By IANS
New Delhi : National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) chairperson Justice S. Rajendra Babu has said that national level inquiries and judicial commissions should be taken seriously and their findings cannot be ignored.
In an obvious allusion to a plethora of inquiry commission reports gathering dust without the government acting upon them, Babu said that no one can refute the findings of national inquiries which are based on sound methodology, proper research, participation of senior authorities in the government at central, regional and local level as well as the general public, civil society organizations and media.
He was addressing the participants at a four-day workshop on national inquiries hosted by the NHRC that concluded here Thursday.
The workshop was organized by the Asia Pacific Forum of national human rights institutions in collaboration with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute (RWI) of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, University of Lund, Sweden. It aimed to provide the representatives with a step-by-step understanding of the process of conducting national inquiries.
He pointed that when a country like India, with its diversity and complexity, is able to solve the problems of human rights violations then why cannot other countries learn from the experience of NHRC. He said that India’s experience would help in facing rights challenges in southern Africa, central and eastern Europe and also in Latin America.
The workshop was attended by representatives from Afghanistan, Maldives, Cambodia, Nepal, Pakistan, Palestine, Sri Lanka and New Zealand.