Model answer supporting prosecution for human rights violations
The Reform Agenda and Rationale
- Direct the appropriate central government authorities to investigate and if the evidence warrants to prosecute any official misconduct not effectively resolved by Punjab officials within one year of referral to them.
- Propose that Parliament ratify the optional protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights so that Indian citizens can bring individual complaints of government misconduct to the UN Human Rights Committee.
- Propose that Parliament ratify the UN Convention Against Torture, and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment, allowing individuals a right to petition the Committee Against Torture.
- Incorporate in security forces training material reports of successful prosecution for grave violations of human rights.
Violence begets violence. Unrest will continue as long as victims protest unacknowledged injustice. No longer can the government encourage mass murder by ignoring, excusing, and forgiving the killers, whether police or terrorist. If the government fails to act, victims become avengers and the vicious cycle of assassination continues.
Judicial inquiries are essential to trace the many disappeared. India should learn from the bad example of South American military despots who only relinquished power on condition of impunity. South Africa's Truth Commission investigating past atrocities offers a superior model. Punjab and Kashmiri victims have not forgotten and are entitled to a full accounting. After almost fifty years, the United States has now recognized a financial obligation to compensate Japanese victims who survived relocation in World War II detention camps. Indian victims demand no less. We must guarantee their rights to seek in court damages from either terrorists or security forces responsible for summary executions.
India's citizens should also be granted the international remedies available that would become available with ratification of the optional protocol to the civil and political covenant as well as the UN Convention Against Torture. Those human rights agreements require individuals to exhaust all available domestic remedies before petitioning UN committees for relief. Very few cases qualify for review. In the rare cases heard, the UN experts have been independent professionals acting with principled impartiality. Ratification would have considerable symbolic value as an affirmation of our government's commitment to fundamental rights.
There is no ex post facto problem, because the Special Forces Acts already allow for prosecution when the central government approves. For all its good work, the NHRC is still forbidden from investigating complaints against security officers. When it has called on the Punjab state government to investigate there has been no satisfactory response. Parliament must grant the NHRC broader investigative power so it can pursue torture allegations and put a stop to widespread violations.
The immense task has only begun. Amnesty International has identified hundreds of disappeared, tortured, and murdered individuals and demanded action by the Punjab state government. Investigations are announced, but no conclusive results ever demonstrated. The police close ranks, protecting their own. Immunity from prosecution breeds contempt for the law. Army and paramilitary officers get away with murder disguised as "encounter killings." Torture and summary execution must be punished to end such misconduct. Impunity is at war with the elementary need for justice.
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