NE NEWS SERVICE
SRINAGAR, JAN 16
Pitching for the release of 83-year-old Father Stan Swamy, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights defenders Mary Lawlor expressed serious concern over the arbitrary targeting of human rights defenders in India using controversial Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA).
I #StandwithStan today, as we marked 83 year old #HRD Fr. Stan Swamy's 100th day in prison. Thank you for hosting this important webinar @PUCLindia @VishalManve12 pic.twitter.com/3HoIaogx5g
— Mary Lawlor UN Special Rapporteur HRDs (@MaryLawlorhrds) January 15, 2021
“UAPA was amended in 2019 to expand the power of NIA in counter-terrorism investigation by allowing them to designate individuals as terrorists. This was done in spite of pre-existing shortcomings in the Act, whose definition of terrorists is not precise or clear. It fails to provide legal certainty. The act was used arbitrarily against human rights defenders in its amended form. It continued to be applied to human rights defenders in 2020.
Defending human rights is not terrorism,” said Lawlor while speaking at a Webinar organized by the Peoples Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) to mark 100 days of Swamy’s incarceration on Friday.
Lawlor said she had written to the Indian government in November, “raising concerns” over Jesuit priest Stan Swamy’s arrest in connection with the Bhima Koregaon case. She noted that she has not received a response as yet.
“Father Swamy is 83. He has been involved in social activities since the seventies. He has been working to protect the Adivasis and indigenous people from violation through forcible displacement and illegal land acquisition. He was taken into custody on October 8. He has been repeatedly harassed since 2018. His office was raided, baseless charges were filed against him, and repeated interrogation sessions were imposed on him despite his age and health. Unfortunately, he is one of the human rights defenders wrongly accused in the Bhima Koregoan case,” she said.
She said India is a state which doesn’t properly protect human rights defenders. “I am appalled by the treatment of human rights defenders such as Father Stan Swamy who embodies solidarity,” she said.
Lawlor said there are severe challenges to promoting and protecting human rights in the country. “Make no mistake; the state is responsible for the protection of human rights defenders. Solidarity is the last weapon of defenceless. State needs to listen to human rights defenders whose inputs are crucial, which will help in complying international obligation. They need to respect their right to defend human rights,” she said.
Highlighting CAA protests and disbanding of Jammu and Kashmir State Human Rights Commission, Lawlor said defending human rights is not terrorism.
“In June, I raised this issue with the government through communication concerning the arrest of 11 human rights defenders involved in peaceful protests against CAA. This communication has gone unanswered. India is a member of UNSC and UNHRC and it is required to uphold the highest human rights standard,” she said.
Lawlor noted that last November she sent another letter to the Indian government raising concerns about the arrest. “Governments are given a 60-day period during which they are expected to reply… But I’m still to receive a response from the Indian authorities,” she said.
Speaking on the occasion, Adivasi activist Xavier Dias said what is happening with Father Swamy was unfortunate, unfair, and unjust.
“If you can take thousands of Adivasis and dump them in jails, do it to me also… The important thing is for us to fight it,” he said.
Delhi University professor Apoorva Anand, who moderated the session, said it is a shame that Father Swamy had to spend 100 days in jail. “He has obviously been jailed for the crime of defending the liberties of the most oppressed, that is the Adivasis and Dalits and minorities,” he said.
Danseuse and social activist Mallika Sarabhai performed on Maya Angelou’s poem ‘Still I Rise’.
Lawyer Mihir Desai, who is fighting Swamy’s case in Bombay High Court, rubbished the chargesheets in the case.
On this occasion, a sipper was also unveiled in an attempt to highlight the anomaly of NIA. Father Swamy is suffering from Parkinson’s disease and cannot hold the glass and thus had requested for sipper and straw in jail.
