'Lack of accountability in protecting human rights a concern'

The status report on Human Rights in India, published on the basis of the Universal Periodic Review by the UN, has found fault a lack of proper implementation of government policies due to bureaucratic lethargy, inadequate allocation of resources and contradiction between different policies.

During a discussion session before the presentation of the status report, Pal said the resources that are annually allocated in protecting human rights at the grass-root level are pilfered to a huge extent and this needs to be checked.

"Presenting a committee reports to the government is simply baseless, in order to do that there must be a policy framework and the government must be made accountable," he said.

Discussing on the issue of making government accountable, Syeda Hameed, member of the Planning Commission, said, "the Commission is in the process of allocating resources, and we are looking forward to a more inclusive growth. And at the ground level, the approach should be multi-sectoral so that it benefits all the communities."

Speaking on issues like violations of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, Pal blamed state governments for their lethargy in voicing against the violations.

"There are situations where state governments like that of Manipur, ignore the reports by the judicial commissions dealing with such they themselves appoint" Paul said.

Commenting on report which highlights a trend of growing atrocities against minorities, Wajahat Habibullah, Chairman of the National Commission for Minorities, said, "there needs to be a uniform policy to provide atleast a sense of security to the communities which are being targeted to be terrorists, which is a major issue that needs to be discussed."

Nirmala Sawant Prabhavalkar, Member of the National Commission for Women, said, "it is unfortunate to have institutions like khap panchayats, which come up with these male dominated diktats which the government must deal with very seriously."