SACW | Dec. 2, 2006 |

[Harsh Kapoor]

South Asia Citizens Wire  | December 2, 2006 | Dispatch No. 2330 - Year 8

[1]  India Pakistan Arms Race and Militarisation Watch - November 30, 2006
[2]  India: Autonomous women's groups - Looking 
back, looking forward (Deepti Priya Mehrotra)
[3]  India:  How They Crush Mangalore's Muslims 
(An independent citizens' fact-finding team)
[4]  India: Force-Fed Sharmila Fights On for 
Freedom From Armed Oppression (J. Sri Raman)
[5]  Upcoming Events: 
(i) Seminar: Pakistan - State Aggression and its 
Repercussions on Human Rights (Harvard, 5 Dec 
2006)
(ii) Book Release and Panel Discussion Human 
Rights for Human Dignity (Delhi, 5 Dec 2006)
(iii) Bal Adhikar Samvad (Delhi, 19 Dec 2006)
(iv) 6th KaraFilm Festival (Karachi, 8-18 Dec 2006)

______


[1] 

INDIA PAKISTAN ARMS RACE AND MILITARISATION WATCH
Compilation No 166
(November 30, 2006) Year Seven
URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IPARMW/message/177

______


[2] 


Kashmir Times
2 December 2006

LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD
by Deepti Priya Mehrotra

Have autonomous political movements in India come 
of age? They have indeed - according to Saheli, 
an autonomous women's group (AWG) currently 
celebrating its 25th birthday.

