India
27.11.00
Urgent Interventions
India: Extra-judicial killing
URGENT APPEAL - THE OBSERVATORY
IND 001 / 0011 / OBS 117
Extra-judicial killing
INDIA
27th November 2000
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the FIDH and the OMCT, requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in India.
Brief description of the facts :
The Observatory was informed by Amnesty International that human rights defender T. Puroshottam, the Joint Secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APLCLC), was killed by a group of unidentified men, who slit his throat open in a local shop in Hyderabad.
He had persistently received threatening phone calls because he had been involved in numerous investigations into alleged human rights violation by police officers including torture and extra-judicial executions.
His safety was in danger when he was attacked in Mahaboobnagar district in May 1997. He claimed that the attackers were police officers, but this incident was never investigated independently.
At a meeting in Bangalore in December 1999, he spoke of the continuing dangers that human rights defenders faced in Andhra Pradesh. Several of them were killed in the 1980s and early 1990s. The APCLC has claimed that the police officers have been actively involved in attacks on human rights defenders and that they have employed ex-members of armed groups in their operations.
The Observatory is gravely concerned by this killing and for the security of all the persons engaged in the defence of human rights in India.
Action requested :
Please write to the Indian authorities urging them to:
i.- order an immediate impartial and independent investigation into this killing ;
ii.- abide by the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9th 1998 (« Declaration on the Rights and Responsibility of individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognised Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ») and more particularly article 12.2 which provides that « The State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration »).
iii.- more generally abide by the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the regional and the international covenants ratified by India.
Addresses :
H.E. President K.R. Narayanan, Office of the President, Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi 110 004, INDIA Fax: 91-11-301 7290 / 7824
H.E. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India, South Block, Raisina Hill, New Delhi, India-110 011 Fax: 91-11-3019545 / 91-11-3016857 E-mail: indun@undp.org
Justice Venkatachellaih, Chairperson of National Human Rights Commission, Sardar Patel Bhavan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi 11001, India. Fax: 91-11-334 0016
Mr Ram Jethmalani, Minister of Law and Justice and Company Affairs, Ministry of Law and Justice and Company Affairs, Shastri Bhavan, Dr Rajendra Prasad Road, New Delhi 110 001
Excellency Shri Ram Prakash Gupta, Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh 5, Kalidas Marg Lucknow, India. Fax: 91-522-239234 / 91-522-230002 Email: cmup@upindia.org E-mail: cmup@up.nic.in
Paris-Geneva, 28th November 2000
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken, quoting the reference number given above. The Observatory, an FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.
The Observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.
To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line: Fax: +033 (0) 1 55 80 83 92
Tel: FIDH 33 (0) 1 43 55 20 11 OMCT +41 22 809 49 39
E-mail: observatoire@iprolink.ch
IND 001 / 0011 / OBS 117
Extra-judicial killing
INDIA
27th November 2000
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the FIDH and the OMCT, requests your urgent intervention in the following situation in India.
Brief description of the facts :
The Observatory was informed by Amnesty International that human rights defender T. Puroshottam, the Joint Secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APLCLC), was killed by a group of unidentified men, who slit his throat open in a local shop in Hyderabad.
He had persistently received threatening phone calls because he had been involved in numerous investigations into alleged human rights violation by police officers including torture and extra-judicial executions.
His safety was in danger when he was attacked in Mahaboobnagar district in May 1997. He claimed that the attackers were police officers, but this incident was never investigated independently.
At a meeting in Bangalore in December 1999, he spoke of the continuing dangers that human rights defenders faced in Andhra Pradesh. Several of them were killed in the 1980s and early 1990s. The APCLC has claimed that the police officers have been actively involved in attacks on human rights defenders and that they have employed ex-members of armed groups in their operations.
The Observatory is gravely concerned by this killing and for the security of all the persons engaged in the defence of human rights in India.
Action requested :
Please write to the Indian authorities urging them to:
i.- order an immediate impartial and independent investigation into this killing ;
ii.- abide by the provisions of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9th 1998 (« Declaration on the Rights and Responsibility of individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognised Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ») and more particularly article 12.2 which provides that « The State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration »).
iii.- more generally abide by the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the regional and the international covenants ratified by India.
Addresses :
H.E. President K.R. Narayanan, Office of the President, Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi 110 004, INDIA Fax: 91-11-301 7290 / 7824
H.E. Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Prime Minister of India, South Block, Raisina Hill, New Delhi, India-110 011 Fax: 91-11-3019545 / 91-11-3016857 E-mail: indun@undp.org
Justice Venkatachellaih, Chairperson of National Human Rights Commission, Sardar Patel Bhavan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi 11001, India. Fax: 91-11-334 0016
Mr Ram Jethmalani, Minister of Law and Justice and Company Affairs, Ministry of Law and Justice and Company Affairs, Shastri Bhavan, Dr Rajendra Prasad Road, New Delhi 110 001
Excellency Shri Ram Prakash Gupta, Chief Minister, Uttar Pradesh 5, Kalidas Marg Lucknow, India. Fax: 91-522-239234 / 91-522-230002 Email: cmup@upindia.org E-mail: cmup@up.nic.in
Paris-Geneva, 28th November 2000
Kindly inform us of any action undertaken, quoting the reference number given above. The Observatory, an FIDH and OMCT venture, is dedicated to the protection of Human Rights Defenders and aims to offer them concrete support in their time of need.
The Observatory was the winner of the 1998 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic.
To contact the Observatory, call the emergency line: Fax: +033 (0) 1 55 80 83 92
Tel: FIDH 33 (0) 1 43 55 20 11 OMCT +41 22 809 49 39
E-mail: observatoire@iprolink.ch