...PATIALA CUSTODIAL TORTURE: VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS SUPERVISED BY: SUBMITTED BY: Ms. Sangeeta Taak Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law Patiala (Punjab) PROJECT SUBMITTED IN THE PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF REQUIREMENTS OF THE SUBJECT OF CRIMINAL LAW FOR EIGHTH SEMESTER, B.A.LL.B (HONS.) COURSE SURBHI MEHTA Assistant Professor of Law (Roll No. 581) TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Objectives 2 1.2. Research Methodology 2 1.3. Hypothesis 2 1.4. Definitions 3 1.4.1. Police 3 1.4.2. Torture 4 CHAPTER 2: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND 6 CHAPTER 3: CUSTODIAL TORTURE AND RELATED DIMENSIONS 10 3.1. Categories 10 3.1.1. Physical torture 10 3.1.2. Custodial Death 12 3.1.3. Custodial Rape 13 3.2. Causes 14 3.2.1. Structural 14 3.2.2. Other Causes 15 3.3. Consequences 16 3.3.1. Physical Consequences 16 3.3.2. Psychological Consequences 16 3.3.3. Economic Consequences 16 3.3.4. Social Consequences 16 CHAPTER 4: LEGISLATIVE PROVISIONS 17 4.1. The Constitution of India, 1950 17 4.2. The Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 18 4.3. Indian Evidence Act, 1872 19 4.4. Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 20 4.4.1. The National Human Rights Commission 20 CHAPTER 5: JUDICIAL PRONOUNCEMENTS 22 5.1. Monetary Compensation and Judicial Response 25 5.2. Judgements Awarding Compensation 27 5.3. Judgments Awarding Punishment 28 CHAPTER 6: INTERNATIONAL PROTECTION AGAINST TORTURE 29 6.1. Major International...
Words: 16033 - Pages: 65
...Government and Torture Means of torture have been used around the world for a number of years. At one point in time it had been terminated in the United States; however, after the events of September 11, 2001, it has come back as an acceptable way to acquire information from terrorists. Torture is, according to the United Nation Convention Against Torture in 1984: “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him, or a third person, information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in, or incidental to, lawful sanctions.” (OHCHR) This definition, regardless of any country's own rules, regulations and laws is obligatory to be carried out by all the countries. When someone is accused of being a culprit of torture, there are various credentials, which are modified to wartime situations when needed. In general to be a culprit, one must bring severe physical, mental pain or suffering upon the victim. In most scenarios the inflictor is controlling the victim. Now if a local...
Words: 2491 - Pages: 10
...Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (1993) defines domestic violence as, “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation, whether occurring in public and private life (Mallorca-Bernabe 1-2).” In simpler terms, domestic violence refers to the abusive treatment one evokes another in the family context. Fifty years ago, domestic violence was not even recognized as a significant study or as a legal problem. It was not until the time when feminist activism developed concerning domestic violence that this issue surfaced publicly. From then on, domestic violence has been understood as abuse not confined to the criterion of being physical but as an act involving emotional abuse and sexual assault (Schneider 353-363). Physical violence, being the most evident of the three, involves acts that somewhat suffuse physical torment upon the victim. This encompasses slapping, hitting, kicking, burning, punching, choking, shoving, beating, throwing things, locking out, restraining, and other acts designed to injure, hurt, endanger, or cause physical pain. Emotional abuse, believed to have longer lasting effects than physical abuse, entails saying things to despise another person. Taken into detail, this type of violence covers the act of consistently doing or saying things to shame,...