The group called a meeting on August 12, 2006 at 
the Mekhala Jha auditorium, New Delhi, with the 
overall goal of 'strengthening autonomous 
politics'. It was a well-attended meeting, 
stretching from 9 am to 7 pm. Nearly 150 
participants shared memories and journeys in the 
morning hours, and discussed issues of democratic 
politics, wider mobilisation, sexuality politics 
and relations between State and gender rights, in 
the afternoon and evening.
Professor Uma Chakravarty, feminist historian 
from Delhi University, spoke of contradictions as 
well as joint achievements of the women's 
movement and civil liberties and democratic 
rights movement, over the past 30 years.
Strong women's organisations in India have fought 
influential battles on extremely significant 
issues. Even before national independence in1947, 
the All India Women's Conference, National 
Federation of Indian Women, Women's India 
Association and a host of regional and local 
organisations waged struggles for female 
education, voting rights, widow remarriage, 
rights of women workers and equity in personal 
laws. They were rather successful on several 
fronts.
The 1970s saw women organise around issues of 
ecological, food and livelihood security. The 
Chipko movement of Uttaranchal is known worldwide 
because grassroots women raised environmental 
issues recognised as globally significant. The 
Self-Employed Women's Association, a group with 
Gandhian roots, spearheaded struggles by women 
workers in the informal sector, beginning in 
Gujarat and spreading to other parts of the 
country. In Maharashtra, women from different 
parties got together to fight a pitched battle 
against price rise. The 1974 release of the 
'Status of Women in India' by a 
government-appointed committee alerted the 
country about declining sex ratios, and low 
indices in health, education and political 
participation.
In the 1980s, there was a spurt of new women's 
groups. Many were AWGs, although some others, 
like All India Democratic Women's Association 
(associated with the Communist Part of 
India-Marxist), were wings of political parties.
What distinguishes AWGs is their refusal to be 
subject to any political party or other 
institution. They argue that women need to create 
separate spaces in which to take initiatives, 
speak their minds, and define an independent 
politics. Saheli, Manushi, Vimochana, Asmita, 
Forum Against Oppression of Women, Anveshi, 
Awaaz-e-Niswaan, Sama and Sampurna are some of 
the contemporary AWGs.
AWGs have led campaigns on issues hitherto 
considered too personal to discuss publicly - 
including sexual abuse, domestic violence and 
marginalised sexualities. These issues festered 
for long within the confines of patriarchal 
family and civil society institutions. AWGs 
declare that democracy must not stop at the 
threshold of the family. In sync with the 
international women's movement slogan 'the 
personal is political', women and civil liberties 
groups came together to bring these skeletons out 
of the cupboard. Over the years, shocking 
evidence of high rates of wife-battering, 
dowry-related wife-murders, rape, child sexual 
abuse and other forms of domestic violence kept 
piling up. Women have also begun to challenge 
homophobia publicly. Chayanika Shah of LABIA 
(Lesbians and Bisexuals in Action), Mumbai, spoke 
at the Saheli meet, expressing relief that some 
space has finally opened for such issues.
AWGs have been instrumental in politicising 
issues that were earlier swept under the carpet. 
We now have wider awareness and laws on domestic 
violence, pre-natal sex determination (PNDT) and 
women's property rights. As important as the 
passage of such legislation is the process 
leading up to them - a collective process of 
formulation and reformulation, based on inputs by 
a large number of groups and organisations. In 
the case of the PNDT and domestic violence laws, 
women's groups are actively organising to ensure 
that these laws are actually implemented. Whereas 
three decades ago, an issue like rape was 
unmentionable, today the media cannot afford to 
ignore issues like sexual abuse, harassment at 
the workplace, personal laws and even marital 
rape.
Despite these achievements, the women's movement 
still faces enormous challenges. As we take 
stock, it is important to balance celebration and 
euphoria against the desperation that still lurks 
in the lives of the majority of Indian women. An 
anniversary is a time to be honest, to introspect 
and engage in serious soul-searching. Success 
must be measured against limitations, as well as 
downright failures.
Several news items over the past few weeks 
illustrate the challenges ahead. Women's 
organisations - AWGs as well as Left-party-based 
- got together to protest lack of political will 
regarding the bill for women's reservation in 
Parliament. First mooted in 1997, the bill has 
been shelved year after year. This is despite the 
success of the earlier legislation (1993-94), 
under which 33 per cent representation of women 
is ensured in local self-governance (panchayati 
raj institutions).
'Anganwadi' workers of the Integrated Child 
Development Services, touted as the biggest child 
welfare programme in the world, have been 
agitating in New Delhi for formal recognition as 
'workers'. Agananwadi workers receive a paltry 
'honorarium' for the long list of duties they are 
obliged to carry out - meeting nutrition, care 
and pre-school education needs of children below 
six years in all the villages and slums of the 
country, as well as providing inputs for women's 
health and contraceptive needs. At the Saheli 
meet, Arti Sawhney and Kiran Dubey of the Sathin 
Karamchari Sangh spoke of the struggles of 
sathins - 'sathins' being government-appointed 
functionaries of the Women's Development 
Programme (Rajasthan). Sathins work for women's 
empowerment, but are frequently not allowed to 
raise their own issues as women and as workers.
Other crucial areas where autonomous politics 
must intervene systematically include education, 
health and social security. Rising levels of 
poverty have actually led to an erosion of the 
quality of life of large numbers of Indian women. 
Autonomous women's politics, to be relevant, 
needs to build bridges across class and caste. At 
the Saheli meet, Saraswati, an organiser of Dalit 
women in Karnataka, described her experiences as 
a Maddiga - vulnerable to exploitation both as a 
woman and as a Dalit. Shamim, from the Shramik 
Adivasi Sanghathan, Madhya Pradesh, spoke on the 
imperative need for mass organising and political 
mobilisation.
The meet confirmed the relevance and vibrancy of 
an autonomous women's politics, as also the many 
currents and enormous dilemmas confronting it. 
Sheer survival is often a big challenge for small 
AWGs, yet not only have many survived, they 
continue to raise their voices, engage in vibrant 
debate and strategise collectively for a better 
future.

*(Dr Deepti Priya Mehrotra is a political 
scientist as well as activist and journalist. Her 
publications include 'Home Truths: Stories of 
Single Mothers'; Penguin, 2003.)
-(Courtesy: Women's Feature Service)

_____


[3] 

Tehelka
Dec 09 , 2006

HOW THEY CRUSH MANGALORE'S MUSLIMS

An independent citizens' fact-finding team 
discovers that attacks on Muslims in coastal 
Karnataka routinely go unreported. And now, 
police atrocities are also being overlooked. 
These are excerpts from the team's report

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy was 
unrepentant about the state police's style of 
violence-management in Mangalore, when he 
defiantly said, "Were they to dream of such 
violence?" In coastal Karnataka, the police could 
most certainly have foreseen communal violence if 
they had just been alert on duty. That wasn't the 
problem. In fact, during the violence in 
Mangalore, the police were either lost in 
daydreams in the face of daylight looting and 
atrocities, or were inflicting nightmares on 
unsuspecting Muslims in the middle of the night.

