prevention of torture bill

prevention of torture bill, 2010, which has already been passed in the Lok Sabha, provides up to ten years of imprisonment to public servants responsible for torturing any person to elicit information or other purposes.

Under the guise of making its law conform to the UN convention against torture, India has actually increased scope for impunity by imposing a special six-month limit on the time that can be taken to complain against a public servant for committing such an offence.

Life imprisonment or capital punishment has been recommended by a parliamentary panel for death due to torture in police custody while the "threat of rape" has also been defined as torture.

New Delhi, May 11 () Government has finalized an amended draft of an Anti-Torture Bill and will soon bring it before Parliament, the Rajya Sabha was told today.

Human Rights Watch has called for an investigation into allegations that the Punjab police tortured Kulbir Singh Barapind after his September 20 arrest on charges of waging war on the state, possession of explosives, and sedition.

The activists of Peoples Vigilance Committee on Human Rights (PVCHR) launched a year-long signature campaign in support of torture victims at the district headquarters on Friday.

Rajya Sabha chairperson Hamid Ansari on Friday appointed Ashwani Kumar of the Congress as chairman of the 13-member Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha on The Prevention and Torture Bill, 2010.

The Supreme Court sought the Centre's response on Monday on a PIL by ex-law minister Ashwani Kumar seeking a direction to the government to enact a stand-alone law to punish police for custodial torture.

Not only did Opposition ensure that bills like enemy property amendments and prevention of torture were deferred, the prestigious education tribunals law did not make the cut either.

The Cabinet on Thursday cleared the long-pending prevention of torture bill for introduction in Parliament with PM Manmohan Singh strongly backing the proposed law despite misgivings like the recent Dantewada killings.

India, in 1997, signed a major human rights treaty: convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (CAT). Though about 150 countries are parties to CAT, Gandhi's homeland hasn't so far ratified it, a necessary sequel to signing a treaty.

A 25-year-old woman with intellectual disabilities was raped in a government hospital. Authorities did not report the incident for 17 hours, Ratnaboli Roy, managing trustee of Anjali Mental Health Rights Organization, said.

The Supreme Court sought a response on Monday from the National Human Rights Commission, to be submitted within a month, on the need for a standalone anti-custodial torture law and brushed aside the Centre’s ploy to dissuade judicial intervention in the issue by terming it a legislative exercise.

With the government having struck fruitful deals with BJP over important legislation, the monsoon session of Parliament is drawing to a close with the treasury benches looking to pass the enemy property act amendment, the prevention of torture bill and certain changes in the criminal code relating to filing of FIRs.

Despite the Rajasthan High Court's observation over the law regarding protecting women who are tortured or killed after being branded as 'witch', the state government has failed to introduce the concerned bill.

The CJI-led bench said, “Yesterday (Wednesday), two bills, on triple talaq and citizenship issues, lapsed. The process has to start afresh when a new government takes over in May after the general elections. Similar is the case with the bill on custodial torture."

The state government has been sitting on a draft bill aiming to prevent the social evil of branding women as witches and torturing them for the past three years, even as the high court ‘rebuked’ it on Thursday for failing to prevent such heinous instances.

According to a recent report on human rights in India, a study of 47 districts over a period of more than two years shows that on an average 1.8 million people are victims of police torture and violence in India every year.

At a time when the state government has come up with Rajasthan Women (Prevention & Protection from Atrocities) Bill, 2011 which has stringent provisions against branding women as witch, one more such incident has been reported in Ajmer district.

The government, which had backed off from introducing the anti-superstition bill following protests from some of its own ministers, is now planning to give it a rebirth in the upcoming winter session of the legislature.

Our secretary of state's tortuous defence of supposedly nonexistent CIA torture chambers in Eastern Europe was an acid flashback to Clintonian parsing.

Even while the incidents of witch-hunting continue to haunt the women, the state government is yet to make a move on the Rajasthan Prevention of Witch Practices Bill, which was drafted and submitted in 2005.

NEW DELHI: A citizens group has released a draft Prevention of Genocide and Mass Crimes Bill, 2004, which aims to codify mass crimes and legislate the punishment for them.

The CPM has suggested that legal experts, social scientists, activists and experts from different fields be involved in drafting a ‘flawless’ anti-witchhunting bill

Phagwara BJP MLA Som Parkash has moved a private member's bill on Prevention and Eradication of Human Sacrifice and Other Inhuman, Evil Practices and Black Magic in the current assembly session. The bill, which makes promotion and practice of superstitious activities cognizable and non-bailable offence, is scheduled to come up for discussion on Thursday.

A petitioner had told the apex court that despite being a signatory to the United Nations' Convention Against Torture, 1997, India has not ratified the convention so far since ratification requires an enabling legislation to reflect the definition and punishment for 'torture'.