Words: 2580 - Pages: 11
...as suffering, loss, pain or penalty inflicted upon an individual by a legal authority, as a consequence of certain acts of commission and omission. Punishment has two aspects. First is ‘utilitarian’ in which punishment is used as a tool for increasing happiness of the society by pointing out to the criminal the wrongfulness of his crime as well presenting the punishment as a deterrent to both the criminal and the society for not repeating the crime. Second aspect is ‘retributive’ which serves as a consolation to the aggrieved or his kin that the criminal has been adequately punished. Capital punishment is the ultimate punishment in which life of a criminal is taken away by a legal authority under a process established by the law. International Scenario Although, UN “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” does not say anything explicitly about death penalty, Article 5 of the said declaration prohibits torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Activists have been arguing that death penalty is cruel and inhuman and hence covered under this article. The Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989, provides for the total abolition of the death penalty except in times of war or imminent threat of war. Protocol No. 6 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ["European Convention on Human Rights"] 1982 and The Protocol to the American...
Words: 1471 - Pages: 6
...nationality, Place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion or any other status and discrimination should not be there among the people. “The concept of human rights, though the British claim that they knew from the time of their Magna Carta(1215),were to incorporated in the Indian Police Act,1861 and as such the accountability of the police for human rights violation as not at all a concern for the English at a time when they drafted the Indian Police Act in 1861.When India became independent, most of the Indian states drafted their State Police Acts and even there, the experts who drafted the Acts was concerned with the drafting of the Acts in tune with the Colonial Indian Police Act rather than doing the same keeping in mind the principles of the Human Rights as guaranteed by Indian Constitution and Police Accountability”. “Under the Police Act 1861,which is still in force, Police in India is nothing more than a government department lacking the autonomy under rule of law that exists for the police in other leading democracies. No doubt the Constitution of India is the supreme law of the land but the police are governed by the repressive 1861 Police Act and the regressive Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC)”. Police are the important mass of the justice system so it is their responsibility to protect the rights of the people and work according to the procedure established by law. As the credibility of system depends on the procedures...
Words: 6347 - Pages: 26
...prohibiting the state from taking your life, Article 2 also requires the state to protect your right to life by having in place proper and adequate criminal sanctions to punish those who take your life intentionally. Failure by the state to properly investigate a suspected murder, or to prosecute the suspected murderer, may amount to a breach of the right to life of the victim. In certain limited cases, Article 2 may impose a duty on the state to take positive steps to protect your life where it is being threatened. So where there is an environmental hazard that poses a very high risk to the life of the people living nearby, the state may have a duty to provide information about that hazard to enable the people to take steps to protect themselves and their families. In the case of Osman v UK, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found that the police were under an obligation to take reasonable steps to protect the life of the claimant as there was a real and immediate risk to his life, and the police were aware of this risk. Article 3 No torture, inhuman or degrading treatment The prohibition on torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is one of the most important provisions in the Human Rights...
Words: 1967 - Pages: 8
...Crime against women. Image Credit: Indian Express. Crime is an act of wrong doing by voluntary and intentionally. It is very dangerous to the individual and the society. Generally, it involves the violation of social law, moral law and country’s law with the objective to cause harm or injury to other. According to Paul Tappan ‘Crime is an intentional act or omission in violation of criminal law committed without defense or justification’. Mowrer has defined crime as an anti social act. The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘it is an action which constitutes a serious offence against an individual or the State and is punishable by law. Cause of Crime against Women (1) Situational Cause: The criminal are always active around such places. The crime is committed because of neither of the victim’s behavior nor of the offender’s psychopathological personality, but rather, because of the chance factor like working women or college girl living alone away from home, women coming alone from their working place or parties at late night. Conflict over money matters, ill treatment of husband’s parent may provoke the husband to assault his wife or man employer taking advantage of his female employee finding her alone in his office which creates such situations. (2) Man’s Supremacy: Violence against women is an outcome of the social structure and ideology of gender domination. Man always keeps his supremacy over his wife and other female members of his families. (3) Effect of moves, cheap...
