The illusion of human rights in South Asia

An Indian policeman walks past as people hold a candlelight vigil in Bangalore on Dec. 6 in support of sexual assault victims and against the rape and murder of a 27-year-old veterinarian in Hyderabad. (Photo: Manjunath Kiran/AFP)

Only hours after police in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad killed in "an encounter" all four men accused of the rape and murder of a veterinarian, many people in the country exploded in wild cheers.

Men and women chanted cheerful slogans and came rushing to congratulate police, flooded them with flower petals and distributed sweets. Some even set off firecrackers in great delight.

"This is what these filthy animals deserved and the police have done a great job," some chanted as people from all walks of life, including politicians and film stars, hailed the police as heroes.

The police had assuaged public anger over a case that provoked street protests after the brutal rape and murder on Nov. 27.

Only a few people including rights activists questioned how the extrajudicial killing of the accused on Dec. 6 was permitted in a country famed as "the world's largest democracy."

Ranjana Kumari, director of the Center for Social Research, a social advocacy group, termed the police action an "utter violation" of human rights and "a total failure" of the criminal justice system, warning that India was moving toward a vigilante justice system.

There is little doubt that the accused men committed the most serious crime, but in the 21st century we cannot rely on stray bullets to deliver quick justice. This is nothing but committing one crime to obliterate another one.

The Hyderabad case represents a common feature of human rights violations in many countries in today's world, including those in South Asia.

In most cases, a poor and discriminatory legal justice system is blamed for trampling on human rights, with most victims from poor and powerless communities.

Had the four rapists in Hyderabad been from wealthy and powerful families, the story could be very different.

India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka were once under British colonial rule and still bear the legacy of anti-poor and discriminatory laws from that era. The system allows criminals from the upper rung of society to walk free while those from lower strata face quick medieval justice including police shootouts and mob lynching.

India's repressive laws

Extralegal arrests, torture and killing by police and military are an everyday reality in India. The repressive Armed Forces Special Powers Act and Public Safety Act are routinely abused in the guise of tackling militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.

The revoking of statehood in Muslim-majority Kashmir in August was followed by a massive lockdown, arbitrary detention and torture. It was a perfect example of Indian authorities' ruthless disregard for human rights.

Indian security forces continue to enjoy impunity despite their notorious record of arbitrary, extrajudicial torture and the killings of armed and unarmed civilians in recent decades.

A controversial Supreme Court verdict allocating disputed land to Hindus in Ayodhya city, where a 400-year-old mosque was destroyed by zealots in 1992, was aimed at appeasing Hindu fanatics at the expense of the rights of minority Muslims.

In fact, the rights of most religious and ethnic minority groups have been trampled on since the Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2013.

Hindu cow vigilantes have lynched Muslims accused of eating beef, Christian churches and pastors have suffered violence over religious conversion allegations, and ethnic peoples from the northeast have faced discrimination from Indians from the south and north.

Freedom of expression and association have been severely curtailed during the BJP regime, and anti-poor economic policies like demonetization have hit the poor hard. Anyone criticizing the government's unfair policies is labeled "anti-national."

India shares a land border of more than 4,000 kilometers with Bangladesh, where its Border Security Force (BSF) has killed more than 1,000 people, mostly unarmed villagers, for trespassing in the border zone in the past decade. This trigger-happy force has never been held accountable for the killings, so people continue to die at the border.

Lower-caste Dalits face various forms of discrimination and abuses. Non-Hindu Dalits are excluded from education and job quotas, which is discriminatory and unacceptable.

Tribal communities continue to get displaced by mining, dams and large infrastructure projects in mineral-rich states.

So, despite having a secular and inclusive constitution, India continues to fail to protect the human rights of the most marginalized communities.

Pakistan remains far from free

Pakistan is a staunchly Islamic country where Islam dictates the course of life for all citizens, Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

During its long military rule, junta dictators developed cozy relationship with Islamists and militant groups to consolidate power. Discriminatory and draconian rules including the blasphemy law have led to abuses, mob lynching and judicial killings of Christians, Hindus, Islamic sects such as Ahmadis and even liberal Muslims.

Pakistani security forces have carried out extrajudicial abductions, torture and killing in the name of operations against terrorists, insurgents and anti-state elements. In Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, arbitrary arrests, deaths and enforced disappearances in so-called anti-secessionist operations are common but largely unreported.

Due to the long and unavoidable hand of the military everywhere, Pakistan has never developed into an effective democratic country where state bodies including the judiciary operate with impartiality.

Ruling elites, military or civilian, always attempt to annihilate the opposition, a legacy Pakistan inherited on its birth in 1947.

The nation's media has never been free and civil society, with a few exceptions like late rights champion Asma Jahangir, never had the guts to criticize overbearing Islamism and military machismo.

Prime Minister Imran Khan, a former cricketer, promised to brighten the nation's image, but he has done nothing significant to improve the rights situation in more than one year in office.

As long as the pro-Islam mindset, laws and system exist in Pakistan, the country will continue to falter in human rights.

Bangladesh backslides on rights

The ruling Awami League of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been in power since 2008, and during this period the country has made notable socioeconomic developments but backslid on human rights.

The government, which was re-elected in a controversial election in December 2018, has been accused of being authoritarian, weakening state mechanisms such as the judiciary and exploiting security forces to suppress opposition and critical voices.

Extrajudicial arrests and killings, both of accused criminals and political opponents, have become common in Bangladesh. Rights groups claim more than 1,000 people have been victims of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the past decade.

Repressive laws have been formulated to muzzle dissent and curtail freedom of the press, while prominent rights activists and journalists have been intimidated and harassed.

Peaceful protesters, such as students demanding safer roads, have been attacked by police and ruling party supporters with impunity.

Violent attacks on religious and ethnic minorities over land and political disputes are very common, but perpetrators are rarely held accountable.

Sri Lanka in the shadows

Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war with Tamil separatists might have ended in 2009 but the nation has yet to come out the shadows of the war and is far from overcoming human rights challenges.

Newly elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the military and Tamil rebels are accused of committing crimes against humanity during the war that remain largely unaddressed.

Moreover, Sri Lanka has never tried to address the issues of gross human rights violations in the 1980s and 1990s during government operations against a Sinhalese supremacist group, the People's Liberation Front (JVP). Hundreds of people suspected of being JVP members and loyalists were detained, tortured, killed and disappeared by security forces.

For years, media and civil society groups in Sri Lanka have faced pressure from the state, and it continues today. Journalists and rights activists have been victims of abduction, torture and killing, but justice remains elusive.

The deadly Easter bombings this year by a little-known Islamic extremist outfit and the failure to stop the mayhem were the culmination of the utter disregard for the rights and safety of non-Buddhists in this increasingly Buddhist supremacist island nation.

The scars of civil war continue to dictate lives in Sri Lanka, where religious and ethnic tensions are still rife. It will be a long time before Sri Lanka can come to terms with its dismal human rights record.

All four South Asian countries have signed and vowed to fulfill pledges in the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. But in reality human rights remain only as beautiful, fluffy words for both state and non-state actors, even for those who cheer police encounters like the Hyderabad case.

As long as we fail to make true sense of human rights, we cannot claim our society, state and world to be truly civilized.

END

Original Articles:

Brief: The illusion of human rights in South Asia (UCAN)

Full: The illusion of human rights in South Asia (LCI)