CIVIL LIBERTIES- India s Report to UN on Human Rights

CIVIL LIBERTIES India's Report to UN on Human Rights A G Noorani IT is altogether strange that the Government of India's Report to the Human Rights Committee, established under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has not been publicised in the country itself. It is dated July 4, 1983, and was published by the UN on July 13 and bears the documentation symbol CCPR/C/10/Add8. The Report was submitted in accordance with the requirements of Article 40 of the Covenant, India acceded to the 1966 Covenant thirteen years later on April 10, 1979. It became effective for India on July 10, 1979, The Instrument of Ratifications is dated March 27, 1979, and contains five reservations. First, in regard to 'the right of self-determi- nation', They are to be applied only to 'the peoples under foreign domination'. Secondly, Article 9 of the Covenant embodying the guarantees against arbitrary arrest and detention will be applied subject to the provisions for preventive detention in Article 22(3) to (7) of the Indian Constitution, The reservation is gratuitously added, "Further under the Indian legal system, there is no enforceable right to compensation for persons claiming to be victims of unlawful arrest or detention against the State".