28th Foundation Day Program of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
Recently, the Prime Minister has participated in the 28th Foundation Day program of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
NHRC has been established under the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993. It works towards the promotion and protection of human rights.
It takes cognizance of any human rights violation, investigates and recommends compensation and other remedial and legal remedies if violations are found.
This is also in line with the Paris Principle 1991.
The structure of NHRC was changed in the year 2019 through the Protection of Human Rights (Amendment) Act.
The following amendments were made by it-
- Apart from the Chief Justice of India, any person who has been a Judge of the Supreme Court shall be appointed as the Chairman of the Commission.
- The number of members of the Human Rights Commission has been increased from 2 to 3. One of these members shall be a woman.
- Chairperson of National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) along with existing Chairpersons of National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC), National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) and National Commission for Women (NCW) and for Persons with Disabilities The Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities has been included as members of the NHRC.
- It has reduced the tenure of the chairperson and members from 5 years to 3 years, setting an age limit of 70 years.
Important achievements of NHRC:
- More than 17 lakh cases related to human rights have been resolved by the commission.
- Compensation amounting to more than one billion rupees has been provided to the victims of human rights violations.
- The commission also intervened in incidents related to the Nandigram violence in West Bengal and Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh in the year 2007.
Source – The Hindu
