A Year of Human Rights Struggles

As we ring out 2007, let us take a look at the human rights situation in India and the neighbourhood.

“The year 2007 will be remembered as a year in which historic struggles for human rights brought out increasingly belligerent responses from ruling elites across Asia,” says the Asian Human Rights Commission, in the annual report on the human rights situation in the continent, released on December 10, Human Rights Day. .

“It is certain that throughout the region more and more people are resolved to assert their rights. It is also clear that its autocrats will respond more and more aggressively in order to keep control. Instead of acknowledging the need for change, states throughout Asia are continuing to prefer overt violence and blatant constraints on basic freedoms.”

On India, the report says, “Economic and political leaders across the world have referred to India as a model for the convergence of a new global order: democracy and capitalism going hand in hand. But from a human rights standpoint, India did not improve much in 2007, but rather increasingly showed up its failures and inabilities to give even the most basic guarantees to all of its citizens.”

For details please visit the AHRC site.