{"id":34932,"date":"2018-10-31T14:28:30","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T08:58:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=34932"},"modified":"2018-10-31T14:28:30","modified_gmt":"2018-10-31T08:58:30","slug":"un-human-rights-review-what-india-accepted-what-it-merely-noted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/un-human-rights-review-what-india-accepted-what-it-merely-noted\/","title":{"rendered":"UN human rights review: What India \u2018accepted\u2019, what it merely \u2018noted\u2019:\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/un-human-rights-review-what-india-accepted-what-it-merely-noted-4861150\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UN human rights review: What India \u2018accepted\u2019, what it merely \u2018noted\u2019<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>What is the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a process established by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council (HRC), under which the human rights record of each of the UN\u2019s 193 member countries is peer-reviewed every four or five years.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under the HRC\u2019s UPR, every country has the opportunity to make recommendations on every other country\u2019s human rights record.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first UPR took place in 2008, the second in 2012, and the third is ongoing.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What happened in Geneva?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India faced the HRC again and promised to \u201caccept\u201d 152 of the 250 recommendations, and \u201cnoted\u201d the rest.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India\u2019s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Rajiv Chander (who on September 12 had replied to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra\u2019ad Al Hussein\u2019s criticism of India with a \u201csabka saath, sabka vikas\u201d slogan) delivered the Indian statement with its \u201caccepted\u201d and \u201cnoted\u201d recommendations, and promised that India would sign the long-pending UN Convention Against Torture.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>How are the recommendations compiled?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The process starts about a year before the review, when diplomats of the country in question in Geneva and at headquarters begin consultations on the human rights issues expected to be raised.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Previous reviews, NGO reports, media debates, and reports of various UN committees (like the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women) are fodder for countries to ask questions of other countries.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Did India have a friendly troika?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yes. South Africa and India have had very close ties since India led the international struggle against apartheid.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, they collaborate in the BRICS and IBSA forums.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Philippines, a US ally, is seen to be friendly to India because it wants New Delhi\u2019s support against China on claims in the South China Sea. And Latvia is really too small to matter.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What was so important about India promising to ratify the UN Convention against Torture?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India signed the treaty 20 years ago, but never ratified it.<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<li><b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2010, the Bill was sent to a Parliamentary Committee whose recommendations were never accepted, and the Bill lapsed in 2014.<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At Geneva, 30 countries, including Germany, Australia, Japan, Israel and Russia, called on India to ratify the convention.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>What were the main recommendations made to India?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Countries including Switzerland and Pakistan asked for the abolition of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).<\/span><\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Several countries like Germany and the United States said the use of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act to harass and intimidate NGOs should end.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Raised concern over restrictions to freedom of assembly and association<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Several countries asked India to criminalise marital rape.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Raised concern about growing violence against women.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">India has accepted recommendations pertained to sustainable development goals related to eliminating poverty, access to safe drinking water, sanitation and improving protection for women and children.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UN human rights review: What India \u2018accepted\u2019, what it merely \u2018noted\u2019:\u00a0 What is the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review? The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a process established by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council (HRC), under which the human rights record of each of the UN\u2019s 193 member countries is peer-reviewed every&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/un-human-rights-review-what-india-accepted-what-it-merely-noted\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">UN human rights review: What India \u2018accepted\u2019, what it merely \u2018noted\u2019:\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704816925},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}