Geneva, May 23: Ahead of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of India, a coalition of human rights organisations have urged Government of India to ratify the convention against torture saying that human rights violations including systematic torture,  enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detentions, extrajudicial killings and sexual violence, were taking place in Jammu and Kashmir.
 "India has still not ratified the convention against torture "and this is worrisome because torture is routinely practiced by law-enforcement agencies across the country. Its use is particularly systematic and brutal in conflict areas like the Northeast, Jammu and Kashmir and Central India. Enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and detentions, extrajudicial killings and sexual violence remain entrenched in these areas. India must ratify the convention against enforced disappearances," said Vrinda Grover, a New Delhi based lawyer, who is part of Working Group on Human Rights(WGHR).
 The WGHR was set up three years ago by leading human rights NGOs to prepare for the second Universal Periodic Review (UPR), an inter-governmental review of the human rights record of every single country.
 India’s human rights record is set to be reviewed by the highest policy making body on human rights in the United Nations (UN), the Human Rights Council (HRC) on Thursday here. The HRC is an inter-governmental body within the UN system comprising 47 States charged with the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe.
  The alliance of NGO’s decried the gap between the country’s growth rate and the rate of poverty, malnutrition and lack of health and sanitation.
 "According to official figures, the average growth rate between 2007 and 2011 was 8.2 percent but poverty declined only by 0.8 percent. While this is already disturbing, standards used to measure poverty are very suspect. They are based on a poverty level of 50 cents a day, which is an insult to the poor," said Miloon Kothari, convenor of the Working Group on Human Rights in India (WGHR) and former United Nations rapporteur on the right to housing.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 23 May 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
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