The Press has always suppressed the fact of 
violence against Muslims throughout the coastal 
belt: but, this time around, they suppressed 
police atrocities too; the non-bjp parties too 
have maintained complete silence. This is a new 
development in the bloody history of coastal 
Karnataka's communal violence. The 
administration, the police, and the media had 
never before worked unanimously and in tandem.

From what we saw in the violence-affected areas, 
wherever the Muslims had taken to destruction, it 
was as a response to the violence inflicted on 
them.

AT BAJPE
The Mangalore violence during the first week of 
October 2006 erupted in Bajpe, on the outskirts 
of the city. On October 3, a Sharada procession 
was scheduled and was to pass the Bajpe Masjid. 
Some Muslims told police about their objections 
to one tableau. The police and bjp mla Krishna 
Palemar, who was there, requested the organisers 
to remove that particular tableau. But the 
request went unheeded. Nor did they oblige to an 
altered request that the tableau should not pass 
in front of the masjid. Therefore, police stopped 
the procession. The organisers chose to place the 
Sharada idol in the middle of the road, in 
defiance.

What was this tableau all about? It was claimed 
that it was the tableau of Bappa Beary 
worshipping Sharada Matha, and that there wasn't 
anything here that would insult Muslims. The 
popular legend, that was invoked, has it that 
Goddess Durga Parameshwari gave darshan to Beary, 
a rich Muslim merchant, in his dream. Legend has 
it that he erected a temple for her. There is 
also a popular Yakshagana narrative based on this 
legend. These days, the narrative presents Bappa 
Beary as a clown and the Bajpe tableau had a 
similar visual. The Muslim contention was that 
the man in the tableau portrayed a pitiable 
maulvi rather than Beary. However, the Muslims 
did not pick up a quarrel.

As the unchanged procession was allowed to 
proceed, seven Muslim and two Hindu shops were 
looted by a 1,000-strong mob. Mohammed Hanif of 
Top Collections incurred the highest losses: his 
Ramzan collection worth Rs 15 lakh was looted. 
Even as the looting was on, there were at least 
200 policemen including the sp and the dcp 
stationed there. The next morning, the newspapers 
reported that the Muslims had objected to a 
symbol of communal amity and had stalled the 
procession!

AT ULLAL
Unlike Bajpe where the police were silent, they 
turned into beasts in Ullal on the outskirts of 
Mangalore. In the afternoon of the bandh called 
by Sri Rama Sene on October 6, three Hindu shops 
on the road to Ullal were set on fire. As there 
was stoning and rioting in two areas nearby, the 
police took it to be the handiwork of Ullal's 
Muslims. They covered their faces and broke into 
Muslim houses when most men were away at the 
masjid. They robbed these people and beat up 
women and children. Nearly 70 Muslims of Ullal - 
most of them boys - were arrested and shifted to 
Mangalore, and two days later they were charged 
with criminal cases and moved to Bellary jail.

AT BUNDER
Bunder is a "Muslim area" with a substantial 
number of Hindus. But it is considered a 
communally sensitive area, for reasons of planted 
prejudice. On the midnight of October 8, police 
broke into Muslim houses, mouthed obscenities 
against Bearies, and arrested the men. There were 
communal disturbances in Bunder earlier, but the 
police hadn't broken into Muslim houses like this 
time. More importantly, Bunder was completely 
calm. The Muslims we met asked us: "With three 
continuous days of curfew, where would our 
children run? Would they be asleep at home if 
they were involved in rioting elsewhere?" The one 
solace, if it is one, was that the police here 
didn't loot, as in Ullal.

AT GOODINA BALI
On October 13, there were four mild explosions 
near the BC Road Bus Stand that slightly damaged 
shop windows. Two people were stabbed. Next 
morning, the coastal press reported it as if it 
were a terrorist plot. Soon, the police swung 
into action and broke into Muslim houses at the 
nearby Goodina Bali and arrested 20 men, most of 
whom were either beedi-rollers or coolies.

