AI, PW demand approval of UN Convention against torture in India

New Delhi, June 26 (UNI) Two human rights organisations today called upon the Government to ratify the UN Convention against torture and enact a national domestic Legislation in India that makes torture a punishable offence.

The Amnesty International and Peoples Watch --while observing UN anti-Torture day today-- also demanded protection programmes for the victims and witnesses.

They demanded to permit UN Special Rapporteur on Torture to visit India and report on the cases of torture and repeal security or anti-terror legislations that promotes the culture of torture and impunity in situations of armed conflict The human rights organisations submitted memoranda to President APJ Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calling upon them to ratify the Convention.

Amnesty International India members along with several other human rights organisations and prominent individuals organised a series of programmes in 29 cities across 12 states, including West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Orissa, Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

Amnesty International-India Director Mukul Sharma said India should ratify the international conventions and norms and also enact the domestic law ''India, as an elected member of the UN Human Rights Council for the second consecutive term, should come out clean on the torture issues,'' he added.

''Forced disappearances, fake encounters, use of force and violence, and terror tactics must be stopped immediately to guarantee Indian people's constitutional right to life with dignity,'' he said.

People's Watch Executive Director Henri Tiphange said the organistion had launched the 'National Project on Preventing Torture in India' to seek readdress to the victims of torture through legal intervention from Human Rights Commission National as well as Internationally.

UNI