Norwegian recommendations in UPR on India 24 May
We thank the Indian delegation for presenting its national report.
In the first UPR India agreed to enhance consultation with civil society and human rights defenders in the follow up of the UPR. Norway notes with appreciation that this recommendation has been taken seriously and that civil society was consulted in the current UPR-process. Today's publication of the report from the Government of India's interlocutors to Jammu and Kashmir is another welcome example of transparency.
Norway welcomes the extensive efforts of the Government of India to safeguard the political rights of women. We recommend, however, that the Government strengthens its efforts to improve maternal health and acts to effectively balance the skewed sex-ratio among children, including by combating female foeticide. We also recommend a fully integrated gender perspective in the follow up of this UPR.
Child labour is keeping many Indian children away from the education they are entitled to. Norway recommends India to amend the Child Labour Act to ban child labour, and to sign and ratify ILO Conventions 138 and 182.
The de facto moratorium and public debate on use of capital punishment are welcome developments. We recommend that India makes the de facto moratorium into a permanent one with a view to abolish death penalty.
Finally, Norway recommends that India implements the recommendations made by the Special Rapporteur on the rights of human right defenders following her visit in 2011, with a particular emphasis on recommendations that concern defenders of women’s and children’s rights, defenders of minorities rights, including Dalits and Adavasi, and Right to Information (RTI) activists.
Norway’s advance questions for India
- What steps are being taken by the Government of India to implement the recommendations made by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of human right defenders following her visit to India in January 2011?
- Will the Government of India be willing to consider repealing the AFSPA and Public Safety Act?
- Would Government of India be willing to consider strengthening the judicial powers of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights in a bid to strengthen the rights of the Indian child? For instance by giving the Commission status as Ombudsman?
- The census of 2011 showed a decline in sex ratio for children 0-6 years old (914 girls/1000 boys). How will Government og India work to prevent the gender discrepancy from increasing further?