Report of the National General Secretary, 2022 – 2025 adopted in the PUCL National Council Meeting held in Delhi 18-19 January 2025

Feb 01, 2025
By V. Suresh

(PUCL National Council Meeting, 18th and 19th January, 2025)

On behalf of the team of PUCL National Office Bearers, it gives me great pleasure in welcoming all the members of the National Council to this meeting of the NC. This meeting was supposed to have been held in December, 2024 but had to be postpone due to situations beyond our control. Some members have raised the issue as to why we decided to have this meeting in January when Delhi is closeted with cold and fog. It was a simple reason – we needed to conduct the NC meeting at the earliest as the elections to the next set of office bearers needed to be held within 2 years from the last NC meeting which was held in November, 2022. And the NC meeting when elections are held are always held in Delhi. We consulted all the members of the National Executive before we finalised the dates. So please do bear with us!!

There is a great sense of urgency in holding this NC meeting at the earliest in view of some recent developments. The primary and foremost issue, is the continued attack on human rights defenders and rights organizations by the state – both State and Central government and the variety of agencies they control – which saw its apogee in a recent remark of the Special NIA Court in Lucknow, UP which while convicting 28 persons – Muslims – to life imprisonment in the 26th January, 2018 Kasganj incident in which one Hindu person was killed stated:

“The prosecutors have expressed concern that in NIA courts across the country, when accused in cases under the UAPA or other anti-national/terrorist activities are brought for trial, NGOs – primarily advocating Muslim interests – promptly provide legal aid. This contradicts constitutional principles, as it boosts the morale of undesirable elements,” and that “This trend is promoting very dangerous and narrow thinking regarding the judiciary and all the stakeholders of judiciary (bar and bench) must ponder over this.”

The court named PUCL, along with other organisations like Alliance for Justice and Accountability (New York), Citizens for Justice and Peace (Mumbai), Indian American Muslim council, Washington DC, People’s Union for Civil Liberties (New Delhi), Rihaee Manch (Lucknow), South Asia Solidarity group, London and United Against Hate (New Delhi) and directed that the government agencies “To investigate this [and] prevent their unwarranted interference in the judicial process, and to take necessary action to stop them, a copy of this decision should also be sent to the chairman of the Bar Council of India and the principal secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India”.

We, of course, immediately issued a detailed condemnation of such remarks pointing that they were unwarranted, unsubstantiated and without any factual or legal basis. We pointed out that the remarks were passed in a trial in which the trial court has to strictly deal only with the facts on record led during the trial and marked as evidence, and cannot pass such remarks about organisations who were not parties to the case. While we are exploring legal options to respond to such comments made in the trial court judgment, the fact remains that a NIA court has passed such remarks which will be used by the state as the excuse to further clampdown on rights organizations.

The point to be kept in mind is that such attacks on human rights defenders and organizations is not happening in isolation. We have had repeated NIA raids on rights defenders, including on PUCL members like Seema Azad, and others. Seema’s brother, Manish Azad, was rearrested in a case recently in which he was granted bail 4 years back. The trial court refused to accept the claim of the police that he was arrested based on new evidence and refused to prolong his police custody and he was granted bail. This is just one instance of brazen abuse of the draconian laws like UAPA. Many more examples can be cited from across the country.

We can see a pattern in the way the central agencies are attacking fundamental rights of free speech, assembly and association guaranteed to us under Articles 19(1)(a), (b) and (c). Apart from false implication in criminal cases, the state agencies are targeting social movements, rights organizations and campaigns by using the KYC method to close down their bank accounts thereby choking them of funds to function regularly. This strikes directly at their fundamental right to assemble and form associations and unions.

