Human rights, but not necessarily as we know them...

The visit to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) got off to a poor start when our host bounded past the two female members of the delegation to shake my hand. Now I would be the first to accept that there is a generational issue here, in that women are often overlooked in a formal setting. However, in a organisation that is focussed on human rights, I was somewhat taken aback.

Alright, a bad first impression should not colour one's perception. So, second perception. The reception committee is wholly male, not a woman in sight. They're all middle-aged and beyond. So, some probing is done in terms of responsibilities and powers. They are a statutory body with the powers of a civil court. They can investigate complaints and, in some cases, act. They do not initiate extensions of rights, as that is a job for Parliament, and they do not campaign for change, merely implementation. They don't handle questions of equality, although the National Commission for Equality is allied to them, and the Chair of the latter is a member of the NCHR.

So, how many women are on the NCHR? None, or some, depending on who answers, before one member complains that the suggestion that there are no women on the Commission is a false one. This is not going particularly well...

Next, questions about rights for the disabled. The contrast between the approach in the United Kingdom, where groups campaign, lobby government and propose changes to the law, and India, where the NHRC seek reparation for those impacted by compliance failures, became apparent. Whilst the reasons for this are fairly obvious - mass lobbying for a small group is less likely when there are people starving - there are some elements of the work of the NCHR which might be applicable in the United Kingdom.

The delegation have been very kind in including me in their activities, so I took the opportunity to ask one of those 'difficult' questions, that of the human rights linked to sexual orientation. Given that homosexual acts are illegal in India, and that most of the legislation in the field dates from pre-Independence, I wasn't expecting much of an answer. In fact, I didn't get an answer at all, and for an organisation that purports to study international conventions for compliance by the Indian government, I was rather disappointed.

So, all in all, a bit of a disappointment, and I would feel forced to conclude that the NCHR is a body fixated with the mechanics of rights, rather than an organisation that fights for them.