Human rights activist and lawyer Henri Tiphagne received the Amnesty International’s Human Rights Award on April 25 in Berlin. Tiphagne of People’s Watch is the first Indian to receive this award. After returning to Chennai on Wednesday, he spoke to A.Ragu Raman of Deccan Chronicle. Excerpts:
Q Who do you want to dedicate this award ?
I received this award on behalf of all women and men human rights defenders in India whose names and faces are not known to the outside world. This award is for those working in the shrinking civil society space in India.
Q Will this award serve as an inspiration to other human rights activists in the country?
Generally, awards like this have never been received by human rights activists. None of us is working for awards. However, this award is only a political recognition.
Q Is the space for civil society shrinking in India?
People working in civil society organisations are suffering from shrinking space in relation to their right to association, right to assembly and right to freedom of expression. All forms of controls have been brought unto us. Controls on voluntary force affect genuineness of the work.
Q Is the state machinery seeing human rights activists as a nuisance?
It is our duty to be a nuisance. We have to be critical of policies, of persons and of programmes only because we want to uphold the Constitution. So, we have to rub shoulders with people while they are in position. It embarrasses them. But
usually once people are out of office, they recall and appreciate our work.
Q How has human rights scenario changed in our country over the last few decades?
Thirty years ago human rights was a bad word. Today human rights is not a bad word. Unfortunately, today those who are responsible for human rights violations are the ones who are talking about human rights. The victims and people who suffer from violations of civil, political and socio-economic nature have to benefit by human rights For this to happen our courts have to deliver, our Commissions have to deliver and deliver it with quality.
Q Recently journalists and social activists were put behind bars in Chhattisgarh for being critical of security forces. What have human rights organisations done about this?
At least six journalists had been jailed in Chattisgarh. We are taking up their cases. The Press Guild of India has categorically said press freedom in Chattishgarh is affected. We are sending a fact-finding team to Chhattisgarh tomorrow. The team, headed by Justice Suresh, will investigate these cases.
Q How do you see the recent campus unrests related to the suicide of Rohith Vemula and sedition case against Kanhaiya Kumar?
This is a common phenomenon in all institutes of higher learning in the country. There is untouchability in institutions of higher learning. There are various forms of sophisticated untouchability. It is not like in villages. In these institutions, professors cannot bear Dalit students sitting alongside other students. Wherever teachers have discretion, they mark the Dalit students poor. There is no counselling and they are left between devil and deep sea. They are resorting to various measures. Rohit’s case is just a tip of the iceberg.
Q Can you tell us about your human rights education programme?
We prepare teachers to teach values of human rights inside the classrooms of Standard VI to VIII. It has knowledge, skill and action aspect. We started human rights education from Tamil Nadu. I believe that human rights education is the antidote to various forms of inequality, including caste system. Unless we teach students at an young age the values of equality, untouchability will continue.
Q Any words for aspiring human rights activists?
I dedicate this award to the young people in the country and they may rededicate themselves for a change in this country by working in the area of human rights.