Police surveillance is widespread, and in all states, irrespective of whether they are ruled by the BJP or Congress. The police use prohibitory orders to deny the rights of organizations to assemble and protest, even after declarations that the protests will be non-violent and using constitutional means. Even hall meetings, which don’t require formal police permissions are stopped/ blocked/ prevented. This was seen particularly in protests and demonstrations to protest the genocide happening in Gaza and in support of the rights of Palestinians to live and exist. Again, this trend is visible in both BJP ruled states as also in states ruled by the opposition parties including Congress and DMK governments. The picture is clear: ruling governments across India, irrespective of whether they are BJP, Congress, DMK or other parties, have a common agenda of suppressing people’s expressions, social movements and human rights bodies.

One also notices two distinct trends in terms of the judicial process: on one hand, there is a continuous assault on the independence of the judiciary, which we have commented upon in our editorials in the PUCL Bulletin. On the other, the impact of the process of ensuring selection of judges who owe allegiance to the majoritarian agenda – otherwise referred to as ‘saffronisation of the judiciary’ – is also becoming evident. The most glaring example of this was the comment made by a sitting Judge of the Allahabad HC, Justice Shekar Kumar Yadav, on 8th December, 2024 in a VHP event when he said that the country would function as per the wishes of the majority and used a derogatory term to refer to Muslims. The public controversy that erupted over his comments led to the SC Collegium calling him to explain to them, and a move seeking his impeachment. PUCL UP also filed a PIL in Allahabad HC against the CM of UP, Yogi Adityanath, supporting the comments made by Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav, seeking his dismissal on the ground that the CM’s comments amounted to a “gross violation of the oath of the office, in as much as, he has defied the faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India”. In fact the PIL was one of the last major contributions of Shri Ravikiran Jain, our past National President and also a Senior Advocate who recently passed away.

What is noticeable in these attacks are not random incidents but highlights a growing and systematic assault aimed at silencing and crushing rights defenders and organizations using the legal and criminal justice process. Unfortunately the courts, especially the constitutional courts have not risen to their expected role of being the unbiased sentinels of the citizen’s fundamental rights. The way the courts have responded to the bail petitions of the BK16 or the young Muslim persons arrested in the Delhi communal violence of Feb-March, 2020 are an examples. Many of them are still in jail about 5-6 years after their arrest with the trials not even starting or charges framed. Forced evictions and demolitions of minority communities still happens across many states, with the SC passing strong orders to stop such unlawful and illegal demolitions having been passed only recently. One can list many issues which the SC has not been addressing including the electoral bonds case, habeas corpus petitions, money bills case and other issues of national importance. The role of courts in safeguarding the citizen’s fundamental rights being violated with impunity by a brutal state and what we need to do in this context are issues which needs serious discussion amongst civil society groups, including ours.

It is important for the PUCL to discuss these trends and issues. Our responses cannot be symptomatic or knee jerk reactions. We need to critically assess the varied dimensions of the human rights challenges confronting the rights movement so as to come out with a comprehensive and detailed plan of action which encompasses mobilising citizens at grass roots levels while also working to create a new human rights discourse and imagination. We need to evolve campaigns aimed at increasing awareness about the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Indian Constitution and also about international human rights laws and instruments. We need to mobilise and also enlist the youth, students, marginalised communities and others in the fight to preserve, promote and protect the Constitution of India. As also to expand notions of constitutional morality.

It is in such a challenging situation that we are meeting today as the National Council, the highest decision making body of PUCL.

The crucial question is – are we organisationally prepared to take on a leadership role in addressing current and future types of human rights challenge?

It is time we ask hard questions to ourselves:

  • How effective are we as a civil liberties and human rights organisation?
  • Have we become complacent about our work – or are we ready to face current and new challenges before us which will require us to think `out of the box’?
  • Do we function in a coordinated, collective and collaborative manner?
  • What are the areas where we need to improve and expand our work?

            We cannot function in a manner of doing more of the same? This is not to demean the core of our work to defend basic human rights violations – conducting FFTs and visits to sites of rights violations; helping victims of state excesses and police brutality. It is only to emphasise that with a new generation of youth and youngsters we need to be more dynamic in involving them to address new and emerging human rights challenges .

