Name - Harshvardhan Singh Sikarwar

Course - B.A Multidisciplinary

Discuss the role of NHRC in upholding Human Rights.

‘Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah’ is a powerful sanskrit mantra that recites the universal prayer for the well
being and happiness of all human beings. But merely chanting this mantra is not going to improve the
well being of all, one should believe and pray for the prosperity of others living in their vicinity. This
mantra holds importance for our country as it has been included as a principle in letter and spirit by the
Human Rights watchdog, National Human Rights Commission(NHRC).
It is necessary for us to understand the meaning of Human Rights before delving into their domain of
protection by the aforementioned institution. The United Nations define them as, Rights which are
inherent to all human beings irrespective of their race,sex, nationality, ethnicity,language,religion or any
other status. Right to life and liberty, freedom from slavery and torture are some of the important rights
encompassed in the domain of human rights. NHRC also recognizes such a comprehensive definition of
human rights in order to widen the scope of efforts put forth in the direction of promoting and protecting
human rights.

Before the establishment of NHRC in India, the country faced public scrutiny in the international sphere
with regard to combating the circumstances of human rights violations in its territory. These human rights
violations had been attributed to the armed forces of the country, especially in the conflict prone region of
Kashmir and Punjab. The US Congress was debating these Human rights excesses committed in India and
introduced a resolution to put a halt on the development aid if the country did not allow International
Human Rights watchdogs such as Amnesty International to conduct fact finding missions with respect to
the concerned issues. Initially, the establishment of the commission was motivated to address the criticism
of India’s position with respect to human rights protection. If this aim would have remained dominant
then the purpose of establishing a national watchdog would have been defeated even before its advent.
Human rights violations put a serious dent on the democratic credentials of a nation and should be
addressed with great attention. These violations have put a huge toll on human lives time and again, and
this is not confined to India alone but a concern across the globe. This led to adoption of Paris Principles
during 1991 in order to promote the value of establishing Human rights protection institutions, which will
work in accordance with the Internationally accepted norms and principles for the sake of promoting and
protecting human rights. Looking back at the domestic scenario, the introduction of the Protection of
Human Rights bill, 1993 faced severe questions about the bureaucratic nature of the NHRC, which it
wanted to bring into picture. This critique came from public spirited sections of the society such as the
notable NGOs, eminent jurists, lawyers and persons with an experience in the field of human rights. The
composition consisted of people with experience at the level of general administration to the government
of India and did not include individuals from experience in the judiciary. People who have functioned as
judges in supreme and high courts have practical work experience in the domain of protection of
fundamental rights which include the substance of human rights. Later, the Congress government brought
certain required changes in the bill with regard to the composition and majority of the members belonged
to judicial background.
In India, it is not the reality that before the establishment of NHRC, the government has not even put in
the slightest of its efforts with regard to protection of interest of weaker sections of society. There have
been precedents to NHRC in the form of National Commission for Minorities and National Commission
for Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes. These sections have faced discrimination in terms of
economic and social upliftment and it was necessary to put attention over their grievances in a formal
manner. These precedents along with the framework of Paris principles regarding human rights have
provided a great subject matter and legitimacy to the formation of NHRC and reflected India’s efforts to
work in the direction of Human rights promotion and protection, back then. It will be more enriching for
our study to look at the role of NHRC in upholding human rights in this context.

The composition of NHRC speaks volumes about the functioning of the institution. In 2019 with the
amendment in the Protection of Human Rights Act,1993 the composition looks in the following shape:
● Chairperson of the institution can be a person who has been a chief justice of the Supreme court
or a judge of the supreme court.
● The act now provides for three persons to be appointed as members of the commission having
knowledge of human rights, out of which one should be a woman.
● The act now includes the chairpersons of the National Commission for Backward classes, the
national commission of protection of Child Rights, and the chief commissioner for Persons with
Disabilities as members of the NHRC.
● The original Act also led to the establishment of the State Human Rights Commissions (SHRC)
as well as the Human Rights Courts.

The above changes in the composition of the commission can be considered as essential. The first change
led to expansion in the domain of appointments. It signifies that individuals who have served the apex
court as a judge are competent enough to head the institution. Earlier, there were two members to be
appointed with adequate knowledge of human rights but now this number is enhanced with a mandatory
membership of a woman. This provides a balanced identity to the composition of the commission. The
inclusion of chairpersons from diverse commissions addressing the rights of vulnerable sections such as
children, implies the expansion of the framework of the commission. NHRC can now form a coherent
collaboration with such a commission in order to expand its sight all over the nation in terms of achieving
its objectives.