The same police had slept when, on October 5, the 
Bajrang Dal had forced a bandh in the district. 
In broad daylight, 11 Muslim shops were looted 
and that too barely 100 metres from the police 
station. This loot and destruction was designated 
a "communal riot," by the media.

Soon after the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, 
Muslim houses and shops were looted in several 
places of coastal Karnataka. Since then, there 
has been a systematic Hindutva brigade-led attack 
on Muslims - in Puttur (1997), Suratkal (1998-9), 
Kundapur (2002), Adi Udupi (2005) - and 
Protestant Christians. It is now routine for the 
Hindutva brigade to co-opt the media, raise an 
alarm that Hinduism is in danger, and then attack 
Muslims with redoubled bestiality.

AT FAISAL NAGARA-VEERANAGARA
Veeranagara and Faisal Nagara are two settlements 
on Mangalore's outer edge on the bank of 
Nethravathi river. This stretch was formerly 
called Kodange. In Faisal Nagara, Muslims are a 
majority with a substantial number of Hindu 
households while in Veeranagara, Hindus are a 
majority.

On October 6, Muslim youths stoned some Hindu 
houses at Faisal Nagara. The mob broke into four 
Hindu houses and damaged them. In one house, a 
middle-aged man and his son were beaten up. We 
visited the house, but couldn't see any symptoms 
of systematic destruction. The same evening, the 
police forcibly shifted 30 Hindu families of 
Faisal Nagara to a camp in adjacent Veeranagara. 
While doing so, they told people that they could 
stay at their own risk.

Nearly 150 people have returned to their homes 
after staying three days in the camp. All of them 
we spoke to categorically said that they would 
not have gone but for police pressure, and that 
they perceived no threat.

Though this shifting of Hindus to Veeranagara was 
due to police irresponsibility, it gave the media 
a golden chance to fan communal hatred as it 
showed "the terrified Hindus" at the Veeranagara 
camp.

At Veeranagara, a shop that belonged to Abdul 
Khader (of Faisal Nagara), was attacked. Khader 
lodged a police complaint, naming some looters 
but none were arrested. Instead, his second son 
Pervez was arrested and taken to Bellary jail. 
When Fathima, wife of Khader's first son, 
questioned the police, a policeman tried to 
molest her.

TWO INCIDENTS, TWO POSSIBILITIES
Hasanabba belongs to Maanur village of Bantwal 
Taluk. Of the nearly 20 households here, five 
belong to Muslims. A well-to-do beedi contractor, 
Hasanabba has employed nearly 120 people and all 
of them are non-Muslim women. He had earned the 
villagers' respect by getting the local youth 
employment as well. But that didn't matter on 
October 6 when 20 youth marched into Hasanabba's 
house. As soon as he opened the door, he was 
struck on the head by a stone.

Sensing danger, he immediately closed the door.

Hasanabba called his friend and lawyer Ramesh 
Upadhyaya, a bjp man. As soon as Upadhyaya came 
to the spot, the mob fled. Next day, the village 
elders expressed their sympathies to Hasanabba. 
He pleaded with them, "These boys are your 
children. Please take them to the village temple, 
let them promise to your God that they won't 
repeat this in future." None of the elders 
responded. Unwillingly Hasanabba lodged a police 
complaint and named the culprits. But they still 
continue to be at large.

We saw a ray of hope at Perlagudde at 
Veeranagara. At the entrance here, there is only 
one Muslim household, surrounded by dalit 
households. Khalid lives here with his two elder 
sisters. On October 6, when he was returning from 
the masjid, three sword-wielding men stabbed him. 
When we met Khalid at the hospital, he named 
those who attacked him. Next day a group 
surrounded his house, stoned it and were about to 
set fire. Then, 70-year-old Kalyani and other 
neighbours - all dalits - scared the group away.

At the courtyard of Khalid's house, this is what 
Kalyani told us, "They have done no wrong to 
anyone. If someone says we will set fire to his 
house, how can we sit quiet?"