To illustrate, after a prolonged period of discussions of over 16 months the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITy) on 3rd January, 2025 announced Draft Rules for implementing the “Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 – India’s first major comprehensive data privacy legislation applicable across all sectors of commerce and industry. The Draft Rules have been widely criticised as functioning like a `digital leash’ to the main law, which contrary to its stated objectives actually only increases state’s control of electronic medium through law which is opaque, non-transparent and undemocratic.

There is an entire area of new laws which have diluted environmental protection and accountability of monitoring agencies and corporates, just as there are major changes to laws relating to labour, urban development, agricultural sustenance and other critical issues, which have already become sites of human rights violations. As a human rights organisation, there is an expectation of PUCL that we will highlight a path to addressing the new age human rights challenge.

Organisational Review

It is a matter of great satisfaction when during the NC meetings we have a chance to come to know about the range of work that all our state units undertake. I urge all members to carefully study all the State reports to understand the wide variety of human rights concerns they have espoused. It is for this reason that I had requested colleagues from the different state units to send their state reports so I can incorporate both the key contents of their work and also a critical review of the same. But not all units have sent their report, hence I will have to undertake that task at a later time.

In this report we first start with a review of our work, organisationally, before we consider the type of human rights challenges confronting us.

  1. Organisational Report – Streamlining PUCL:

The process of streamlining our functioning which started in 2013, focused on the following key issues, amongst other issues:

  1. Regularising and updating membership in all state units;
  2. Functioning in compliance with the PUCL Constitution, especially formation of State and National Councils and election of office bearers at state and national level.
  3. Some measure of uniformity in the human rights activities and campaign launched by different state units with a common agreed national programme.
  4. Regularising and ensuring continuous communication between state units and national office.

1. Consolidation of Membership and regularisation of payment of membership dues.

There has been very small increase in the membership of PUCL since 2022 and 2025. Despite reminders from the National Office, some state units are still to send us their updated lists. As soon as the updated lists are provided, the details will be shared.

2. Streamlining elections to State Council and National Council

Almost all the active states have conducted their state council meetings where members to the National Council have been elected. These include the state units of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and TN. A few states where Ad Hoc / Coordinating Committees were formed like Gujarat, UP and Kerala have had elections to the State Body and representatives to the NC. West Bengal does not have an elected body as yet though they have been active in the past year. At the time of preparing this report, Punjab and Haryana state unit has not reported whether fresh elections were conducted as per PUCL Constitution. In fact they have not been communicating at all despite reminders. This NC has to decide on what to do about this state unit.

3. Constitution of new state units

There is no unit in the entire North Eastern region, where too many individuals and small groups of people have indicated their interest to know more about PUCL. The visits planned in 2020 collapsed due to the lockdown and unfortunately could not be revived this year. This will have to be a priority for the next term.

4. Financial Status of PUCL

As all members know PUCL is a voluntary organisation which has only 2 full time staff at the national office to take care of documentation and office work. As a rule, we do not take institutional financing. Our work is largely supported by (i) membership subscription, (ii) contributions by NC members and (iii) donations by members or well wishers. Occasionally, we have also sought donations for meetings like National Councils or Conventions from the Trust.

Members may remember that in the National Council meeting in Allahabad in September, 2015, it was decided that each State unit should contribute Rs. 50,000/ – per year to the National Office towards maintaining the NO; it was also decided however that those state units who did not have much membership will pay Rs. 5000/- as for example Odisha.

In 2022 – 2024 our finances continue to remain in a perilous state and we had issued an appeal to all the state units to send their share of the annual contribution to the National Office. I am happy to report that a number of the states came forward to share their part of the contribution. A few states however have to make their contribution.

The Annual Audited accounts and the contribution of different state units are available in the National Office for scrutiny by members.

5. Activity Report

While we can take pride in the range of activities our state units have undertaken in the last 2+ years, we still need to ask the question, “How effective have we ben as a human rights organisation?”. Very crucial to the process of planning our future activities is to undertake, a very frank, objective and crucial task of critically examining and analysing our internal functioning as an organisation. What are our strengths, weaknesses and limitations? What are we doing right? Where are we missing out? How inclusive and representative are we – at the state and national levels? How consistent are we in the activities we undertake?