Role in Promoting and Protecting Human Rights:

● NHRC is a statutory body which has been entrusted with authority to inquire into any violation of
human rights or negligence in the prevention of such violation by a public servant. It receives
complaints and investigates cases of human rights encroachment. The cases received by the
institution are of diverse nature as excesses occur in various domains. Examples include custodial
deaths, torture, sexual assault and harrassment, child labour and various others. The occurrence of
such cases despite stringent frameworks of laws makes the role of the commission important in
order to curb the disturbances in social order. The role of the commission is confined to providing
 recommendations but one cannot say that these recommendations are not backed by any
legitimacy and governments at the state or central levels can ignore these recommendations
without any firm ground. This is because of the composition of the institution which includes
faculty of individuals who have served in the Indian judiciary. This has provided legitimacy to the
human rights watchdog and enables it to tackle the human rights violations with competence.

● The working of the commission speaks explicitly about the necessity of such an institution in
upholding the sanctity of human rights. It possesses all the powers of a civil court and its
proceedings have a judicial character. It may ask for information or reports from the central and
state governments. This working framework reflects its strength as it can delve deeper into the
cases of violations in collaboration with support of the concerned government. Its role is not
equivalent to any NGO but is to ensure that the concerns of the victims are addressed.

● An institution is empowered to achieve its objective if it is authorized to have its own staff.
Similarly, the commission is provided with its own staff for investigating complaints of human
rights violations. Moreover, it is empowered to utilize the services of any officer or of any
investigative agency of the central government or any state government for the purpose. This tells
us that it will not become helpless due to inadequacy of staff and can conduct its fact finding
missions in order to gather every requisite information pertaining to the cases of violations. This
framework has also helped in building its network with the civil society organizations such as
NGOs, which as stated earlier are public spirited, this collaboration helps to deepen the mandate
of the commission and helps to enhance its outreach. The ultimate benefit is to provide assurance
to people that their grievances pertaining to their rights will be listened to and represented.

● The objective of the commission includes the promotion of human rights. It works in the direction
of spreading human rights literacy among the people and promoting awareness of the safeguards
available for the protection of these rights. It provides training to officials of law enforcement
agencies, civil society organizations, and the judiciary with regard to the field of human rights.
This ensures that officials working at significant levels of administration are aware of the human
rights principles and work in accordance with them in order to serve better to the public. This
ensures that the deficit of trust between public and state framework is reduced and the democratic
credentials of the country become more mature. NHRC has even provided recommendations to
improve the living conditions of inmates in prisons and detention places. This speaks about the
outreach and nature of the commission. It works in accordance with the international standards of
human rights protection frameworks which includes rights of prisoners as well.

● There have been cases where the working of NHRC resulted in redressal of the grievances of the
afflicted. The case of immigration of Chakma refugees from Bangladesh(then east pakistan) in
the 1960s to Arunachal Pradesh. There has been a threat to this community of persecution in their
native land. NHRC represented their problems in the supreme court based on the complaints it
received from the People’s Union for civil liberties(PUCL) and the committee for Rights of the
Chakmas(CCRC) about the infringement of human rights of this group. The supreme court
endorsed the findings of NHRC and concluded that there existed, “a clear and present danger of
lives and personal liberty of Chakma refugees.” Arunachal Pradesh government was directed to
 ensure that life and personal liberty of these refugee groups be protected. The central government
was directed to include the members of this group to be registered as citizens of India. From this
case study, we can assess the impact that commission can create in terms of promoting human
rights.

In this study, we are also going to look at the areas where the credibility of the concerned commission was
put to scrutiny. The commission has been described as the ‘Toothless tiger’ as it did not receive support
from the Protection of Human rights Act to penalize the perpetrators of human rights violations. Nature,
as stated earlier, remains recommendatory without any authority to enforce the human rights it boasts to
protect. The extra judicial executions that occurred in Manipur led the Extra judicial Victim Families
Association( to move to the supreme court in accordance with Article 32 to enforce their fundamental
rights. The regions where AFSPA(Armed Forces Special Powers Act) is enforced, the NHRC found itself
disempowered as in accordance with the section 19 of the AFSPA act that NHRC can only seek a report
from the central government and make a recommendation. Such frameworks put a question on the
legitimacy of the institution in terms of protecting the people from the miseries inflicted by the security
forces. These are genuine concerns which talk about the helplessness of the commission. Moreover, the
commission is not empowered to inquire into a case after a period of one year from the date of violation
was committed. This puts a limit on the functioning of the commission because there can be
circumstances where the victims would not be able to reach the commission due to unfortunate reasons.

To the end, NHRC is an institution which acts as an internal restraint on the state and exercises its
vigilance. This state is based on law and this law also resulted in the inception of the commission. A
commensurate mechanism should be developed in order to address the lawlessness of the state. The
commission has adequate procedures and mechanisms to deal with non-state violence but excesses
committed during the political regimes should not be left unaddressed. This reform will help the
commission to improve its credibility. It should not seem to be working as a puppet in the hands of the
government but with effective capability to act as restraint in terms of committing any act of
infringement on the domain of human rights. This will truly help to realize the well being of individuals,
which truly is the spirit behind the motto of ‘Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah.’

References
● U.K Singh,(2018) ‘The Inside-Outside body: National Human Rights Commission of
India, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol.III, No 5, 2018.
● S. Sen, (2018) National Human Rights Commission, Delhi.