All government arms should uphold human rights: NHRC cief

The National Human Rights Commission has limited jurisdiction and may look into cases of violations by public servants only and it is important that all branches of the government uphold rights, its chairperson said on Wednesday.

Despite the NHRC's limited sphere, it gets "one lakh cases every year, 95 percent of which are disposed off", Justice (retd.) Cyriac Joseph, stressing all arms of the government need to uphold them.

"The protection of human rights is a constitutional value and goal. All branches of the government have a constitutional duty to uphold human rights," he said at an interactive session in the MCC Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Joseph regretted that in most of the states, State Human Rights Commissions have either not been constituted or were not functioning properly.

West Bengal Human Rights Commission member M.S. Dwivedy said rights cannot be defended without the support of NGOs and human rights defenders.