Unfortunately, however, oftentimes, we do not talk about these issues or address internal organisational issues with the importance they deserve. While it is true that in the last few years since the Patna National Convention in 2014, we have been engaging with the task of internal analysis of our functioning, much more needs to be done. It. Is my fervent request that in this NC meeting we evolve an internal mechanism to constantly and continually review our functioning internally even when we are engaged with addressing human rights violations.

A: PUCL Bulletin and Publications

During the National Conference held in Bengaluru in April, 2023, Resolutions No. 32 and 33 spoke of reconstituting the Editorial Committee of the PUCL Bulletin with the inclusion of new members. Following the resolution the Editorial Committee now consists of Aishwarya Ravikumar, Anant Bhatnagar, Arvind Narrain, Bhanwar Meghwanshi, Geeta Seshu, Lara Jesani, Kavita Srivastava, Seema Azad, and myself as Publisher and Editor. Ever since then the Editorial Committee has been meeting regularly to plan out the articles to be carried, lay out and so on.

A striking feature of the changed formation is the range of issues covered now by the Bulletin. The layout has been substantially changed and more reader friendly. Of particular importance is that we have elaborate editorials on a number of themes, which are specially written from amongst the Editorial Committee members.

We have recently published as a booklet all the 12 Editorials published by us in the calendar year 2024.

I am happy to inform you that the response from members, subscribers and others to the changes in the Bulletin has been very warm and welcoming.

After a very long time, a virtual Hindi version of the PUCL Bulletin has been brought out by the Editorial Committee, coordinated by Bhanwar Meghwanshi, Anant Bhatnagar, Seema Azad and others knowledgeable in Hindi. Several issues have been published. These contain translation of select articles from the English version of the Bulletin but also contain specially written articles. Some of the state units have also planned to come out with virtual Bulletins in other regional languages. The Madurai district unit of TN state unit has come out with a Tamil version. Some other language versions are also in the pipeline.

Issues of Concern

While the content and quality of the Bulletin has vastly improved the following concerns we identified earlier still remain issues which need redressal:

  1. We have to print at least 1000 issues each month to avail of the postal department’s special concession rate.
  2. We have less than 200 subscriptions who pay the full amount.
  3. We need all state units to enrol at least 50 new subscriptions for the Bulletin so that it can become self sufficient. Unfortunately this is yet to become a reality.
  4. It is important for all the General Secretaries of state units to take this up as a priority task and get 50 new subscriptions. Considering that the annual subscription is only Rs. 200/ – state units should take p this issue as one of major importance and enrol at least 50 to 75 new subscriptions of PUCL Bulletin.
  5. Very importantly, we invite more articles from PUCL members for consideration for publication in the Bulletin.

Words of thanks to Ms. Babita and Mr. Ashok of National Office and Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Gupta of Royal Offset Printers who print PUCL Bulletin.

I would like to place on record the crucial support and help rendered for the publication of the Bulletin by Ms. Babita Garg at the National Office. Our thanks are also due to Mr. Sanjeev Kumar Gupta of Offset printers who ensured the print copy was ready for despatch and to Mr. Ashok Kumar of the National Office who ensured that the Bulletins were promptly posted to reach all of us in time. We would also like to thank Mr. Ajay Sharma, our new Chartered Accountant for helping us maintain the accounts.

New Forms of Communication outreach: The PUCL Dialogues

One new activity which was launched by the Editorial Committee is the launch of digital discussion series called the `PUCL Dialogues’. So far about 6 dialogues have been organised on the following themes:

  1. June 2, 2023 – Karnataka Assembly Elections & Role of Civil Society
  2. October 15, 2023 – Attack on News Click: Its Implications for Journalism & Democracy.
  3. January 7, 2024 – Abrogation of Article 370: What values did the Supreme Court Uphold?
  4. October 24, 2023 – Decoding the Supreme Court judgement denying Marriage Equality.
  5. November 6, 2023 – Bombing of Gaza: Genesis, Human Rights & Justice
  6. April 7, 2024 – On Citizenship Amendment Act – Striking at the heart of Secular India through an unconstitutional law.

