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India bars visit of UN official to study torture

Despite a phenomenal increase in the number of torture cases being reported in the country, the government has refused to grant permission to the united Nation special rapporteur on torture to visit India, Justice V S Malimath said.

Justice Malimath, former member of the National Human Rights Commission and chairman of the organising committee of an international symposium on torture opening in New Delhi tomorrow, told reporters that the special rapporteur Nigel Rodley, who is empowered to investigate and report on questions relating to torture occurring anywhere in the world, ''was allowed by the government to come to India on a private visit but not on an official mission.''

Though the special rapporteur has no prosecutorial authority, his report and recommendations to the UN Commission on Human Rights carry great weight in the international community, the human rights activist said and added that the refusal to grant him permission to visit the country indicated the government's non-serious approach to tackling the menace of torture.

The government, despite signing the 'United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment', has not ratified it so far. As a result, it could not be enforced in the country, he said.

The convention, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1984, has been signed by 113 countries till now, Justice Malimath said and added that even neighbouring SAARC countries like Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have implemented it. ''But India, the country of Buddha, Mahavira and Gandhi, was yet to respond to the challenge of taking a major step towards curbing the greatest threat to human right of individuals,'' he added.

The convention requires state parties to take effective measures to outlaw and prevent torture in their territories and punish those responsible for torture and cooperate with each other to bring them to justice wherever they may be found. It has also established a committee against torture, which is empowered to investigate, with the consent of each state parties, complaints concerning individual cases from other state parties or individuals or it can also investigate on its own initiative allegations concerning the systematic practice of torture. Each state party has to file a report with the committee every four years, describing its compliance with the convention.

UNI

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