The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Rights group calls for creating awareness on law, social issues

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 14, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Rights group calls for creating awareness on law, social issues

Special Correspondent

Books released on child marriages, death penalty and refugees A 52-minute film on the Armed Forces Special Protection Act shot in Manipur showed images of resentment by Manipuris and expressed concern over rights violation

CHENNAI: The Human Rights Law Network (HRLN), a collective of lawyers and social activists, has brought out three publications towards increasing awareness on law and social issues in the country.

The books, "Child Marriages and the law in India," "Death Penalty in India," "Refugees and the Law" and "Disability and law" were released at a small function held in the city on Wednesday. Rajeev of Vidya Sagar released the books and handed over the first copies to Vasuki of the All-India Democratic Women's Association. Introducing the book on child marriages, Ms. Vasuki said besides providing the legal provisions to curtail and prevent child marriages, the publication also gave concise accounts of studies that were made on the physical and mental ramifications of such marriages on children.

Later, Mr. Rajeev said it was essential to translate the volume on Disability and Law into regional languages for it to reach the common man. Awareness about the rights of the disabled and their problems was very low, he added. Speaking on the death penalty, "Viduthalai" Rajendran traced its origin in this country to the 1990's after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. He recounted cases where those who were accused of aiding and abetting murder had also been given the death penalty and questioned the courts' decisions. The HRLN publication would be a good handbook for judges and lawyers alike, he added.

A 52-minute film on the Armed Forces Special Protection Act shot in Manipur, directed by Ajay Bharadwaj and produced by Harsh Dobhal of HRLN was shown later. It shows images of resentment by Manipuris and expresses concern over the gross violation of human rights.

According to Geetha, advocate and director of HRLN, the organisation, which was started in 1989, provides pro bono legal services, conducts public interest litigations and investigations into human rights violations, and engages in advocacy programmes.

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