A number of online discussions were also organised on other issues like the wrestlers issue, Manipur conflict with specific stakeholders.

B: Press Statements  

During the period 2022 – 2025, PUCL National has issued a total of 52 statements. The breakup of statements is as follows:

Year 2023 2024 2025
No. of Statements 24 27 1

The statements covered a wide range of issues of civil liberties violation including police and prison excesses, hate crimes, communal and caste violence, misuse of draconian laws by NIA and UAPA prosecutions, farmer’s issues, on threat too independence of judiciary and a range of other democratic rights issues.

All the statements have been published in the PUCL Bulletin and members can access the statements from the PUCL website.

This apart, all the different state units have also regularly been releasing statements on issues of concern in their states. The range of issues is truly impressive as can be seen from the reports of different state units.

C: PUCL Litigation

During the 2022-2025 a number of PILs have been filed by different state units which have been described in the state reports. They cover the following themes:

  1. Demolitions and evictions of slums and others habitations.
  2. Issues concerning PDS entitlements.
  3. Problems associated with night shelters.
  4. Justice for victims and survivors of gangrape.
  5. Rights of undertrials.
  6. Rights of physically challenged people.
  7. Hate crimes (in the SC).
  8. PIL challenging continuation of CM of UP for supporting Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav.

While the range of PILs filed is interesting, some concerns exist. In many instances the state units have not informed the National Office about the filing of these PILs. Nor in the reports is anything elucidated about the status of the PILs, its impact and so on.

There is a need to document details about litigation filed by different state units. This task though identified earlier, could however not be completed.

The need for explicit guidelines is also urgently required. In a PIL before the Kerala HC, by PUCL members in their personal capacity without seeking approval of the State unit or even informing them. This has caused legal problems as the court asked for filing of the Resolution of the National Unit authorising the persons in filing the PIL. We had to refuse to issue such a letter and have instructed the Petitioners to continue the PIL in their personal capacity. Similarly, a person claiming membership of PUCL Mangalore unit filed a PIL in Karnataka HC which was not informed to the state unit.

During the National Conference, 2023 in Bengaluru, one of the resolutions spoke of the need to constitute a separate Legal Cell inside PUCL to coordinate the efforts of National Unit as also the state units insofar as litigation efforts are concerned. This effort has not been successful and needs to be addressed immediately.

D: JP Memorial Lectures

The 43rd JP Memorial Lecture was delivered on 23rd March, 2023 by Bhanwar Meghwanshi on the theme ‘Hindutva and the positionality of Dalits’ in Allahabad, UP.

            The 44th JP Memorial Lecture was delivered on 23rd March, 2024 by Aakar Patel, senior journalist and former head of Amnesty India on “‘Candles in Unending Night – The paths visible for liberty and justice after 2024”.

E: Work on Thematic Committees

Members will recall that during the National Convention hosted in Bangalore (2023), it was decided that the National Unit will coordinate the work of the following 5 thematic Committees:

Theme 1: Threat to Freedom of Speech, Expression, association, assembly and dissent.

Theme 2: Unchecked Hate Speech, Hate Crimes, Rise of the Lawless Mob.

Theme 3: Weakening Independence of Judiciary.

 Theme 4: Violations of socio-economic rights of marginalised sections – workers, Dalits, Adivasis, women, sexual minorities, workers and other marginalised sections.

Theme 5: Attack on legitimacy of human rights works and the philosophy of human rights.

In Theme 1, the coordination committee were T.S.S Mani -Tamil Nadu, P Vijay – Tamil Nadu, Shujayathulla – Karnataka, Prasad – Gujarat, Bhanwar Meghwanshi – Rajasthan, Chaturbodh – Rajasthan, Sandhya ,Sabah – Maharashtra, Seema – UP. The group had presented an action plan which was to begin with investigating the abuse of orders under Section 144. All 5 states that were represented in the committee were to file RTIs to collect information and talk to organisations who had been impacted due to the restriction of the right to protest. However, there was not much progress reported to the National Council on their submitted action plan.

