Global panel worried at rights violations in state

KOLKATA: The International Commission of Jurists in Geneva is keeping a close watch on the human rights situation in West Bengal. Its legal advisor Ravinder Joshi flew down to Kolkata on Saturday and interacted with organisations and individuals concerned in a session arranged by the Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha on Sunday.
“The mission is part of the national implementation programme taken up by the common law (British law) system countries department in the ICJ office.It objective is to incorporate the international human rights standards into the domestic sector,� Joshi explained to TNN.
Having wide experience as a legal officer with the Amnesty International and later with the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Joshi had been the first recipient of the prestigious Lloyd Asworthy Peacebuilding Award from the Canadian International Institute for Applied Negotiation in 1998.
His present tour covers the South Asian countries. In India, the destinations include Chennai, Kolkata, New Delhi and Chandigarh.
Joshi is aware of the recent spate of detention and alleged torture of political activists in West Bengal. He has come across the problems of torture and illegal police practices elsewhere, too.
“But I was a little surprised to learn that the same thing happens here also, since one expected something different in a state where a Left government is in power,� he said. He added that little information about the ground situation in this state reaches the international community.
These problems fall within the purview of the first of three major issues of the ICJ programme -- administration of justice. It also includes the right to fair trial, independence of the judiciary and special laws. The other two issues are violence against women and trafficking in women and children. The last one, Joshi pointed, was a trans-border problem --Nepali girls are trafficked to Kolkata and Bangladeshi girls to Pakistan, for example. What course of action does the ICJ propose to combat these problems? “We are concentrating more on the civil society groups and individuals, particularly judges and lawyers. Before deciding what to do, we want people to tell us what they want and do not want. That is the purpose of this kind of interactions,� Joshi answered.