_____


[4] 

truthout.org
30 November 2006

FORCE-FED SHARMILA FIGHTS ON FOR FREEDOM FROM ARMED OPPRESSION
by J. Sri Raman

     It was a small, double-column story tucked 
away into an inside page of a newspaper that came 
as a sharp, stinging reminder of a saga. Visiting 
Iranian human-rights activist Shirin Ebadi, said 
the story, on Tuesday called on the much less 
known Irom Chanu Sharmila, a woman from India's 
State of Manipur, on a hunger strike in a New 
Delhi hospital.

     Hunger strikes, which Mahatma Gandhi 
popularized as a form of protest, are common 
enough in India. This, however, is a different 
case. Sharmila, a 34-year-old woman, has been on 
a hunger strike for over six years. Or, more 
correctly, she has been force-fed, as she has 
fought on since 2000 for freedom from armed 
oppression.

     Sharmila's single, specific demand has been 
for the scrapping of a draconian law titled the 
Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, or the 
AFSPA. The law has posed a dire threat to the 
liberty, life, and dignity of the people in 
Manipur, one of the insurgency-prone tribal 
states in India's northeast.

     Sharmila's epic fast started on November 6, 
2000, four days after men of the Indian armed 
forces reportedly opened fire on ten youths 
waiting at a bus stand in Malom, near the airport 
of Imphal, capital of Manipur, and killed all of 
them. The AFSPA empowered the men in uniform to 
kill those merely suspected to be the country's 
separatist enemies.

     To Sharmila and to other Manipuris, the 
atrocity did not come as a shock. The AFSPA did 
not only give even officers of the lowest rank in 
a "disturbed area" such a license to kill for the 
sake of law and order, it also authorized what 
functioned as an occupation army "to destroy any 
shelter, from which armed attacks are ... likely 
to be made." On "reasonable suspicion," any 
person could be arrested without a warrant, and 
so could any premises be entered and searched. 
Obviously, these provisions made a host of human 
rights abuses possible, and the hapless people of 
the state had not been spared any of them.

     While the victims of the Act belong mostly to 
weaker sections, women have been particularly 
vulnerable to its abuse. By all local accounts, 
rape-and-murder sequences had been made to look 
like part of routine anti-insurgency 
investigations even earlier.

     The Malom incident, however, created the 
psychological moment for a major popular movement 
against the Act. And it made Sharmila join the 
struggle. When she sat in a public place and 
declared her resolve not to "drink a drop of 
water" until the AFSPA was withdrawn, she 
encountered some ridicule. It turned into 
respect, and something like reverence, as she 
continued the fast through days, weeks, and 
months.

     Over the years, she has become a living 
legend. Or a legend kept alive by force-feeding 
on behalf of armed forces. Nose-fed and tube-fed, 
she has continued to emulate the example of the 
founder of India's freedom from colonial rule, 
whom a nuclear-proud New Delhi hails as the 
Father of the Nation with despicable hypocrisy. 
Arrested and re-arrested, moved from prison to 
prison and from hospital to hospital, she has 
refused to call off her fast, making November 6 
an anniversary of Manipur's struggle.

     The fast has continued despite the 
fluctuations in the movement. Sharmila returns 
like a painful memory whenever the movement shows 
resurgence, but her struggle does not cease when 
the media turns its attention to other matters.

     I wrote of her last in these columns over two 
years ago ("Manipur's Magnificent Struggle," 
August 22, 2004). The main focus then was on 
another woman activist, Thangjam Manorama Devi, 
who had been raped and murdered. As I reported, a 
unit of the armed forces had taken 32-year-old 
Manorama "into custody as a suspected 
separatist," and she never returned to tell what 
had transpired. According to reports that call 
for an inquiry into what might have remained one 
of many such cases and complaints on record, "the 
soldiers had pumped bullets into Manorama's 
genitals to cover up the gender part of their 
crime."

     This led to a protest by nude Manipuri women 
against naked militarism outside the camp of the 
unit Assam Rifles, with the demonstrators daring 
the soldiers to rape them en masse. The protest 
drew countrywide attention, but so did Sharmila's 
continued and dignified fast against the crimes 
of many years against the Manoramas of Manipur.

