Everybody speaks about Human Rights but few are really aware of what they are; they have become buzzwords that intellectuals like to fling and Non Government Organisations (NGOs) like to flaunt. International conferences are held, policy documents are drafted, laws are laid down only to be flouted and historians remind us that credit to the origin of Human Rights should go to the Magna Carta signed in 1521, forgetting that centuries ago, our ancestors spoke of the good of everybody: sarveh janaha sukhino bhavantu.
In 1978, the United States, in a policy document defined Human Rights as ?freedom from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, torture, unfair trial, cruel and unusual punishments, invasion of privacy, rights to food, shelter, health care, education, freedom of thought, speech, assembly, religion, press, movement and participation in government?. Noble thoughts. Even the Indian Constitution has laid down Fundamental Rights, but which country really observes Human Rights in all aspects? Not the United States which beasts of being a great democracy but whose treatment of Iraqi prisoners beg description. Torture is common.
In India child labour is an inevitable fact of life not because parents are callous, but poverty respects no rights. According to a UNICEF study, there are more than 100,000 child labourers in Mirzapur carpet industries, 50,000 in Firozabad glass industries, 30,000 in Moradabad brass industries and 10,000 in Aligarh lock industries.
The Government of India, Shri Kaarthikeyan reminds us, has passed several laws prohibiting child labour, but government agencies authorised to enforce the laws look the other way round to save families from starving. The Government is idealistic; its agents are realistic. And that makes all the difference. But one may well ask: Who is this Kaarthikeyan to write about Human Rights with any degree of authority? Happily, that question is easily answered.
A graduate in Science and Law, Kaarthikeyan joined the Indian Police Service, held several important positions during his long career such as Director, Police Training Academy, Chief of Intelligence and Security, Director General of Central Reserve Force and finally Director of the prestigious Central Bureau of Investigation in India, generally, and often, referred plainly as the CBI. If he talks about Human Rights, he talks with authority. But of what use is any authority if the police cannot stop child abuse, violence against women?he reports that every 34 minutes a rape takes place in India, there is sexual harassment incidents every 42 minutes, every 43 minutes a woman is kidnapped and almost every hour, a woman is burnt to death in a dowry case. In a year there are 365 days and every day has 24 hours. Just consider how many dowry deaths take place in any one year. And what are we going to do about it?
According to Kaarthikeyan ?the spiral of violence against women is rising at an alarming rate and one of the least noticed aspects of this is that of domestic violence?. And what is ?domestic violence?? Kaarthikeyan?and he should know??domestic violence is recognised by existing civil law only in the context of dissolution of a marriage and as being conduct amounting to cruelty and, therefore, ground for divorce?. Wisely, the author says that domestic violence requires a separate law altogether, since the nature of the relationship between the offender and the victim is intensely personal.? In writing broadly about Human Rights, Kaarthikeyan has also dealt with Civil and Political Rights, Social, Economic and Cultural Rights and the Right to Development.
In his foreword to the book, former Chief Justice of India, P.N. Bhagwati makes pointed reference to the fact of the ?near collapse of the Criminal Justice System? arguing that ?the Rule of Law cannot be maintained unless the nation undertakes immediate and comprehensive reform of the entire system of administration of criminal justice?. He is asking for the sun and the moon and the stars. Surely he is aware of the fact that an estimated Rs 2,630 crore is the amount coughed up as bribes to the judiciary? This has been stated by Global Corruption Report 2007: Corruption in Judicial Systems. And then, again, the media reminds us that an astonishing 27 per cent of Uttar Pradesh'selected legislators have criminal backgrounds and according to an Allahabad High Court Report, 24 of UP's80 MPs face 128 criminal cases including murder and dacoity. Where do we go from here? Kaarthikeyan does not claim that his book is a ?comprehensive treatise on all aspects of Human Rights? which is very modest of him.
In truth he has dealt extensively on a variety of subjects like Rights to Information, Women and Human Right, Gender Sensitisation, Human Rights of the Disabled (remember the most recent case of an airline denying ticket to a mentally disabled?), Terrorism, Violation and Police, Problems of Refugees, Institutional Safeguards, Judicial Activism, Custodial Justice and Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners etc. Solutions to many problems arising out of a denial of Human Rights are offered in their context.
In fact, this is a remarkable work that everyone interested in Human Rights and their enforcement should read, be he a concerned citizen, a police official, a magistrate, a judge, an MLA or an MP or even a journalist. Applicable Rules are quoted and commentaries are offered and general guidelines are proposed with but just one view: To educate the citizen both of his rights and responsibilities. This is a work of outstanding merit, if only for the fearlessness in which Human Rights in all forms is firmly asserted. Perhaps a copy of this book should be sent to President George Bush and another to the Secretary General of United Nations, to remind them of Human Rights and Reality.
(Gyan Publishing House, New Delhi-110 002)
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