In Theme 2, the coordination committee were Manavi (Karnataka), Sarfaraz (Bihar), Fr. Cedric (Gujarat), Arthur M (Tamil Nadu) and Lara (Maharashtra). The group presented a plan to form state level committees, conduct national level workshops and facilitate the organising of state level workshops. This committee achieved a tremendous feat by successfully organising 3 national level workshops and tried several strategies to include state level activists from different states. The anti-hate campaign has produced significant impact and virtual discussion and training programmes have been held in several states. The efforts of Lara Jesani (Maharashtra), Manavi Atre (Karnataka), Fr. Cedric Prakash (Gujarat), Sarfaraz (Bihar) and Arthur Malaravan (TN), amongst others are commendable.

In Theme 3, the coordination committee conceptualised a legal cell, in which Jhuma Sen, Anand, Arvind, Mihir and Suresh would coordinate efforts to share legal strategies, case updates, and issues in their practicing courts, and also to deliberate on matters having human rights implications. It was decided that we come up with position papers under two issues: a) On the importance of independence of judiciary, what it means, and steps to be taken to secure this. Jhuma volunteered to work on the first draft and b) On the method of appointment of judges. Some amount of coordination has been initiated to streamline the process of legal interventions. However a lot more needs to be done.

While Theme 4 group had not submitted any action plan, there was a substantial number of people interested to work on responding to the violations of socio-economic rights of marginalised communities. The discussions of this Thematic Committee can be seen to have been carried over to the activities in different states reflected in focusing on issues of Ecosoc rights.

Theme 5’s coordination committee consisted of Anand Kishore, Arvind Avinash, Balamurugan, Brinelle, Dushyant Reddy, Kavita Srivastava, Kavya Kasthuri, Johanna, Praveer Peter, Priyakshi Aggarwal, Sayantan Chowdhury, Shahid Kamal, T. Arunugasam and Vanaja. The Committee proposed to organise periodic training camps or thematic workshops at the district or block level for each state unit came up, citing the urgent need for increasing membership so that future mobilization can create a bulwark against further attacks on Human Rights tools. As a starting point, a National-level committee on the “Training-of-Trainers” was proposed to:
(a) consult & conceptualize thematic training modules (as per the need: Constitution/Law, Fact-Finding, Political/Cultural, Organizational Development, etc),
(b) prepare & pilot 3-day workshops based on the modules with members of select state units, and
(c) review & roll-out “training the trainers” programs for creating a cadre of trainers within each state unit, so they can take the trainings to their subsequent districts.

We need to point out here that several states have intensified the roll out of internship programmes as also conducting human rights awareness workshops for young people in several states. Rajasthan, Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Bihar states have internship programmes involving scores of students, both law and non law students.

However it needs to be pointed out here that considering the voluntary nature of activists, and the fact that every state unit is engaged in issues of state level concerns, it’s been difficult to have continuous engagement on these thematics. We need to evolve a mechanism to follow up on the planned work by all 5 thematic groups, so that we progress in developing concerted efforts in response to the identified issues. It must be noted that state units have continued to work on these issues in different capacities; however, a national level initiative is the need of the hour. Just as Theme 2 have demonstrated in a commendable way, it is necessary for PUCL to bring in new people and build perspectives at a national level to strengthen civil society.

F: Manipur Conflict: Formation of an `Independent People’s Tribunal’

On 3rd May, 2023, major ethnic conflict broke out in Manipur between the majority Meitei community groups and the minority Kuki organizations, which is continuing even today 21 months after hostilities broke out. Over 250 people have been killed and more than 60,000 people displaced from their homes living in `IDP Camps’ in different parts of the state. After several meetings with human rights groups, women’s organizations, student’s bodies and other associations in Manipur, we took the initiative to organise a national level, ‘Independent People’s Tribunal on Manipur’’ consisting of eminent jurists, academics, human rights, Dalit rights, women’s rights activists, media persons and former bureaucrats and police officials.