Words: 1755 - Pages: 8
...ROLE OF NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR WOMEN IN PROTECTION AND EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN: AN EVALUATION Subject title: Family Law- I Submitted to: Dr. Anju Tyagi Submitted by: Aratrika Das Class/Year/Semester: IInd year III semester Roll: 16LLB12 2013 National Law University, Delhi Chapter I: Introduction It is often said that the status and position of women in society is the best way to understand a civilisation, its progress and its shortcomings. In case of India, women have come a long way from women sages and scholars in the Rig Vedic period to women in the armed forces, IT sector, politics, industry and other significant areas while balancing their role as a daughter, wife and mother. This journey towards modernization has not been easy. Women have had to fight the traditional Indian male-dominated society to emerge as stronger and independent entities. While all these are positive developments, cases of rape, harassment at workplace and dowry deaths are rampant. Illiteracy and ignorance about their rights are still prevalent among a majority of the women. It was in this background that the Committee on the Status of Women in India (CSWI ) recommended nearly two decades ago, the setting up of a National Commission for Women to fulfil the surveillance functions to facilitate redressal of grievances and to accelerate the socio-economic development of women. The National Commission for women (NCW) is a statutory body for women established in 1992 by Government of India under...
Words: 5635 - Pages: 23
...Animals Deserve Rights Not Abuse Brandie Killgore DeVry University Animals have been seen as a lower species for decades. They have little to no rights and are sometimes treated inhumanely. No rights are given to them, so when they are abused there is little to no consequences. Hit an animal, make them live in dirty environments, forgot to feed them, leave them in the hot temperatures with no water, or torture them and the consequences are minor compared to the cruelty forced on that animal. Animals should have certain rights so that abusers can have harsher consequences which in turn could help with future crimes, but doesn’t mean that they can’t be raised to feed our society or be used for other services. For centuries animals have been used by society to perform different duties. They are food for our families, they help the disabled, used for transportation, and other jobs. Yet if asked some still believe that they are just animals and were put on this earth to service people, not be equals nor have rights. For years animal activists have been trying to get society to see animals more clearly for what they are, living breathing beings. Some people believe that animal rights activists care more about animals than they do about other people, which isn’t entirely true. Some of the more extreme activists do but most activists have expanded their circle of compassion so that it includes both humans and non-humans. Most just believe that animals deserve to live...
Words: 1744 - Pages: 7
...Animals Deserve Rights Not Abuse Animals have been seen as a lower species for decades. They have little to no rights and are sometimes treated inhumanely. No rights are given to them, so when they are abused there is little to no consequences. Hit an animal, make them live in dirty environments, forgot to feed them, leave them in the hot temperatures with no water, or torture them and the consequences are minor compared to the cruelty forced on that animal. Animals should have certain rights so that abusers can have harsher consequences which in turn could help with future crimes, but doesn’t mean that they can’t be raised to feed our society or be used for other services. For centuries animals have been used by society to perform different duties. They are food for our families, they help the disabled, used for transportation, and other jobs. Yet if asked some still believe that they are just animals and were put on this earth to service people, not be equals nor have rights. For years animal activists have been trying to get society to see animals more clearly for what they are, living breathing beings. Some people believe that animal rights activists care more about animals than they do about other people, which isn’t entirely true. Some of the more extreme activists do but most activists have expanded their circle of compassion so that it includes both humans and non-humans. Most just believe that animals deserve to live humanely and with dignity, to be...
Words: 1740 - Pages: 7
...well as the safety of women. One of the main reasons of violence against women is the mentality which deems women inferior of men and merely limits their importance to the maintenance of the household, the upbringing of children and pleasing their husbands and serving other members of the family. Violence against women is present in every country, cutting across the boundaries of culture, class, education, income, ethnicity and age. Even though it is now forbidden in most parts of the world, the reality is that violations against women’s rights are often sanctioned under the garb of cultural practices and norms or through misinterpretation of religious tenets. Moreover, when the violation takes place within the home, as is very often the case, the abuse is effectively condoned by the tacit silence and the passivity displayed by the state and the law-enforcing machinery. In India even in the 21st century, women cannot step out of their house at any given time, assured of her physical and sexual safety. Everyday women in this society face more problems than men.The fear of violence and teasing restricts a woman’s anatomy, curtails her mobility and her ability to work and participate in social activities. Even today in India, women can’t move at night in secluded places and even at daytime at crowded places. Hundreds and thousands of incidents of physical / sexual abuse and culturally justified violence happens every day to women in this country....
