State govts need to give more respect to work of SHRCs: Justice Bhandari

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New Delhi: Justice Dalveer Bhandari, Member, International Court of Justice, on February 17, 2017,  said there is not much appreciation of the work of State Human Rights Commissions (SHRCs) by the state governments and the NHRC should convene a meeting of Chief Ministers with the Chairpersons of SHRCs to ensure that they are effectively functioning towards promotion and protection of human rights. They need to be provided and strengthened with manpower, financial and infrastructural resources. He was addressing, as the Chief Guest, the inaugural session of the meeting of NHRC and SHRCs in New Delhi on February 17.

Lauding the work of the NHRC, Justice Bhandari said that it is unparalleled in the world with the number and types of complaints of human rights violations it handles and the amount of relief paid by the governments on its recommendations. However, he said that there are still some areas, where a lot needs to be done. These are: human trafficking, homeless people living on pavements, victims of terrorism, acute problem of air and water pollution. He said that New Delhi has the dubious distinction of being one of the worst polluted cities in the world leading to death of several people.

Justice Bhandari said that like the NHRC, the International Court of Justice also does not have contempt powers but by virtue of the respect it commands, most of its directions are accepted. And in this context, he underscored the significance of the judgment by the Allahabad High Court on April 8, 2016, wherein setting aside the challenge against the recommendation of the Commission in a case, the Government of Uttar Pradesh was told that the recommendations by the NHRC can’t be set aside with impunity merely on the ground that it is a recommendatory body, according to a PIB release.

Earlier, Justice H L Dattu, Chairperson, NHRC, said that Human Rights Commissions were envisaged under the Protection of Human Rights Act with the understanding that government(s) would act on their recommendations on the complaints of human rights violations. But there are many hindrances, which the SHRCs continue to face in discharging their mandate effectively. The most acute, perhaps is the lack of adequate infrastructural human as well financial resources for which each state needs to work proactively.So far, 26 states have established SHRCs.