Commissions In India

National Human Rights Commission Of India

A public body constituted for benefitting the citizens of the country, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has been playing crucial roles since its establishment on October 12, 1993. This Commission was established after the thorough assessment of needs for such bodies to address the human rights related issues and by keeping in consideration the ways and measures to apply for their protection.

About National Human Rights Commission of India

The Central Government of India setup the National Human Rights Commission of India in the year 1993 under the Protection of Human Rights Ordinance which was made effective the same year itself. Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 (TPHRA) gave this Commission a status of a complete statutory basis to act as a Commission for the fruitful outcome.

NHRC has already become an exceptional human rights institution with its national reputation and by performing the main roles to protect rights as one of the important responsible groups through creating total awareness and to promote the rights which have been given the prime importance in the Act.

Composition of National Human Rights Commission of India

NHRC as an independent body works extensively and consists of highly experienced team to work in the areas of human rights. The composition of this Commission is the head or chairperson being selected from the judiciary so any Supreme Court Chief Justice to lead the team od members. Two members are selected from the judiciary out of whom one should be a sitting or former Supreme Court Judge and the other any High Court’s Chief Justice respectively.

They are the key members besides rest two members whose appointments base on their knowledge level on both practical and theoretical grounds who could give new direction to human rights issues. Ex officio members of NHRC are the chairpersons of four National Commissions to complete this Commission as a national body.

President appoints chairperson and the members of NHRC for which a committee nominates the names. This committee consists of chairperson, the Prime Minister and the members including Home Minister, Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Speaker and the Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman.

Mandate

National Human Rights Commission of India was setup with the prescribed mandate to look into the human rights issues of the citizens of the country for the fulfillment and to work as a watchdog for the rights pertaining to life, freedom and total equality as human beings for the best possible maintenance of dignity as individuals in the country. Mandates which TPHRA has prescribed for NHRC mainly concentrate on the following:-

• Enquiring into the violation of human rights proactively as well as reactively to suppress all sorts of negligence
• Watching and offering solutions for complete prevention of human rights violation through the administration staffs
• Intervene into the court proceedings if there is anything which relates to the human rights violations
• This Commission has been empowered to visit the jails in the country or the institutions coming under a state’s control which mainly serve for a person’s detention to assess and obtain the firsthand report for the application of protection or reformation
• The Commission must take various measures and steps into consideration which makes it easy for the thorough study of the living condition of inmates when detained for assessment of the human rights to crosscheck whether there is any violation and what steps should be taken as recommendations that can be deemed appropriate for best possible improvement
• Thorough reviewing of human rights issues for better safeguarding under the law and to enforce the steps which are meant for human right’s protection

Recommendation Reports

National Human Rights Commission of India has regularly submitted the reports to Central Government and suggested many recommendations for implementation. Its reports mainly concentrated on the key factors to review issues related to human rights violation of any kinds and the acts of terrorism amongst others which directly affects the human rights. The reports submitted by this public body also indicated for the best remedial measures post evaluating the cases.

NHRC keeps studying the multiple international treaties and the bodies that work on the human rights framework to make its own opinion on certain human rights issues while making recommendations. Such steps bring a big change for the most effective implementation of reports submitted. Some noticeable recommendation reports are as follows:-

• Advising the government to promote its initiatives to undertake different types of researches in the human rights areas
• Suggestions for taking initiatives to engage people in various types of human rights education activities
• Promoting awareness for better safeguard and human rights protection by the medium of various publications / media or rest means possible
• Guidance to the NGOs through encouragement to work in human rights fields

Implementation of Recommendations

As NHRC works as an accredited body its recommendations have been implemented on regular intervals. Most of its recommendations have already been implemented for human rights protection. The central and state governments have taken many important steps to implement recommendations on the national and state levels ever since this body has been advising solutions for betterment of human rights or the solutions of problems concerned.