India must deliver on its repeated commitments to the Human Rights Council
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT
AI Index: ASA 20/023/2012
1 June 2012
Document - India must deliver on its repeated commitments to the Human Rights Council
On 24 May 2012, India’s human rights record came under renewed international scrutiny during
its second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN Human Rights Council.1 Amnesty
International welcomes the recommendations made to India by the reviewing states, many of
which reflect concerns raised previously by the organization.2
Amnesty International is disappointed, however, that despite India’s assertion that it sees the UPR
mechanism as one of “constructive engagement,” the government did not immediately accept any
of the recommendations made, some of which were put forward in 2008 during India’s first UPR.
Amnesty International urges India to demonstrate by September 2012, a genuine resolve to deliver
on its outstanding human rights commitments and the UPR recommendations, when the report on
India’s second UPR is formally adopted at the 21st session of the Human Rights Council.
India must strengthen national safeguards against torture. During the review, India received no
less than 17 recommendations to ratify the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman
or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT).3 Having signed the CAT 15 years ago, India should
now ratify without further delay both the CAT and its Optional Protocol. India stated, as it did
during its first review in 2008, that it is in the process of ratifying the CAT, and attributed the
delay to the drafting of the domestic Prevention of Torture Bill, which has been pending before
Parliament since May 2010.
The Prevention of Torture Bill falls short of the requirements of the CAT in several respects, as
previously detailed by Amnesty International, for example with regard to the definition of torture
and the inclusion of a statute of limitations.4 During the review, India asserted that its existing
laws provide adequate protection against torture. Amnesty International strongly contests this
assertion.
Amnesty International urges India to act on recommendations to ratify the International
Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance,5 which it signed five
years ago.
India should also accept the recommendations6 that it sign and ratify the Second Optional
Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the abolition of the
death penalty, establish an official moratorium on the use of the death penalty, or abolish the
death penalty. No executions have been carried out in India since 2004, but recent rejections of
several mercy petitions of prisoners currently on death row have increased fears that executions
may resume. This would constitute a major setback to the country’s alignment with the global
trend away from the use of the death penalty.7
Amnesty International welcomes the recommendations made that India repeal or review the Armed
Forces Special Powers Act 1958 (AFSPA),8 as also recommended by a government-appointed
panel six years ago following widespread demands in north-eastern states and Jammu and
Kashmir. During the UPR, the Indian delegation failed to adequately address impunity under the
AFSPA, which grants security forces in specified areas of armed insurgency powers to shoot to kill
in situations where they are not necessarily at imminent risk. The Indian Supreme Court recently
ruled that security personnel could not invoke the AFSPA to avoid prosecutions for alleged human
rights violations.9 However, under the AFSPA, prosecutions cannot take place without approval by
India’s federal government.
The Indian delegation did not respond to an advance question from Norway on whether India
would consider repeal of the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act, 1978 (PSA),10 under which
hundreds of persons suspected of involvement in protests, political leaders and activists remain in
detention without charge or trial in Jammu and Kashmir. Amendments made to the PSA in 2012
have still not brought detention practices in Jammu and Kashmir fully into line with India’s human
rights obligations under international law.11
Amnesty International therefore reiterates its call on the Government of India to ensure that the
Jammu and Kashmir authorities repeal the PSA, end the practice of administrative detention in
the state, and free all detainees unless they are charged with a recognizable offence under the
state’s ordinary criminal law.
In September 2011, India issued a standing invitation to the UN Special Procedures, and its
facilitation of recent visits by the Special Rapporteurs on human rights defenders, and
extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, is welcome. As recommended during the UPR,12
Amnesty International urges India without further delay, to address the backlog of outstanding
mission requests from other Special Procedures, and in particular to facilitate visits by the Special
Rapporteur on torture, whose request to visit has been pending since 1993, and the Working
Group on Arbitrary Detention. Several states called on India to implement the recommendations of
the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders following her visit in January 2011 and to
ensure that human rights defenders are able to carry out their legitimate and peaceful activities
without fear of harassment and intimidation.13
Amnesty International calls on India to demonstrate its “constructive engagement” to the UPR at
the Human Rights Council’s 21st Session in September, and act swiftly to give effect to these
recommendations.
1 Further information on the second UPR of India can be found at:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/INSession13.aspx
2 Amnesty International, India: Accountability, impunity and obstacles to access to justice, Submission to the
UN Universal Periodic Review, (Index ASA/20/048/2011), November 2011:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA20/048/2011/en
3 Draft report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, United Nations, A/HRC/WG.6/13/L.8.
Recommendations 138.1 (Spain), 138.3 (United Kingdom), 138.4 (United States of America), 138.5 (Iraq),
138.7 (Italy), 138.8 (Maldives), 138.10 (Uruguay), 138.12 (Australia), 138.13 (Austria), 138.15 (Botswana
), 138.16 (Brazil), 138.17 (Czech Republic), 138.12 (France), 138.28 (Sweden), 138.29 (Indonesia),
138.32 (Switzerland), 138.36 (Timor-Leste).
4 Amnesty International, India: Briefing on the Prevention of Torture Bill (Index: ASA 20/030/2010), October
2000, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA20/030/2010/en
5 Draft report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, United Nations, A/HRC/WG.6/13/L.8.
Recommendations 138.1 (Spain), 138.9 (Uruguay), 138.11 (Argentina), 138.13 (Austria), 138.18 (Portugal
), 138.20 (Chile), 138.24 (France).
6 Draft report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, United Nations, A/HRC/WG.6/13/L.8.
Recommendations 138.91 (Ireland), 138.93 (Spain), 138.94 (Chile) 138.95, (France), 138.96 (Belgium),
138.97 (Italy), 138.101 (Portugal), 138.98 (Switzerland), 138.99 (Argentina), 138.100 (Norway).
7 Amnesty International, India: Balwant Singh reprieve not enough (Index: PRE01/163/2012), March 2012:
https://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/india-balwant-singh-reprieve-not-enough-2012-03-28
8 Draft report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, United Nations, A/HRC/WG.6/13/L.8.
Recommendations 138.35 (Switzerland), 138.44 (Slovakia), 138.45 (France); and Advance question
submitted by Norway, Advance Questions to India – Add.1, United Nations, available at:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/INSession13.aspx
9 Amnesty International, India: Security forces cannot claim immunity under AFSPA, must face trial for
violations, February 2012, https://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/india-security-forces-cannotclaim-
immunity-under-afspa-must-face-trial-vio
10 Advance Questions to India – Add.1, United Nations, available at:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/INSession13.aspx
11 Amnesty International, India: Amendments not enough - Repeal the Jammu and Kashmir Public Safety Act,
(Index: ASA 20/019/2012), 2 May 2012. http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA20/019/2012/en
12 Draft report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, United Nations, A/HRC/WG.6/13/L.8.
Recommendations 138.32 (Switzerland), 138.66 (Belgium), 138.69 (Hungary), 138.109 (Belarus).
13 Draft report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review, United Nations, A/HRC/WG.6/13/L.8.
Recommendations 138.43 (Czech Republic), 138.67 (Spain), 138.121 (Iraq), 138.68 (Norway).
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA20/023/2012/en/8dd85b58-1471-...