The objectives of the Tribunal will broadly cover the following:

1)  Document the violations suffered by the people of Manipur with a specific attention to loss of life, sexual violence and violence suffered by children, women including pregnant women and the elderly.

2)  Examine and analyse the performance and responsibilities of the constitutional authorities by documenting the action taken to prevent the violence, provide access to remedy and justice, investigate and prosecute crimes, and in all other ways to provide redressal of violations and make efforts to establish the rule of law.

3)  Examine the role of all security agencies as well as government functionaries at all levels of the state and central governments in ensuring law and order and also examine the role of independent national and state based institutions in protecting human rights.

4)  Examine existing documentation on the Manipur situation and analyse the reasons for the continuing violence

5)  Propose recommendations to repair the torn social, cultural and political fabric of the State.

The members of the Independent People’s Tribunal are:

  • Shri Kurian Joseph, former judge, Supreme Court of India.
  • K. Kannan, former Judge, Punjab and Haryana High Court.
  • Anjana Prakash, former Judge, Patna High Court
  • Shri MG Devasahayam, IAS (retd), former Addl. Chief Secy, Haryana.
  • Swaraj Bir Singh, IPS (retd), former DGP, Meghalaya.
  • Uma Chakravarty, formerly from Delhi University.
  • Virginius Xaxa, Social Scientist and Author
  • Rosemary Dzuvichu, formerly from Nagaland University.
  • Tanweer Fazal, University of Hyderabad.
  • Sandeep Pandey, Peace Activist.
  • Manjula Pradeep, Senior human rights activist.
  • Navsharan Singh, Writer, researcher & Activist.
  • Henri Tiphagne, Advocate, Madras/ Madurai High Court.
  • Aakar Patel, Journalist and Author

A Secretariat was formed to assist the Tribunal consisting of both PUCL Members as also other volunteers. A week-long visit was organised in May-June, 2024 in which over 15 Jury Members and members of the Secretariat participated in visits to several parts of Manipur to visit victims in their homes and in special Camps, meet with officials and others involved with relief and security measures, journalists, academics, organizations of affected communities and others. Further hearings were held in July, 2024 in which actual victims of the violence who had fled the state and were residing in different cities, participated. Online recording of testimonies were also conducted. Court case papers, official reports and other documentation has been collected.

What type of changes are required?

During the 2022 NC meeting I had put forward the following concerns are primary issues for us to focus on. While we have made progress in some issues, from an overall perspective, the scope for more focused engagement and involvement cannot be emphasised enough

1. Assessment of the varied dimensions of the human rights challenges facing the larger human rights movement in India in general, and PUCL in particular.

This is an ongoing discussion which needs further and more systematic and sustained work. During recent discussions with fraternal human rights and civil liberties organizations, the importance of evolving a larger conceptual framework to understand the changing context and challenges of human rights were emphasised. This remains a major concern we need to address.

2. Critical analysis / assessment of the strengths, weaknesses and potential of PUCL, both nationally and of the various states on the following vectors:

(i) Human rights / civil liberties – ideological / conceptual frameworks.

There is an increased interest shown by youth and new sections of people from marginalised, socially excluded and affected communities. There is a great need to evolve a larger human rights curriculum and teaching materials to reach newer generation of activists.

(ii) Organisational – structure, nature & style of functioning, clarity of vision/mission.

Greater role clarity of different office bearers and the responsibilities they need to undertake requires to be brought about. For example we have a number of National VPs, Secretaries and Organising Secretaries. Some of them have not attended meetings, even virtual meetings. Some of them do not participate in national level activities undertaken by the national unit. A committee requires to be formed to spell out the roles and responsibilities of different levels of office bearers so as to benefit from the varied skills and knowledge of our members.

