In days of gruesome war, legal experts call for basic caveats of being a human

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Concerned of the largescale human rights violation rampantly taking place across the globe, basic caveats of human rights were vigorously discussed in a webinar, organised by the centre for protection of democratic rights and secularism (CPDRS) on Sunday.

The webinar started with a remark about how human rights is being violated continuously, citing examples of Israel’s atrocious attacks on Gaza.

Aditya Sondhi, a senior advocate from the Supreme Court questioned the need for a new Criminal law which was deliberated in Parliament in August.

“The introduction of a new criminal law is unnecessary because the existing codes can be amended or be reformed and in close reading these laws have not introduced new reforms. The inclusion of a Sanskrit Nomenclature is questionable,” he explained.

Sondhi, who was also the former additional advocate general for Karnataka also delved into the lack of visibility on death penalties.

“Most of the countries have done away with it. India is still following a de-facto abolitionist approach, leaving no space for mitigations,” he added.

Sondhi later touched on the lack of attention given to the human rights approach to trials.

‘The Government violated its laws’:

Dean of Govt. Law College Suresh M Nadagouder, the Dean of the University of Law College, Bengaluru University had elucidated the aspects of social security which is crucial to human livelihood and deemed it a right.

When addressing a question on how labour laws are being viewed, the dean revealed that both the courts and governments ignore labour codes. “

Despite using directives on non allowance of contract workers, 40-50% of the government workers are tied to contracts,” he said.

Nadagouder also commented on the labour code introduced in 2020. “This draft gives employers the power to sack their employees without any notice, unlike its predecessor which prescribes a procedure,” he said.

The professor also spoke about the lack of unions to oppose neo-liberal labour policies.

“Unions, irrespective of differences, need to work together for their welfare,” he ended.

MN Sriram, Convenor of the CPDRS, ended the webinar recounting human rights violations. He recalled the injustices borne by the likes of Bilkis Bano, Sudha Bharadwaj and Stan Swamy.

“People who are against the government are slapped with Sedition cases and thrown in jail,” he said.