HR Amendments Bill, 2018

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its approval to the Protection of Human Rights (Amendments) Bill, 2018 for better protection and promotion of human rights in the country. Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status.

We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination, writes www.ohchr.org. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible. Some of the Human Rights are: Equality before Law, Freedom from Discrimination, Right to Life, Liberty and Personal Security, Right to Free Movement, Right to Education, Right to Marriage and Family, Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion, Right to Peaceful Assembly and Association and Right to Participate in the Cultural Life of the Community.

If you carefully examine the above-mentioned rights, you will realise how important the Human Rights are. That is why, many of the Human Rights have found place in the Chapter on Fundamental Rights in the Indian Constitution, according to www.nios.ac.in.

Salient Features of the bill are as follows: It proposes to include “National Commission for Protection of Child Rights” as deemed Member of the Commission; It proposes to add a woman Member in the composition of the Commission; It proposes to enlarge the scope of eligibility and scope of selection of Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission as well as the State Human Rights Commission; and, It proposes to incorporate a mechanism to look after the cases of human rights violation in the Union Territories.

The Bill also proposes to amend the term of office of Chairperson and Members of National Human Rights Commission and State Human Rights Commission to make it in consonance with the terms of Chairperson and Members of other Commissions.

The Amendment will strengthen the Human Rights Institutions of India further for
effective discharge of their mandates, roles and responsibilities.

The amendment to the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993 will make National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) more compliant with the Paris Principle concerning its autonomy, independence, pluralism and wide-ranging functions in order to effectively protect and promote human rights.