Human Rights

07 July 2021; MEMO: Some $485 million are urgently needed for the immediate and short-term recovery of Gaza, a World Bank report revealed yesterday.

Guwahati, Jul 6 (PTI) The National Investigation Agency has filed two appeals in the Gauhati High Court challenging the orders passed by the NIA Special Court relating to the release of Independent MLA Akhil Gogoi and six others.

The NIA court on June 22 and July 1 cleared Gogoi of all charges in the two cases against him under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 for his alleged role in violent protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in Assam.

His six associates were also released by the court.

“There is darkness today with the death of Fr. Stan but he is truly a light for thousands of people of India and elsewhere.” This is how Indian Jesuit priest Father Cedric Prakash reacted soon after hearing about the death of jailed fellow Jesuit Father Stan Swamy on Monday. 

Fr. Stan, who championed the cause of indigenous and marginalized people in eastern India’s Jharkhand state, died in Mumbai’s Holy Family Hospital.  He was being treated there for Covid-19, which he contracted behind bars in Taloja jail, near Mumbai.

New Delhi, Jul 6 (PTI) Leaders of 10 opposition parties including Congress chief Sonia Gandhi Tuesday wrote to President Ram Nath Kovind expressing "outrage" at the death of Father Stan Swamy "under custody", and seeking his intervention in holding accountable those responsible for "foisting false cases" on the activist, his continued detention and "inhuman treatment".

The signatories also include NCP chief Sharad Pawar, former prime minister and JDS leader H D Deve Gowda and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah.

Melbourne; 06 July 2021 (UMMN):  An Indian couple in Melbourne face a maximum of 25 years in jail for keeping a slave at their home for eight years when sentencing takes place in the Supreme Court on 21 July 2021.

The couple Kumuthini Kannan, 53, and her husband, Kandasamy Kannan, 57, were found guilty in a recent pre-sentencing hearing, for two counts of possessing a slave and exercising power over a slave.

AMSTERDAM (AP) — One of the Netherlands’ best known crime reporters was shot Tuesday evening in a brazen attack in downtown Amsterdam and was fighting for his life in a hospital, the Dutch capital’s mayor said.

Peter R. de Vries, who is widely lauded for fearless reporting on the Dutch underworld, was shot after making one of his regular appearances on a current affairs television show. It was an unusually brutal attack on a journalist in the Netherlands.

06 July 2021; MEMO: A Palestinian human rights lawyer was detained by Israeli forces early on Sunday after taking part in a protest in the West Bank against Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the international rights group Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) said.

According to ICHR, Farid Al-Atrash was arrested at an Israeli checkpoint east of Jerusalem. He had been taking part in a protest against the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.

New Delhi, July 5 (PTI) The Supreme Court Monday said it is amazing and shocking that people are still being booked under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act that was scrapped by the apex court verdict in 2015.

Under the scrapped section a person posting offensive messages could be imprisoned for up to three years and also fined.

A bench of Justices R F Nariman, K M Joseph and B R Gavai issued notice to the Centre on an application filed by an NGO, 'People's Union for Civil Liberties' (PUCL).

New Delhi, Jul 5 (PTI) Congress leader Rahul Gandhi expressed condolences on Monday over the death of Father Stan Swamy and said he deserved justice and humaneness.

"Heartfelt condolences on the passing of Father Stan Swamy. He deserved justice and humaneness," he wrote on Twitter.

Jesuit priest Stan Swamy, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case, died at a Mumbai hospital on Monday afternoon.

Ranchi, July 5 (PTI) The words "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race," from the Bible seems to sum up the life of Stanislaus Lourdusamy, 84 or 'Stan Swamy' as he was known.

Swamy, a Jesuit priest, who spent long years working among his beloved Advasis in this eastern Indian tribal state, died on Monday in Mumbai, hours before his appeal for bail in a case where he is ironically accused of being an `Urban Naxal' was to be heard.