Solidarity – Page 53 – free them all

Maharashtra govt blamed for not providing basic facilities to Stan Swamy in Taloja jail

03/12/2020 Rani

Maharashtra govt blamed for not providing basic facilities to Stan Swamy in Taloja jail

03/12/2020

Counterview / by Counterview Representative

A well-known Jharkhand civil rights organization has blamed the Maharashtra government for failing to ensure “basic rights” 83-year-old Father Stan Swamy, a state human rights activist, currently lodged as an undertrial in Mumbai’s Taloja jail. In a letter to state chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, it regretted, the jail authorities only provided with a sipper to the human rights activist, suffering from Parkinson’s “on November 29 after widespread condemnation from all quarters.”
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The last straw is being further disabled – prisoners with disabilities

02/12/2020

The Hindu / by Jay Manoj Sanklecha

Denying a prisoner with disabilities his recognised rights is a legal wrong and a display of a lack of compassion.
… If Father Swamy’s allegations are true … apart from demonstrating the insensitivity of legal procedure, outline another fundamental issue — that of the rights of prisoners with disabilities. While incarceration itself is not easy, it is significantly more difficult for persons with disabilities.
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Tweet by Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabh

Dec 1: Mahasabha has written to Maharashtra CM @OfficeofUT with the appeal to ensure all amenities and dignity to Stan Swamy.

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Ensure proper medical treatment for Stan Swamy: Front Line Defenders

01/12/2020

Sabrang India / by Sabrangindia

The international organisation expressed concern over the denial of a straw for the Parkinson’s Disease affected Jharkhand activist.
Front Line Defenders, an organisation that works globally to seek protections for activists and human rights defenders, has demanded that Fr. Stan be moved to a private hospital equipped to provide necessary medical treatment. They have further demanded that all charges against him be dropped.
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Swiss parliamentarians and trade unionists formed a solidarity committee for BK16

01/12/2020 Rani

By SOLIFONDS

Parliamentarians and trade unionists establish solidarity committee for arrested human rights activists, lawyers, intellectuals and cultural workers in India

Press Release Nov 30, 2020
Swiss parliamentarians and trade unionists have formed a solidarity committee for political prisoners in India. With this they protest against the criminalization of human rights activists and government critics in India and demand their release. They also call on the Indian government to ensure that they are released, that irregularities in the proceedings against the arrested persons are investigated and that rights of the prisoners are fully guaranteed. The committee was initiated by the Solidarity organization SOLIFONDS, which has been in contact with the well-known arrested lawyer and trade unionist Sudha Bharadwaj for years. …

Remember detained human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj – secure her immediate release

30/11/2020 Maya

Tweets by American Bar Association – ABA Justice Defenders Program

#India: During the #16DaysOfActivism, we remember detained human rights lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj. We urge authorities to secure her immediate release in the absence of clear evidence of criminal conduct. @NIA_India #FreeSudha #FreeBhimaKoregaon #16days #OrangeTheWorld
The @chr_aba report found that Ms. Bharadwaj has been subject to numerous fair trial violations, including prejudicial public statements by the police and lack of independent public witnesses. @UN_SPExperts @UNIndepJudges

Also read: The Preliminary Fair Trial Report: Bhima Koregaon (Oct 2019)

CIVICUS: This #16Days we continue the call for #India to free #WHRD Sudha Bharadwaj, an activist and human rights lawyer who has spent over 2 years in detention.

People’s organisations demand release of Bhima Koregaon case accused

30/11/2020 Rani

People’s organisations demand release of Bhima Koregaon case accused

29/11/2020

The Times of India / by Siva G

Andhra Pradesh: Various people’s organisations demanded the police to release the arrested people’s organisations leaders including adivasis, women, dalits and minorities unconditionally along with the 16 persons detained illegally in the Bhima Koregaon case.
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Tribal Rights Activist Among 67 Slapped With UAPA Over ‘Maoist Link’ Suspicion

29/11/2020

The Wire / by Gali Nagaraja

Driven to a frenzy over purported statements given by Maoist sympathisers, Andhra police have arrested several human rights activists from Andhra Pradesh and Haryana.
Hyderabad: Athram Suguna, a 38-year old school teacher of the Gond tribe from Telangana’s Fakrigutta in Adilabad district, has been caught in a cat-and-mouse game with no end in sight.
Suguna works as a school assistant in a zilla parishad high school at Utnoor. After a group of suspected Maoist sympathisers supposedly spilled the beans on a network of Maoists to the police, the latter have framed her in a case under the draconian and stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
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lawyers & well-wishers send straws & sippers for Stan Swamy / Video: Denied Sipper, Straw in Jail

