JGU, CHRI sign MoU for close collaboration on human rights issues

New Delhi, June 22 (IANS) O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) and Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) have signed an MoU for close collaboration on human rights issues through internships, fellowships, researcher mobility programmes, joint research, joint workshops, collaborative summer/winter courses for emerging scholars, students and staff and collaborative executive education courses.

"We are happy to partner with CHRI to create a range of opportunities for our students and researchers in the field of human rights. The signing of MoU is a logical culmination of existing collaboration in the areas of prisons, access to justice, right to information and other areas. We hope it will prove mutually beneficial," JGU's Centre for Human Rights Studies (CHRS) Executive Director Y.S.R. Murthy said after signing the MoU here on Friday evening with CHRI International Director Sanjoy Hazarika.

Hazarika said that the partnership would enable a closer connect between academia and human rights defenders as well as encourage scholarship and research in a critical area that was of increasing relevance but coming under extensive pressure, world-wide, from both state and non-state actors, including corporates.

The signing preceded the launch of the 'Easier Said than Done' (ESTD) report bought out by CHRI, highlighting the performance of Commonwealth member states at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), and to contrast their pledges and voting patterns on human rights issues with conditions in the country.

The report was launched for the first time in India, although CHRI has tracked the performance of Commonwealth countries at the UNHRC since the first ESTD report in 2007.

"This report is simply a kind of a reminder and that is why it is important. It is important that this is documented and taken on record, but it is also more important that those who are concerned with human rights know that these are in fact commitments of those Commonwealth countries because then, these countries can hold themselves accountable," said Wajahat Habibullah, Chairperson of the CHRI Executive Committee.

Speaking at the event, Y.S.R. Murthy stressed the importance of honouring all voluntary pledges and commitments made by India at the time of its election to the Human Rights Council. Referring to India's review under universal periodic review third cycle, he expressed deep concern about 98 recommendations made by the Human Rights Council which were merely "noted" by India.

He pointed out they included, among others, important recommendations relating to torture, abolition of death penalty, human rights defenders, violence against women, child labour and child marriages.