     The mandarins of New Delhi , of course, have 
managed bigger crises. They got over this one 
simply by setting up an inquiry by a retired 
judge of India's Supreme Court. But, the contents 
of the Justice Jeevan Reddy Commission, submitted 
in June 2005 and stated to contain strictures on 
the armed forces, have been neither divulged nor 
discussed in public.

     The mainstream media outside Manipur might 
have forgotten about Sharmila forever, but for 
her success in smuggling herself out of Manipur 
and into New Delhi last month. The first thing 
she did in the country's capital was to visit the 
Mahatma's tomb, and then she proceeded to 
continue her fast at a public spot. The official 
response was predictable. In a midnight swoop, 
the police arrested her and put her in the 
prestigious All-India Institute of Medical 
Sciences (AIIMS).

     Meanwhile, in Manipur, they registered a 
police case against her under section 125 of the 
Indian Penal Code (IPC). This provision deals 
with a threat to the security of the president 
and the prime minister of India (which this 
fasting, fragile woman's presence in the capital 
is supposed to represent)!

     In the high-profile hospital, she continued 
to be force-fed, under heavy armed security. 
Neither the AIIMS nor any other authority has 
seen fit to issue a bulletin on her health, 
though sources close to her say that she feels 
weak and that her bones have become brittle. A 
medical manual I consulted says that "long-term 
use of nasal steroids may cause fungal infections 
of the nose or throat." It also warns that 
nose-fed intakes may enter one's bloodstream and 
adds: "This may have undesirable consequences 
that may require additional corticosteroid 
treatment. This is especially true for children 
and for those who have used this for an extended 
period of time."

     Also relevant to Sharmila's case is a recent 
statement by 250 medical leaders on force-feeding 
in remote Guantanamo Bay. The March 11 issue of 
British medical journal The Lancet carries a 
letter by these leaders, condemning the practice 
of force-feeding detainees, "strapped into 
restraint chairs in uncomfortably cold isolation 
cells, to force them off their hunger strike." 
Attorneys for the detainees are said to have 
reported extreme suffering among their clients as 
a result of painful force-feeding methods via 
nasal tubes and prolonged shackling in the 
restraint chairs.

     A report on the statement notes that US 
military officials have acknowledged the use of 
such aggressive tactics in order to break hunger 
strikes at the detention facility. The Indian 
authorities have not denied force-feeding their 
detainee, either.

     Sharmila is more than a Manipuri activist. 
She and her struggle, for freedom and against 
armed occupation and oppression, are metaphors 
with a larger meaning.

_____


[5]  Upcoming Events

(i)


Seminar: Pakistan : State Aggression and its Repercussions on Human
Rights

This roundtable seminar is pegged on the Oct 30 air strike on a religious
seminary in Bajaur, Pakistan, that killed about 80 people, allegedly
militants using the place to train terrorists. Can 'terrorism' be addressed
with state-sponsored or initiated violence? What is the ensuing 'collateral
damage' to human rights, democracy, and the media? What are the
repercussions on Pakistan, South Asia, and beyond?

This event is supported by the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy and
Friends of South Asia (FOSA) Boston

Featuring seminar presentations by:
- Imtiaz Ali, reporter, BBC Pashto Service, Peshawar, currently
International Knight Fellow, Stanford
- Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow at the Belfer Center 's International
Security Program and Managing the Atom Project
- Bob Dietz, Asia Desk, Committee to Protect Journalists, NY
- Husain Haqqani, Director, Center for International Relations at Boston
University
- Lawrence Lifschultz, former South Asia Correspondent, Far Eastern
Economic Review
- Adil Najam , Associate Professor of International Negotiation &
Diplomacy, The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University
- Beena Sarwar , Fellow, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy
- Charlie Sennott, former foreign correspondent (Afghanistan, Pakistan,
Iraq, Israel), Boston Globe
- Nasim Zehra, Fellow, Asia Center, Harvard University; columnist The
News International, Pakistan

Tuesday, December 5th, 12:00-3:00 pm
Malkin Penthouse, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Lunch will be served. RSVP to Meghan_Frederico at ksg.harvard.edu
___

(ii)