28/11/2020 Rani

Lawyers Send Straws & Sippers To Mumbai’s Taloja Jail For 83-Year Old Stan Swamy

28/11/2020

Live Law / by Live Law News Network

After 83-year-old Father Stan Swamy moved the NIA Court seeking adequate facilities at the Taloja Jail as he is unable to drink water from glass due to medical reasons, a group of lawyers have sent straws and sippers for him. Stating that the authorities must ensure that the detention of persons at the jail must be ‘human’, the members of the Bar urged the Jail Superintendent of Taloja Jail to make arrangements for all inmates as per the jail manual who have special medical needs.
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Disability Rights Organisation To Send Sipper For Stan Swamy In Taloja Jail

28/11/2020

Outlook / by pti

NPRD also appeals all disability rights organisations, activists to join this campaign and send sippers to Swamy.
Tribal activist Stan Swamy’s painful wait for a sipper cannot be tolerated any longer, said a prominent disability rights organisation that is planning to send the drinking aid to the jailed octogenarian, who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease.
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Over 100 straws & sippers sent for Father Stan Swamy as outrage builds up over denial of assistive aids

27/11/2020

Newzhook / by Newshook

The plight of Father Stan Swamy continues to draw outrage among disability rights groups and ordinary citizens. Over 100 straws and sippers have been sent to the Taloja Jail where he is lodged in as well as the National Investigation Agency office. The 83-year-old activist has Parkinson’s disease, a condition recognised as disabling under RPWD Act 2016.
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#SippersForStan: Social media users launch campaign to send sippers to jailed activist Stan Swamy

27/11/2020

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The National Investigation Agency’s statement in court on Thursday that it would not be able to provide a sipper and straw to jailed activist Stan Swamy has prompted social media users around the country to take matters into their own hands and send these items to him themselves.
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Video: Denied Sipper, Straw in Jail. How Stan Swamy´s case is different from Arnab Goswami´s

27/11/2020

en | 53min | 2020

Mojo Story / by Barkha Dutt

A Special NIA Court in Mumbai denied 83-year old Stan Swamy, suffering from Parkinson’s, booked under the UAPA Act, of basic amenities like a straw and a sipper.
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Where Free Speech Is A Path To Lose Personal Liberty: After 70 Years Of Constitutional Democracy

26/11/2020 Rani

Live Law / by Prof M Sridhar Acharyulu

We celebrate 70 years of Constitutional Governance in India, i.e., Bharath on 26th November 2020 with Damocles sword on free speech that could deprive personal liberty. None is bothered about those innocent, not very popular, common journalists and protestors who were arrested for talking against the establishment or protesting against Government policies like the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). In recent times, several Journalists have been charged under the sedition law, the Official Secrets Act, for incitement to riots and under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). Left wing thinkers, poets and academicians are arrested without any convincing evidence or or charge, and are denied bail by the Courts.
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National Vigil for Constitution & Human Rights Defenders/ Defending Constitutional Rights

26/11/2020 Rani

By Indian Social Institute, Delhi

By Indian Social Institute, Bangaluru / By Bombay Catholic Sabha

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SC Has Let People Down, Abdicated Duty to Defend Fundamental Rights: Justice A.P. Shah

25/11/2020 Rani

The Wire / by Karan Thapar

In one of the sharpest criticisms of the Supreme Court made by one of India’s most highly regarded retired judges, the former Chief Justice of the Delhi and Madras high courts has said that “to a large extent the Supreme Court is letting down the people of India”.
Justice Ajit Prakash Shah said the Supreme Court has “completely abdicated its duty to defend fundamental rights” and added that this will “affect the credibility of the Court and its prestige”.
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Video: SC Has Let People Down, Abdicated Duty to Defend Fundamental Rights, says Justice A.P. Shah

en | 51:32min | 2020
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Release the Poet: NO BIAS! JUSTICE FOR ALL!

25/11/2020 Rani

By Release the Poet Committee @ FB

Release the Poet Committee’s statement at Kolkata Press Club on 23rd Nov
“…If we look upon the flood of tweets and whatsapp texts, memes and mimics denouncing the highest seat of judiciary – the Supreme Court – in the last few months, we could clearly see that it was unprecedented in the history of India! People are openly getting judgmental and bitterly critical about the so called “temple of justice” discounting the risk that is ‘contempt of court’. The state should lend an ear to this alarm, which is, ACTUALLY, directed to them. …

Nearly 60 Irish writers protest against Varavara Rao’s arrest, express ‘deep unhappiness’

23/11/2020 Rani

Scroll.in / by Scroll Staff

The signatories said they had noted with ‘alarm the deteriorating condition of poet Varavara Rao, imprisoned without trial in India’.
Nearly 60 Irish writers have sent a petition to the Irish Embassy in New Delhi and the Indian Embassy in Dublin protesting against the incarceration of Telugu poet Varavara Rao.
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