Human Rights Day is celebrated every year across the world on 10 December.

NP NEWS 24 ONLINE – The date was chosen to honour the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption and proclamation, on 10 December 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the first global enunciation of human rights and one of the first major achievements of the new United Nations.

The formal establishment of Human Rights Day occurred at the 317th Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on 4 December 1950, when the General Assembly declared resolution 423(V), inviting all member states and any other interested organizations to celebrate the day as they saw fit.

The day is normally marked both by high-level political conferences and meetings and by cultural events and exhibitions dealing with human rights issues. In addition, it is traditionally on 10 December that the five-yearly United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights and Nobel Peace Prize is awarded. Many governmental and non-governmental organizations active in the human rights field also schedule special events to commemorate the day, as do many civil and social-cause organizations.

India and human rights

With rising cow vigilantism and attacks over minorities as well as Dalits, India has been at the receiving end of human rights groups the last few years. Amnesty International, in its 2017-18 report, expressed concern over authorities being “openly critical of human rights defenders”. The report condemned the use of repressive laws to curtail freedom of expression, while alluding to journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh’s murder in September 2017. This also contributed to India falling in the Press Freedom Index from 105 in 2009 to 138 in 2018.

Human Rights Watch also criticised the Indian government over lack of accountability for past violence in Jammu and Kashmir and the North East. It also blamed the Narendra Modi government for having failed to review and repeal the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in Jammu and Kashmir and parts of the North East.

However, there were bright spots, too, for India. International organisations appreciated judicial intervention in decriminalising homosexuality and protecting individual privacy. While the Modi government’s bid to secure rights for differently-abled citizens and decriminalise suicide were acknowledged, Human Rights Watch argued that a lot more needed to be done for effective implementation.