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Prominent international figures urge release of the BK16 human rights defenders in India

Prominent international figures urge release of the BK16 human rights defenders in India

Prominent international figures support appeal for release of human rights defenders as India faces Covid emergency

10/06/2021

By International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF India)

Over 50 prominent international figures support appeal for release of human rights defenders from India’s overcrowded prisons as Covid spreads in jails. Read full statement/signatories:

We urge the immediate release of human rights defenders in India into safe conditions

Accounting for almost a third of deaths from Covid-19 worldwide, the situation in India is grave. We are alarmed that a number of human rights defenders who are currently awaiting trial in Indian jails have developed serious health issues in jail owing to over-congestion and neglect, absence of appropriate medical care, and deplorable hygiene conditions.
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Press Release: Prominent international figures urge release of human rights defenders in India

10/06/2021

By International Solidarity for Academic Freedom in India (InSAF India)

Over 50 eminent international figures including members of several European parliaments academics, lawyers, Nobel laureates, civil society leaders, and diasporic organisations have signed a joint statement urging the Indian government to show compassion and responsibility in the current Covid emergency, and call upon the authorities to release all arrested human rights defenders into safe conditions in the light of the dire threats to their health given the spread of Covid in Indian prisons. …

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Stan Swamy’s endurance has left a message for the world: Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil

Stan Swamy’s endurance has left a message for the world: Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil

The Leaflet / by Thomas Menamparampil

Eighty-four year old Father Stan Swamy who had spent decades serving the tribal people of Jharkhand, was arrested on trumped up charges, subjected to endless interrogations, and confined to Taloja jail for over eight months. As he battles illness, his endurance has left a message for the world says Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011.
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Remembering Shoma Sen on the third anniversary of her incarceration – A HEROINE IN OUR HEARTS

Remembering Shoma Sen on the third anniversary of her incarceration – A HEROINE IN OUR HEARTS

By Release Rof Shoma Sen

A HEROINE IN OUR HEARTS

In these sanitized times
Of death-tainted rivers
And doom-scented air,
When that which we
Cannot even see
Has brought us to our knees,
When falsehood rules
And each passing day
In every possible way,
Turns us into curtsying fools,
Dancing in a living hell,
We think of you, in your tiny cell,
Still unbowed, still full of grace,
Raising your maskless face
To watch a small bird fly
Free across a stillblue sky.

And although our facile arts
Can no longer comfort us,
This treasonous vision does,
Of you, the heroine in our hearts.

Com. Ganpat Bhise writes to Sudhir Dhawale

Com. Ganpat Bhise writes to Sudhir Dhawale

Dalit Camera / by by Com. Ganpat Bhise

A letter sent on May 23, 2021 to poet Sudhir Dhawale, editor of the “Vidrohi”, who has been in prison in Taloja jail. Five revolutionaries including Sudhir were arrested today three years back, initiating the beginnings of BK-16 case, as we know it today.

Dear Sudhir,
Jai Bhim!
Lal Salaam!After you were jailed, there has not been much uprising in Maharashtra and the rest of the country. I don’t think many others have suffered much except some of us who have been close to you.
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Video: IN PRISON FOR DREAMING OF EQUALITY?

Video: IN PRISON FOR DREAMING OF EQUALITY?


hindi + en | 1h56min | 2021

By United Against Hate / PUCL

Speakers: Kavita Srivastava, Nivedita Menon, Kavita Krishnan, Meera Sanghamitra, Sabika Naqvi, Lara Jesani; Moderated by Banojyotsna Lahiri.

The Month of May marks one year of arrest of equal citizenship activists Natasha Narwal and Devangana Kalita and 1000 days of wrongful incarceration of Human Rights lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj. All three are fearless voices of dissent, dreamers of a equitable and just tomorrow.
Join this session honouring all the brave and unapologetic women who refuse to be silenced despite the continuous intimidation by this fascist regime and resist the institutionalized discrimination against women.
Watch @ PUCL FB page

German Human Rights Commissioner Says Stan Swamy Should Be Released

German Human Rights Commissioner Says Stan Swamy Should Be Released

The Wire / by The Wire Staff

“Given his age and health condition, I urgently appeal to the relevant authorities to consider his release on humanitarian grounds!” Bärbel Kofler has said.
Bärbel Kofler, the German Commissioner for Human Rights Policy and Humanitarian Assistance, has expressed concern about the continued incarceration of Adivasi rights activist and Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy and said that he should be released on humanitarian grounds.
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Bandra’s St. Peter’s Church puts up signboard in support of 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy

Bandra’s St. Peter’s Church puts up signboard in support of 84-year-old Father Stan Swamy


Outside St Peter’s Church in Bandra. Photo: Keenan Burroughs

Mid-day-com / by Nascimento Pinto

St. Peter’s Church in Bandra put out a message recently in support of Elgar Parishad-accused Father Stan Swamy on its board facing Hill Road. The message on the board, which was spotted and shared online by several locals reads, “We pray for Jesuit Fr Stan Swamy in jail for two thirty three days and counting”. The 84-year-old Jesuit priest is soon going to be shifted to Holy Family Hospital, which is near the church, for 15 days, according to an order by the Bombay High Court on Friday.
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Statement of ABA President Patricia Lee Refo Re: Detention of minority-rights advocates in India

Statement of ABA President Patricia Lee Refo Re: Detention of minority-rights advocates in India

By American Bar Association

WASHINGTON, May 28, 2021 — The American Bar Association is deeply concerned about the continued pretrial detention of minority-rights advocates in the Bhima Koregaon case in India. As many of the accused are over the age of 65 and have serious medical conditions, these activists are at high risk for contracting COVID-19 as India deals with a substantial surge in cases.
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Also read: Should the Bhima Koregaon 16 be left to die? (By Jyoti Punwani, May 17)