Invitation for Book Release and Panel Discussion

Human Rights for Human Dignity

Published by
Amnesty International

Date: December 5, 2006 (Tuesday) Time: 2.30 pm
Venue: Gandhi Peace Foundation, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi


Chief Guest & Keynote Speaker:
Justice J S Verma, former Chief Justice, of India
Common Minimum Postulates (CMP) of Human Rights

Panel:
Justice Rajinder Sachar, former Chief Justice, High Court of Delhi
Group Rights and Human Dignity
Prof. Amit Bhaduri, Professor Emeritus, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi
Development with Dignity
Dr. Purna Sen, Program Director (Asia-Pacific), Amnesty International
Dignity, Human Rights and Gender

On December 5, celebrating the World Dignity Day, 
Amnesty International India is launching its 
publication, 'Human Rights for Human Dignity: A 
Primer on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights', 
in English and Hindi. We take the pleasure of 
inviting you to our book release program and a 
panel discussion thereafter on December 5 2006 
(Tuesday), 2.00pm – 4.00 pm at Gandhi Peace 
Foundation, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, near ITO, 
New Delhi.

'Human Rights for Human Dignity' presents an 
overview of economic, social and cultural rights, 
outlines their scope and content, and gives 
examples of violations and what can be done to 
address them. This primer highlights not only the 
obligations of the governments within their own 
countries but also their international 
obligations, and the human rights 
responsibilities of a wider orbit of actors 
including international organizations and 
corporations.

Amnesty International (AI) has also planned its 
next global campaign on the theme of 'Human 
Rights and Human Dignity'. As the international 
community has repeatedly recognized, all human 
rights are universal, indivisible, 
inter-dependent and interrelated. Human dignity 
requires respect for all human rights of all 
people: there can be no higher priority than the 
right to live with dignity. Amnesty International 
joins local communities and activists worldwide 
in campaigning for economic, social and cultural 
rights of the marginalised people.

Sixty years after the adoption of the Universal 
Declaration of Human Rights, the aspiration for 
“a world free from want as well as fear” is 
unrealised for millions. A massive shift in 
mindset is needed so that poverty is understood 
and addressed as a condition driven and 
perpetuated by a web of indivisible human rights 
violations. Bringing a human rights based 
approach and global activism, through the lens of 
health & housing, and grounded in individuals' 
experience, is the need of the hour.

The full realization of economic, social and 
cultural rights – including rights to food, 
housing, health, education and work – requires 
significant human, , technological and variety of 
other resources. Yet limited resources can not be 
accepted as the principal cause of widespread 
violations of these rights, and cannot be used as 
an excuse to deny them to specific individuals 
and groups. Ethnic minorities, indigenous 
peoples, women, members of opposition or 
religious groups, people living with HIV/AIDS or 
mental disabilities and many others risk 
injustice as a result of such discriminations and 
deprivations.

The Governments that are keen to encourage 
investments have often failed to ensure that the 
big business respects its human rights 
responsibilities as well. Moreover, they have 
exposed the population to exploitation through 
the denial of the right to fair wages and decent 
working conditions. Functioning independently or 
through international financial institutions, the 
governments have often disregarded the rights of 
people elsewhere, supporting large-scale 
development projects which have resulted in 
widespread homelessness and defiance of 
indigenous peoples' rights. Violations of 
economic, social and cultural rights are not just 
a matter of inadequate resources or policy; but a 
matter of dignity.

AI wishes to join the mobilisation for concrete 
changes in policy and practice to help create 
space for the marginalised to claim their rights 
and dignity.

We, therefore, invite you to join us for the book 
release and the panel discussion, and express 
your solidarity for our campaign for the cause of 
economic, social and cultural rights of all 
people.

Thanking you.

Sincerely

Mukul Sharma, Director - 9810801919      
Joe Athialy, Campaigns and Communication Coordinator - 9868114470
Soumya Bhaumik, Human Rights Education Coordinator - 9811472549

Contacts:
Hitesh Gogia: 9811283747
Sundera Babu: 9811744919
Monami Banerjee: 9818448041

______

(iii)



ANNOUNCEMENT: BAL ADHIKAR SAMVAD, 19 December 2006

(Constitution Club Lawns, V P House, Rafi Marg, New Delhi 110 001)

A special gathering, "Bal Adhikar Samvad", is to 
be held in Delhi on 19 December 2006. This event 
is an attempt to focus public attention on the 
fundamental rights of children under the age of 
six years - including their rights to nutrition, 
health and pre-school education.

