HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES IN INDIA - A MAPPING OF DIFFERENT GROUPS

Abstract

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible. Human rights are moral principles that set out certain standards of human behaviour and are regularly protected as legal rights in national and international law. They are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." The doctrine of human rights has been highly influential within international law, global and regional institutions. In India, too, these rights along with Fundamental Rights have been provided to citizens. The concept of ‘human rights' is not of recent origin. Many of the basic ideas that animated the human rights movement developed in the aftermath of the Second World War and the atrocities of The Holocaust, culminating in the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Paris by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. The ancient world did not possess the concept of universal human rights. So, the expression was first employed in the Declaration of United Nations signed by the Allied Powers on January 1, 1942. India, the world's most populous democracy, continues to have significant human rights problems despite making commitments to tackle some of the most prevalent abuses. The country has a thriving civil society, free media, and an independent judiciary. But longstanding abusive practices, corruption, and lack of accountability for perpetrators foster human rights violations. The rights of the citizens are the pillar of Democracy. Without rights, the citizens cannot develop their full potential. Laski has rightly remarked that the rights are those conditions of life without which no man can develop his best self. That is why all democratic countries make provisions for the enjoyment of certain fundamental rights by citizens. But the scope of Human Rights is much broader than Fundamental Rights. In this article we are going to study the various vulnerable groups of India which require their human rights because these rights are not available to them being vulnerable sections of society.

 

Keywords: Human rights, UN's Human Rights Council, Universal Declaration of Human                                                       Rights, custodial violence, gender sensitization