By United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner
News Release
GENEVA: – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Tuesday appealed to the Government of India to safeguard the rights of human rights defenders and NGOs, and their ability to carry out their crucial work on behalf of the many groups they represent…
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20/10/2020
Medium.com / by Arun Simon
Dissent is rarely welcomed in any society. As power increases, appreciation of dissent decreases. Innumerable examples can be seen with dictators or absolute powers. It is also possible in religion, culture, and other domains… My country India, with all its high democratic values, is no different. The officially declared emergency(1975) may be the worst period in that line. But there are many unofficial competitors for the same today. The recent arrest of many social activists (latest in that line being Fr. Stan Swamy, a tribal activist) under a draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) along with many contemporary events raises serious questions.
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20/10/2020
NewsClick / by Suhit K Sen
India will have to look to forces within the country to steer back towards political processes that incorporate opposition, dissent and diversity.
Stan Swamy, a Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist, was arrested in Ranchi on 9 October. The National Investigation Agency (NIA), which carried out the arrest, claimed he was a member of the CPI (Maoist) organisation. It appears that anyone who works for Dalit rights, or is not in full agreement with the toxic ideology of the Sangh parivar, must be a Maoist.
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The Telegraph / by Umanand Jaiswal
Guwahati-based social scientist Father Walter Fernandes on Wednesday said the arrest of tribal rights advocate Father Stan Swamy from Ranchi had “implications” for the Northeast, which too had witnessed arrests of rights activists and the displacement of tribal communities in the name of development.
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13/10/2020
The Wire / by Ajay Gudavarthy
The right seems to believe that given the cultural codes of Hindu way of life, dispensing with the old will meet less protest and resistance from the society – creating a scope for more fear and less resistance.
… It began with the murders of Govind Pansare, Narendra Dabholkar and Kalburgi – all of them into their 70s, and more recently the arrest of Varavara Rao, and now Stan Swamy, both into their 80s.
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12/10/2020
Hindustan Times / by Hindustan Times
The action against a range of intellectuals and activists and journalists – Sudha Bharadwaj, Anand Teltumbde, Stan Swamy, Apoorvanand, Harsh Mander are among the better-known examples – indicates that the space for free expression and dissent is jeopardised.
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12/10/2020
The Print / by Leah Verghese
In recent years, sedition and UAPA have been weaponised against critics of the govt. National Crime Records Bureau’s recently-released data confirms this.
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11/10/2020
The Telegraph / by Pheroze L. Vincent
The Catholic Church has condemned the arrest of 83-year-old Catholic priest Stanislaus Lourduswamy (Stan Swamy) on sedition charges and demanded his immediate release.
Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, economist Jean Dreze and several Christian groups have added their voice to the chorus of condemnation.
The statement from the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI), the apex body of the Catholic Church in the country, stood out for two reasons.
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11/10/2020
Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
The North East Catholic Research Forum said the 83-year-old’s arrest by the National Investigation Agency is ‘selective targeting’.
The All India Catholic Union on Saturday called for immediate release of 83-year-old Jesuit priest and human rights activist Stan Swamy from judicial custody in the Bhima Koregaon case and expressed concern over his poor health amid the coronavirus crisis.
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10/10/2020
Daijiworld / by AICU
Media Release
Mangaluru, Oct 10: The All India Catholic Union (AICU) has called for the immediate release of 83 year old Jesuit Fr Stan Swamy who was arrested from his Ranchi room in a night operation by the National Investigating Agency and is now in prison in Judicial Custody till October 23, 2020.
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The Wire / by Mari Marcel Thekaekara
Stan Swamy and the adivasis he supports in an impossible battle for their own ancestral lands are pawns pitted against mammoth mining companies. Falsely branding activists as Maoists is the easiest way to condemn to enable vested interests to finish them off.
“No, it’s not possible,” were my first thoughts when I heard that Father Stan Swamy, an 83-year-old Jesuit priest and activist had been arrested – for the second time. His crime? He defended the rights of adivasis being exploited in their homeland Jharkhand.
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The ever-increasing list of political prisoners put into jail for their acts of dissent is deeply alarming. Join us in this webinar on political prisoners and the undemocratic stifling of dissent with Advocate Bela Bhatia & Senior Advocate Colin Gonzalves
Oct 10, 2020
6 p.m. IST
30/09/2020
Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff
The NHRC referred to Amnesty India’s statement and said the group’s allegations were ‘serious in nature’ and have been strongly answered by the home ministry.
The National Human Rights Commission on Wednesday issued summons to Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla and the Ministry of Home Affairs, in relation to Amnesty International India’s decision to stop operations in India as the government allegedly froze its bank accounts. The commission has sought the replies within six weeks.
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29/09/2020
Hindustan Times / by Arpan Rai
Amnesty further claimed that it has been compelled to let go of staff in India and pause all ongoing campaign and research work …
The government had declined permission to receive foreign funds to Amnesty International India Foundation Trust that has been critical of security agencies in several cases including the arrest of activists such as Sudha Bharadwaj, Rona Wilson and Varavara Rao, who was accused of being a Maoist ideologue.
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29/08/2020
The Wire / by Sukanya Shantha
The decision, which will see close to 150 employees lose their jobs, came after the recent move by the Enforcement Directorate to freeze the organisation’s accounts.
Mumbai: After a successful eight-year run in India addressing several crucial human rights violations amid growing hostility and the government’s clampdown on civil liberties, Amnesty International (AI) India has decided to shut its operations in the country. The decision, which will see close to 150 employees lose their jobs, came after the recent move by the Enforcement Directorate to freeze the organisation’s accounts.
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Statement by Progressive International
Members of the PI Council ring the alarm on arbitrary arrests and the breakdown of justice in India.
The conduct of the Indian Government is unacceptable in the international framework for the protection of human rights and runs counter to the Indian Constitutional framework.
The members of Progressive International call upon the Indian government to immediately stop persecuting non-violent protestors wrongly accused and booked by the police.
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By CIVICUS
The Indian government is using a variety of restrictive laws – including national security and counter terrorism legislation – to arrest and imprison human rights defenders, peaceful protesters and critics, global civil society alliance CIVICUS said today in a new report.
The report covers:
– The judicial harassment of activists, targeting of journalists and crackdown on protesters;
– How rights violations have continued during President Modi’s second term and throughout the pandemic;
– Calls for the immediate release of arbitrarily detained activists, protesters and human rights defenders.
Read full report