The US is sensitive to PHRO reports
The US State Department officials acknowledged that the Bush Administration ‘was sensitive to the litany of human rights violations that D.S. Gill of the Punjab Human Rights Organization (PHRO) had provided at the National Press Club (November 13, 1989) where he was invited by the Club as the morning newsmaker, according to IANS.
Besides the US Congress and the State Department’s concern on the human rights situation in India, the United Nations Human Rights Committee has unofficially recommended India review its anti-terrorist laws.
The recommendation, according to New York based India Abroad Newsweekly (April 16, 1991) was made by almost all the ‘members of the committee at the end of a two-day discussion on a report submitted to the committee by India. The report ‘dressed the government’s compliance with the international covenant on civil and political rights, one of the two covenants of the international bill of human rights.
Committee members referred specifically to India’s Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, which, they said, gave the Indian armed forces wide powers to kill without any accountability and violated international covenants.
The 18-member UN Human Rights Committee consists of experts in the field who serve in their private capacity and who are responsible for monitoring the situations in the 93 states that are parties to the rights convention.
Some members of the committee said that the many reservations expressed by India in its report to several articles of the convent amounted to non-acceptance of the international document.
Article extracted from this publication >> October 4, 1991
