NHRC to hold public open hearing of human rights cases in Assam, Manipur & 3 NE states

The NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) will hold a two-day public hearing in Guwahati from Thursday to hear 40 cases related to human rights violations from Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Sikkim. NHRC Chairperson Justice Arun Mishra will inaugurate the camp at 10 am on December 16. Justice Rajiv Jain and MM Kumar, Secretary General Bimbadhar Pradesh and other officials of the commission and state government will be present.

On Thursday, 31 cases pertaining to the five northeastern states will be taken for hearing. These include fresh complaints as well as some earlier registered cases. On Friday, nine cases already in process before the Full Commission will be taken up for consideration.

According to the NHRC press release, the cases will be heard in presence of complainants and concerned public authorities to make some on-the-spot decisions for redressal of grievances of the victims of human rights violations.

"Thereafter, the Commission will hold a meeting with NGOs and Human Rights Defenders to ascertain the human rights situation and related issues in these five States. This will be followed by a meeting with the senior officers of all the five States to discuss the important human rights issues. Later, the Commission will brief the media about the outcome of the ‘Public Open Hearing and Camp Sitting’," NHRC said.

The Commission has been holding 'Open Hearing and Camp Sitting' in different parts of the country since 2017. Till now, more than 40 such sittings have been organised. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, NHRC could not hold any camp sittings after February last year but with the Covid situation improving, the Commission restarted camps with the two-day sitting in Shillong for three northeast states of Mizoram, Meghalaya and Tripura which concluded on Wednesday

Don't register cases against scribes at the drop of a hat: NHRC to 3 NE states

Earlier in the day, NHRC directed Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura to not register cases against journalists at the "drop of a hat". The direction was given to chief secretaries and the DGPs of the three northeastern states. Complainant Sanit Debroy of the Assembly of Journalists in Tripura had approached the commission with his complaint that since the BJP-IPFT government came to power in the state many scribes have been attacked and several newspaper offices had been vandalised.

(Image: PTI/@India_NHRC-Twitter)