of self-help groups formed by women can go a long way in the smooth functioning of the Public Distribution Systems. While dealing with the issues of equity and justice as enshrined in our Constitution it has underlined that violence and discrimination suffered by women strikes at the very root of our root of our human rights. It also accepts suggestions coming from civil society to improve human rights of women. It is heartening to note from its Newsletter of May 2001 that it remained sensitive to a suggestion of a NGO, Uttam Environment Awareness Mission of Jammu and Kashmir, to change the nomenclature of widows from `Vidhvah’ to `Wife of Late….’ Or Dharma Patni of Swargiya….’ Etc. to preserve the dignity of such women. Accordingly the Commission has made appropriate recommendations to the authorities concerned. The Newsletter of June 2001 specially focused on sexual harassment of women at work places and outlined the consultations carried by the Commission with the government departments, private institutions as well as NGOs for setting up of complaint mechanisms to redress the grievances arising out of sexual harassment of women. Along with the landmark Supreme Court judgment on this matter, the efforts of the Commission will go a long way in tackling the menace faced by women at work places.

The Commission has been vigilant in warding off the attack on human rights of the deprived people and also those of the minorities whose rights are enshrined in our Constitution. When the attack on minorities particularly on Christians assumed alarming proportions the Commission took suo-motu cognizance of the matter and took necessary steps to prevent recurrence of such incidents. The observation that religious fundamentalism severely challenges human rights of people assumes great significance.

As the society transforms and the impact of modern influences bring about significant changes in economic and ecological spheres, human rights of our people are faced by new challenges. For instance environmental degradation constitutes a grave threat to the basic and fundamental right to life and the right to health and clean environment. As, such problems are increasingly multiplying, we have to be on our guard. Again let me refer to the significant role played by National Human Rights Commission in adopting an innovative approach to address the issue. I recall that in 1996, only three years after it was set up, it issued notice to a particular State Government, seeking details about the ecological disaster faced by people in some districts due to high levels of arsenic in their drinking water. In another example of innovative intervention the Commission directed the Government to save people from the menace of lotteries.

Disasters, both natural and man-made, endanger the lives of the people and their human rights. India is particularly vulnerable to man made disasters and natural calamities like floods, cyclones, heat and cold waves and now earthquakes. Our first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, in a letter to the Chief Ministers referred to these disasters and wrote, “Indeed every calamity is a challenge tour nationhood…. And a nation is ultimately judged by the way this challenge is accepted.” The Human Development Report 2000 very aptly observed that protection against calamities is an important human rights. The initiatives of the National Human Rights Commission is safeguarding the human rights of the victims of natural calamites are indeed admirable. During the super cyclone in Orissa and the earthquake in Gujarat the Commission took cognizance of the calamity on its own and underlined the importance of the human rights of victims to compensation and other assistance and their right to know their entitlements to various forms of relief. Remaining sensitive to the fact that the worst sufferers of such disasters are poor people, women and children the Commission was concerned with relief and rehabilitation measures so that human rights of vulnerable sections of people are not further violated. Particularly the Commission focused on the right of those who lost their husbands and stressed on provision of relief to poor, women, children and older persons. To protect the right to health of the victims to advised the State Government to be vigilant about availability of safe drinking water and maintenance of sanitation standards for the victims.

The role of the National Human Rights Commission in protecting the human rights of the victims of the natural calamities was further bolstered during Gujarat earthquake when the State High Court in its order instructed it for “necessary action and intervention…in redressing the complaints of violation of human rights in accordance with the provisions of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993”. The High Court also asked the Commission to appoint a district judge in each district as Ombudsman to receive complaints from the victims. Thus the involvement of not only the State machinery but also the Human Rights Commission and the judiciary in protecting the human rights of the people affected by disasters is praiseworthy. I was particularly happy to note the vigilance of the Commission in declaring that flooding due to non-opening of the gates of a particular dam and not regulating its water flow by the officials in Orissa constituted the violation of human rights of the affected people. Similarly it held that negligence and professional failure of highly placed officials of the district in the cyclone hit areas constituted similar violation. To my mind the alertness shown, the initiatives taken by the NHRC to protect human rights of the affected people constitute landmark events in the annals of human rights anywhere in the world.

The scope of human rights has been expanded by judicial interpretation of the fundamental rights including the right to life, which in its expanded form now encapsulates to right to health, right to clean air and right to education. Through our legislative measure a historic step has been taken to make the right to education a fundamental rights. The recent judicial intervention to identify the poor so that surplus food grains reach them through various schemes is yet another example of vindication of the human rights of the economically deprived sections of our society by our law courts. These positive and historic developments are encouraging for the long-suffering people.

One of the crucial components of implementing the social, economic and cultural rights is to promote human rights education. Vienna Declaration has stated that Human Rights Education is “essential for the promotion and achievement of stable and harmonious relations among communities and for fostering mutual understanding, tolerance and peace.” Besides incorporating in its scope the issues of “human rights humanitarian law, democracy and the rule of law”, the Declaration insists that the human rights education should include `peace, development and social justice’.

India’s Human Rights Commission has held a series of meetings with government departments, educational institutions and training agencies for preparing personnel and material for human rights education. The Commission has also devised plans to train police personnel on the issue of human rights. It is by sensitizing the people as well as those in authority that we can inculcate the values as well as the practice of human rights in society. We need to build up a human rights conscience in every individual and in society as a whole in order to realize the noble objectives enshrined in our constitution to secure to all our citizens “Justice, social, economic and political; Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship; and equality of Status and Opportunity”. The vast number of cases on human rights violations that come before the Commission is an indication of the emerging consciousness of our people about their human rights and their fervent hope that the National Human Rights Commission can meet out justice to them. To further enlarge and empower the Commission and ensure its independence for effective action its suggestion that the Human Rights Protection Act be amended to allow it to make its annual reports public in case the Government did not lay them in Parliament within three months of their submission need to be considered seriously. On this occasion I congratulate the Commission and extend my greetings to its Chairman, Members and all the staff working in it for its remarkable and path breaking work and wish them all success.

In the end may I recall two personal memories I have on the importance of human rights. In the early 1940’s I was a student at the University in Thiruvananthapuram. I used to stay in a Hostel behind one of the major jails of the city. Studying far into the night burning midnight electricity I used to hear almost every night after midnight a piercing cry breaking out from the jail into the hushed silence of the summer night. That memory of the agonized cry from the jail had every since emphasized for me the importance of the protection of life and liberty of the individual enshrined in our Constitution as a fundamental human rights. Another memory of mine relates to the realm of social rights. In 1945 on the eve of my sailing of U.K. for higher studies, I had the good fortune to meet Mahatma Gandhi in Bombay. He was generous enough to give me time to ask some questions. One of the questions I asked him was what a student who goes abroad should say to people about caste and untouchability in India. His answer was “abroad you would say that it is an internal problem of ours and we are determined to resolve it ourselves.” I had followed that advice because I was convinced that Gandhiji was determined to solve the problem on our own. When this question came up in South Africa at the Conference on racial discrimination Gandhiji’s words come back to me and it struck me that it was necessary for following that advice to see in the country determined and sincere efforts to solve the problem ourselves. In the National Human Rights Commission we have a body to see that human rights in political as well as in social and economics terms are ensured to the people in practice in our country.

Thank you.