Bal Adhikar Samvad is part of a growing campaign 
for the rights of children under six.  Earlier 
activities of this campaign include a major 
convention held in Hyderabad (on 7-9 April 2006) 
and a series of local actions around the country: 
'anganwadi divas', bal adhikar yatras, legal 
action, media events, and more.  Bal Adhikar 
Samvad is an opportunity to learn from these 
experiences, and plan further activities.  It is 
also an occasion to reiterate our basic demand 
for "universal" child development services: a 
lively Anganwadi in every settlement, and full 
coverage of all children under six.

Other items on the programme (see below) include 
cultural activities and the presentation of a new 
report, Focus On Children Under Six (FOCUS). 
About 500 participants from all over the country 
are expected to take part in Bal Adhikar Samvad. 
The proceedings will be mainly in English and 
Hindi.

This event is convened by Citizen's Initiative 
for the Rights of Children Under Six, as part of 
the "right to food campaign".  Professor Amartya 
Sen has kindly agreed to join us and to be the 
keynote speaker.

You are warmly invited to participate in this 
event.  If you require any assistance ( e.g. with 
accommodation in Delhi), please send a line to 
<mailto:righttofood at gmail.com>righttofood at gmail.com 
or call the secretariat of the right to food 
campaign at 011-4350 1335.   We hope to see you 
on 19 December.

Programme Committee

[Jean Drèze, Navjyoti, Biraj Patnaik, Spurthi 
Reddy, Devika Singh, Gurminder Singh, C.P. Sujaya 
(Advisory group: Ashok Bharti, Asha Mishra, Annie 
Raja, Aruna Roy, Shantha Sinha, Kavita 
Srivastava).]

BAL ADHIKAR SAMVAD: PROGRAMME
  (Constitution Club Lawns, 19 December 2006)

MORNING SESSION (9.30 am to 2.00 pm)

Introduction and welcome

[including cultural items]

Short presentations

[(1) The state of Indian children; (2) FOCUS 
(Focus On Children Under Six) report; (3) Action 
for children under six.]

Panel discussion

[Speakers: Mina Swaminathan, Montek Ahluwalia, 
Shabana Azmi, Shantha Sinha, Sukhdeo Thorat]

Interactive session

Keynote address: Amartya Sen.


AFTERNOON SESSION (3 pm to 5 pm)

Campaign reports
[Anganwadi Divas, Bal Adhikar Yatra, Legal Action, etc.]

Future activities

Concluding address: Aruna Roy

For further details please contact the 
secretariat of the right to food campaign (tel 
011-4350 1335, email 
<mailto:righttofood at gmail.com>righttofood at gmail.com, 
website <http://www.righttofoodindia.org/> 
www.righttofoodindia.org).
______

(iv)

6th KaraFilm Festival
(8-18 December 2006)

Organized under the aegis of the KaraFilm Society, a grouping of
committed young filmmakers, the KaraFilm Festival is a celebration of
the moving image and of storytelling. Our goal is to promote an
appreciation of the art and craft of filmmaking among a wide
population as well as to encourage creativity and high standards among
filmmakers. We hope that this will have a salutary effect on the
development of the motion picture industry in Pakistan and elsewhere.

Many years ago, international film festivals in Karachi attracted
large audiences and some of the best filmmakers in the world. Satyajit
Ray, for example, was one of a host of world renowned directors
screening films in Karachi in the 1960s.

With this festival we hope to create, once again, a space for
alternative and independent cinema in Pakistan, where both experienced
and new filmmakers can exhibit their creative endeavours and where
work is recognized on the basis of merit. In addition, the festival
also provides an excellent opportunity for filmmakers to meet and
learn from each other.

http://www.karafilmfest.com/currentkara_2006.htm

http://www.karafilmfest.com/KaraFilm2006/schedules_01.htm


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