(iii) Leadership – how to characterise present leadership; preparation for second/ third line leadership; age – gender – sexuality – caste – community profile.

(iv) Issue of `Inclusivity and Representation’ in PUCL
What measures have we taken to ensure greater involvement and participation in PUCL of different members from socially marginalised groups & communities – Dalits, Adivasis, sexual minorities, women and other excluded groups.

The task of creating a new leadership level at state and national level is of paramount importance. Similarly greater focus is required to be paid to inclusion and representation of hitherto unrepresented groups and communities. This issue has already become a challenge in some states and requires greater attention.

(v) Challenge of increasing involvement of youth and students, from across all social, cultural and regional diversities, with PUCL’s work and activities.

Almost all the state units have consciously initiated programmes to involve more students and youth from different social sections. A lot more work requires to be undertaken by PUCL, nationally and also in different states.

(vi) Communication – internally as also with other institutions / organisations.

Communication has been streamlined between the National Unit and State units. Yet, problems exist in effective communication. This is an area which requires constant monitoring and focus, and is crucial to our functioning and growth.

(vii) Working Culture – extent of accountability, cohesion and cooperation within PUCL. Institutional mechanisms to deal with internal conflicts.

By and large, a good sense of camaraderie exists within PUCL at different levels. However given the voluntary nature of our membership, many state units are reporting the problems of enforcing accountability and responsibility of members for activities they have volunteered and undertaken. This is an area of concern.

(viii) Finances

This has been a perennial problem. It’s been difficult to raise finances to ensure that the organizations functions regularly. However a Special Committee requires to be formed which will exclusively focus on this subject.

3. Strengthening `Social Media’ presence across different media

This includes website, Facebook, Twitter and other commonly used apps; evolving an architecture to coordinate social media content between state units and national unit in such a way as to permit autonomy at the level of state unit in terms of messaging while ensuring that the messages conform to PUCL’s larger positions, policies and stances on different issues.

4. Creating a distinct and separate `Media Coordination’ group inside the organisation tasked with moderating the content of all PUCL communication between the PUCL Bulletin and other social media communication.

As regards points in Sl. No. 3 and 4, a faiur amount of progress has been made on this subject. Our social media presence and impact has improved, though there is tremendous scope for improvement. A dedicated media group needs to be set up exclusively on this issue.

5. Launching a coordinated `Internship programme’ to guide internship activities amongst different states.

We need a dedicated group on this subject as there is increasing requests for internships with different state units.

6. Need to consider restructuring nature of office bearers’ responsibilities – to make it functional. For example Vice – Presidents / Secretaries in charge of different functional areas – Communication; Membership; Website; Litigation etc .

I propose that there be standing committees from amongst the national office bearers on the following key subjects (this is only suggestive):

  1. Law and litigation.
  2. Membership, Campaigns.
  3. Publications and Bulletin, Web presence.
  4. FFTs, Internship programmes.
  5. Finances and administration issues.

I propose that from the National VPs, Secretaries and Organising Secretaries, we form Five – 3-member Committees/ groups who will work on the above subjects and ensure that there is continuous engagement between the national and state units.

I fervently appeal to all members of the NC that when we consider who to choose for the various posts of VPs, Secretaries and Organising Secretaries we choose only persons who can and have the time to contribute to the above tasks and activities.

7. Litigation – evolving clear cut, transparent and accountable institutional mechanisms for deciding on PUCL initiated litigation in the SC as also in various High Courts. This is urgently required and cannot be delayed.

8. Reviving the thematic committees and functioning.

9. Setting up of `Internal Complaints Committee’ (ICC) in each state unit as an institutional mechanism to deal with complaints of sexual harassment within PUCL.

It should be mentioned that we need to form some sort of `Grievance Redressal’ mechanisms in each state unit as also the National unt to ensure that as and when problems associated with styles of functioning, leadership issues and other internal issues arise, they can be referred to this mechanism to deal with.

10. Training – creating a cadre of human rights conscious members especially amongst the youth and students.