Words: 3379 - Pages: 14
...three most important mechanisms for applying principles of truth and reconciliation at the local community level? You may wish to revisit the case study on Northern Ireland in Week Seven as support for your arguments. Provide examples to reinforce your main points. Anyone who has suffered from genocide, war crimes, torture, extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and general crimes against humanity have the right to truth and reconciliation. Establishment of the truth in the case of crimes is absolutely necessary for: Discovering the real information about crimes and their causes to those who were directly affected by the crime (to make their sufferings of people publicly recognized). In addition, establishment of the truth can help to circumvent false accusations; Relatives and friends (of people who are missing or who were killed) in order to find out what really happened to their loved ones, and to establish their whereabouts; The society in which the crimes happened, to know the circumstances and reasons that led to violations, and not to allow to repeat the commitments of such events in the future, to recognize and...
Words: 1869 - Pages: 8
...A Look at Human Trafficking Nicole Kohrmann Liberty University Abstract There is a world full of passionate people that want to bring awareness to human trafficking. Human trafficking exists on a global level affecting many men, women and children, in a variety of countries. Although there are some case studies available that involve this criminal activity, the lack of recorded data complicates the continued progress forward on the awareness of the real existence of human trafficking. The lack of data has a lot to do with the covert nature of human trafficking and the hidden activity that it is. The government will need to continue to amend the laws that are already in place, in order to prevent and catch traffickers before they reach their victims. Strong training for our law enforcement, our healthcare providers and any other agencies that may be involved also needs to be put in place. Continuing to create awareness will bring human trafficking to the surface for a difference to be made in the lives of the victims. Introduction On a global level human trafficking is an issue that continues to gain increasing awareness, as agencies in human services, law enforcement and health care professionals become more involved and aware of the problem. Human trafficking, according to the United Nations convention, is defined as; “the recruitment, transportation, transfer harboring, or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of...
Words: 4461 - Pages: 18
...Introduction: Organized crime was characterized, in 1994, as: "group organization to commit crime; hierarchical links or personal relationships which permit leaders to control the group: violence, intimidation and corruption used to earn profits or control territories or markets; laundering of illicit proceeds both in furtherance of criminal activity and to infiltrate the legitimate economy; the potential for expansion into any new activities and beyond national borders; and cooperation with other organized transnational criminal groups."1 ------------------------------------------------- Criminals are on the go up all over the world, and their illegal activities go further than local or national restrictions. This article explores the economic penetrations of criminal enterprises to run their strongly ordered activities. ------------------------------------------------- Generally, illicit activities of a conspiratorial group of criminals are known as Organized Crime (OC). Criminal actions are surreptitiously synchronized through a nexus or syndicate for making money. Structured in a pyramidal hierarchy, criminals employ violence and bribery in carrying out operations. Threats of grievous consequences are made to the targets for internal and external control in their connections. ------------------------------------------------- Among the numerous types of political crimes, secret killing, violent politics, campus violence and militant actions are salient in Bangladesh...
Words: 3444 - Pages: 14
...cultural and social structures that affect the statuses of the men, women, and children in the society (Olsen, Carstensen, and Høyen). Basic principles of International Humanitarian Law International humanitarian law consists of rules used in times of armed conflicts to protect the victims of hostilities. The laws also restrict the methods of warfare employed during such situations. Humanity is one of the basic principles of international humanitarian law. The principle focuses on addressing suffering in the affected regions. It ensures the provision of emergency care to the affected populations wherever found. This results in protection of health and life of the affected populations. Principle of humanity ensures respect for a human being and promotion of their optimal health and wellbeing (van der Merwe). Impartiality, which is the second basic principle of the international humanitarian law, focuses on prioritizing needs of the population in crisis. Principle of impartiality recognizes that, humanitarian actions should be basing on the severity of the human need. This entails responding to the most critical cases of distress without taking into...
Words: 2399 - Pages: 10
